Spotlight Chamber Music Series Launches September 16

The launch of the Spotlight Chamber Music Series takes place on Saturday, the 16th of September at 13:10, featuring four Corkonians - Fiona Kelly (flute), Mairéad Hickey (violin), Ed Creedon (viola) and Aoife Burke (cello). Between them, these dynamic young musicians have garnered an array of prestigious national and international prizes, having studied at the Juilliard School, Kronberg Academy and the Royal Northern College of Music, among others. They will present a selection of Mozart Flute Quartets interspersed by solo works by Bach and Aitken.

Fiona Kelly - Flute

Mairéad Hickey - Violin

Ed Creedon - Viola

Aoife Burke - Cello

Programme:

Mozart: Flute Quartet in D Major, K. 285

Bach: Sarabande from Violin Partita No. 4 in D minor, BWV 1004

Mozart: Flute Quartet in A Major, KV 298

Aitken: "Icicle" for Solo Flute

Mozart: Flute Quartet in G Major, KV 285a

The inaugural Spotlight Chamber Music Series commences at the Triskel Arts Centre this Autumn, comprising four Saturday lunchtime concerts in September, October, December and January, respectively. Funded by the Arts Council, the series is based on the principle of bringing together some of Ireland's most distinguished musicians to play with one another in small ensembles. These concerts feature a wide range of repertoire, from Mozart to Stanford, and Schumann to Schnittke.

http://triskelartscentre.ie/events/3514/spotlight-chamber-music-series-i/

Tickets: Full €10 / Student, Senior, Unwaged €7.50 / Child (3 - 12) €5 available from (021) 4272022 & www.triskelartscentre.ie

· Saturday the 16th of September 2017

Fiona Kelly (Flute), Mairéad Hickey (Violin), Ed Creedon (Viola) and Aoife Burke (Cello)

· Saturday the 21st of October 2017

Eoin Ducrot and Brendan Garde (Violin), Tríona Milne (Viola), Aoife Burke (Cello) and Chiara Opalio (Piano)

· Saturday the 2nd of December 2017

Mia Cooper and Brendan Garde (Violin), David Kenny and Cian Ó Dúill (Viola), Aoife Burke (Cello) and Alexander Edmundson (Horn)

· Saturday the 20th of January 2018

Ioana Petcu-Colan and Siún Milne (Violin), Cian Ó Dúill and David Kenny (Viola) and Aoife Burke (Cello)

Irish flautist Fiona Kelly has been hailed by the New York Times as a player with "impressive technique and elegant musicianship". Based in London, Fiona enjoys a varied career of solo and orchestral playing. She has performed concertos with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Jönköpings Sinfonietta, Locrian Ensemble, Irish Chamber Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland in venues such as Köln Philharmonie, Liszt Academy Grand Hall Budapest, Heidelberg Festival,Rheingau Festival and St. Martin in the Fields London. She was a soloist with Håkan Hardenberger, Antje Weithaas and Uri Caine in the Swedish Chamber Orchestra's Brandenburg Project performing the 2nd and 5th concertos and premiering new concerti by Steven Mackey and Uri Caine, touring throughout Europe.

Her orchestral experiences range from being offered the post of principal flute with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra of Ireland at the age of 22, to performances as a guest flautist with the New York Philharmonic. She held the position of principal flute of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra from 2012 - 2016 and has performed as guest principal flute with orchestras such as the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Northern Sinfonia, City of London Sinfonia and the Irish Chamber Orchestra.

Fiona began her studies at the Cork School of Music with her mother Evelyn Grant and Sabine Ducrot, and completed her Bachelor of Music studies at Trinity College of Music, London, with Ms. Anna Noakes. While in London she won numerous awards including 1st Prize in the British Flute Society International Competition, the Royal Overseas League Sussex Prize and the Royal Philharmonic Society's Julius Isserlis Scholarship. She completed her Master's degree at The Juilliard School, New York, studying with principal flute of the New York Philharmonic, Robert Langevin. She won first prize in The Juilliard School Flute Competition and made her Lincoln Center debut performing Bernstein's 'Halil' with The Juilliard Orchestra at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre.

One of Ireland's most accomplished violinists of her generation, Mairéad Hickey was NCH Irish Young Musician of the Year 2010 - 2012. She won third prize as well as a Special Prize for the best interpretation of a virtuoso work the 2016 International Louis Spohr Competition and first prize in the Jeunesses Musicales Violin Competition, Romania 2012. Performing regularly throughout Ireland, she has recorded with both the RTÉ National Concert and Symphony Orchestras. She has performed in every major concert hall in Ireland and abroad in venues including the Royal Festival Hall, London, Beethoven-Haus, Bonn and Carnegie Hall, New York.

Born in 1996, Mairéad began playing the violin at the age of three. From 2003 to 2014 she studied with Adrian Petcu at the CIT Cork School of Music, Ireland and spent a year in France studying at the Conservatoire de Nantes with Constantin Serban. She is now studying with Mihaela Martin at Kronberg Academy, sponsored by the Hilmar Kopper Stipendium.

An enthusiastic chamber musician, Mairéad has appeared numerous times in the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, the Westport Festival of Chamber Music and the Clandeboye Music Festival. Mairéad participated in Chamber Music Connects the World 2016, Kronberg, where she performed with artists including Steven Isserlis and Christian Tetzlaff. She has also collaborated with artists including Barry Douglas, Tabea Zimmermann, Boris Berezovsky, Pieter Wispelway, Marc Coppey, Mate Bekavac, Michel Lethiec and the Vanbrugh Quartet and often plays as a guest member of Kremerata Baltica. Her love of chamber music led her to co-found the Ortús Chamber Music Festival in 2016 in her native Cork, of which she is Artistic Director.

Mairéad also plays traditional Irish music and has won eight world Irish fiddle titles. She has an instructional app 'Irish Fiddler' which is available on iTunes.

Mairéad currently plays a 1702 Tononi violin, kindly loaned to her by a generous sponsor through the Beares International Violin Society. She is supported by the Arts Council and the Music Network Music Capital Scheme, funded by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

Ed Creedon enjoys a varied career as a viola player, performing chamber music, in recitals and as an orchestral musician. In 2017, he has performed duo recitals with pianist Sabine Ducrot, taken part in the National Concert Hall Chamber Music Gathering, performed Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante with Camerata Ireland and Barry Douglas, and toured throughout Ireland, Austria and Germany with the Irish Chamber Orchestra.

Recent highlights include performances of works by Mozart, Brahms and Mendelssohn with the Vanbrugh Quartet, as well as appearances with the Ficino Ensemble in Dublin, the Piatti Quartet in the U.K., at the Clandeboye Festival in Belfast, Ortús Festival in Cork and the Killaloe Festival. For four consecutive Summers he took part in the West Cork Chamber Music Festival Young Musician's Programme, performing with the Cepheus, Sonoro and Hydra quartets.

As an orchestral musician, Ed has toured throughout Europe, North America and Asia with the World Youth Chamber Orchestra and European Union Youth Orchestra, and he plays regularly with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin. Born in Cork, for many years Ed was a student of Constantin Zanidache at the Cork School of Music. Since 2012 he has been mentored by Simon Aspell.

Originally from Cork, Aoife Burke began learning Suzuki cello at the age of four at the CIT Cork School of Music. She has been awarded numerous national prizes and bursaries, including the Bach Prize and Clyde Twelvtrees Cup at Feis Ceoil, Dublin and the Capuchin Order Perpetual Cup and Bursary at Feis Maitiú, Cork. Aoife continued her studies at undergraduate level with Emma Ferrand at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, graduating in 2014 with a first class honours Bachelor of Music degree and an LRSM Diploma in Performance with Distinction. For her third year, she undertook an Erasmus study exchange to the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany, where she joined the cello class of Christoph Richter and the chamber music class of Andreas Reiner (Rosamunde Quartet). During the course of her studies, Aoife was a recipient of the Raphael Sommer Music Scholarship and was a Britten-Pears Young Artist. She has participated in masterclasses with such renowned cellists as Raphael Wallfisch, Ralph Kirshbaum, Miklós Perényi and Frans Helmerson. Aoife holds a Masters degree from the CIT Cork School of Music, where she studied under Christopher Marwood.

An avid chamber musician, Aoife has worked with the Hydra, Kirkos and Ficino Ensembles and has performed at numerous Irish music festivals, including the West Cork International Chamber Music Festival (where she recorded for RTÉ Lyric FM), Music in Drumcliffe, the Cork Guinness Jazz Festival and Barry Douglas' Clandeboye Festival, where she was awarded the Special Festival Prize. Aoife has toured Europe and the UAE as a full member of the European Union Youth Orchestra and has worked with the RLPO, the RTÉ Orchestras, Camerata Ireland and the Irish Chamber Orchestra, including recording and touring with the latter. She has performed as a soloist with orchestra several times both at home and abroad, most notably with the New York Concerti Sinfonietta in Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall last year, generously supported by Culture Ireland. Aoife currently holds a residency at the Triskel Arts Centre in Cork, as part of which she curates the Summer Lunchtime Concert Series and the "Spotlight" Chamber Music Series. Aoife is grateful for the support of the EMI Music Sound Foundation, Cork City Council and The Arts Council.

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