Donal McHugh

Piano Masters through the Cello - Cello and Piano Concert

03 Mar 2024 News
Join me and Swedish cellist Henning Fredriksson as we perform around Ireland. We will be performing music by composers who were themselves renowned pianists and performers in their day - Chopin, Liszt and Grieg.


Concert Dates


LIMERICK: Monday 8th April 13:15, St. Mary's Cathedral, Bridge Street

CORK: Tuesday 9th April 13:05, MTU Cork School of Music, Union Quay

ENNIS: Friday 12th April 19:30, St. Columba's Church, Bindon Street
Tickets €20 (child and concession €5 - includes students/over 65/unwaged), available on door/entry or from link below, some paper tickets available on request

KILKENNY: Sunday 14th April 16:00, Thomastown Concert Hall, Station Rd, Thomastown
Tickets €20 (concession €15, students €5), available from link below


Programme

The programme for the full length concerts (in Ennis and Kilkenny) is:

Liszt Le Lugubre Gondola
Chopin Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 65
Grieg Cello Sonata, Op. 36

The lunchtime concerts (Limerick and Cork) will contain selections from these works.


About the Performers

Carl Henning Fredriksson from Gotland, Sweden, is a classically trained cellist. His studies took place in the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music, in Odense (Denmark), as well as Academy of Music in Malmö (Sweden). Carl Henning has been a soloist with the Joseph Haydn Symphony Orchestra, Vienna and Gotland Sinfonietta as well as performing regularly with orchestras including the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Helsingborgs Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Dalecarlia, Musica Vitae, Sønderjyllands Symphony Orchestra, Webern Symphony Orchestra, Wermland Opera Orchestra and Malmö Opera Orchestra. He is also a keen chamber music player and has performed concerts both in Sweden and around Europe with musicians such as Ingrid Tobiasson, Anders Kilström, John Ehde, Elisabeth Zeuthen Schneider, Duo Cassiopeia, Vindla String Quartet and the Gotland Wind Quintet. Since 2019, Carl Henning has been cellist with Skånska Opera which in 2023 performed Phantom of the Opera in Kristianstad. Recent perfomances include chamber music concerts with Örnsköldsviks Music Society and Art Song Aarhus.

Pianist Donal McHugh, from Co. Clare, graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2014 (BMus Hons in piano performance) with tutors Norman Beedie and Graeme McNaught. He then spent four years freelancing as a musician in Glasgow – performing, teaching and accompanying. As well as regular classical recitals (both solo and chamber music) he also gained a reputation playing with the many jazz big bands in the city. Donal has taken part in seminars on Grieg’s music a number of times in Bergen, Norway (most recently Autumn 2017). This included the opportunity to perform on Grieg’s own piano in Troldhaugen. In 2016 he led the piano course in Summer Music on the Shannon which also included numerous performances and he was part of Enterprise Music Scotland’s Creative Exchange in 2015. In 2020 he completed an MA in Music (piano performance) at the CIT Cork School of Music with tutors Michael McHale and Michael Joyce. Memorable performances were Beethoven's third piano concerto (string quintet arrangement) as well as a live-streamed solo concert featuring Berg and Schubert. Also a keen composer, Donal has written works for solo piano and voice and piano as well as original jazz tunes and arrangements. He is currently teaching and accompanying at the MTU Cork School of Music and at the Anam Cara School of Music, Lisdoonvarna. Recent performances include "Ceo Draiochta" - a show of songs based on poems and texts in four languages which he jointly composed music for with singer Ciara Finnerty and Flights of Fancy - a piano duet concerts with other staff members from the Cork School of Music.

Donal and Henning met at the Grieg conference/workshop in Bergen, Norway in 2017 and have since continued to collaborate and perform together. They are delighted to be able to perform together in Ireland this Spring.

 

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