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Finghin Collins One of Ireland's most successful musicians, Dubliner Finghin Collins studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music with John O'Conor and at the Geneva Conservatoire with Dominique Merlet. Winner of the RTE Musician of the Future Competition in 1994 and the Classical Category at the National Entertainment Awards in 1998, he went on to achieve major international success by taking first prize at the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Switzerland in 1999. Since then he has developed a flourishing international career that has taken him all around Europe and the USA, and as far as Hong Kong, where he made his début with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta in June 2006. In 2006 he also made his début at the Lincoln Center in New York, and with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin in London. Finghin has performed with such orchestras as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Gulbenkian Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, garnering consistent praise from critics and public alike. Conductors with whom Finghin has collaborated include Christoph Eschenbach, Hans Graf, Emmanuel Krivine, Nicholas McGegan, Gianandrea Noseda, Sakari Oramo, Tadaaki Otaka, Heinrich Schiff and Vassily Sinaisky. Chamber music plays an increasingly important role in his musical life and he has collaborated with ensembles such as London Winds and the Aviv, Callino, Chilingirian, ConTempo, Shanghai, Skampa, St Petersburg, Vanbrugh, Vertavo and Vogler String Quartets. Instrumentalists with whom he has collaborated include violinists Isabelle van Keulen, Miriam Fried, Anthony Marwood and Raphaël Oleg, cellists Alban Gerhardt, Marc Coppey and Guy Johnston and clarinettists Michael Collins and Sharon Kam. Engagements in the 2006/07 season include performances with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Cecilia, the Chilingirian Quartet, the ConTempo Quartet, the Callino Quartet as well as two trips to South Korea. Finghin performs in Busan with the Busan Philharmonic Orchestra / Alexander Anissimov as well as giving a recital at the Kumho Art Hall in Seoul. He will also make his début at the Barbican Hall in London, performing at the Mostly Mozart Festival with Manchester Camerata conducted by Douglas Boyd. This is in addition to an Irish tour with Dutch soprano Lenneke Ruiten and many other concerts in Ireland and Europe. In May 2005 Lyric fm released Finghin's debut solo CD album; entitled 'Impromptu', it features 19 sparkling piano classics. In May 2006 Claves Records in Switzerland released a double CD set featuring the piano music of Schumann; these recordings have received glowing reviews in the international press, including "Editor's Choice" in the October 2006 issue of Gramophone Magazine, 4 stars in BBC Music Magazine and 5 Diapasons in "Diapason" Magazine in France. "Vol. 1 of Finghin Collins's Schumann cycle is revelatory. In this young Irish pianist we have an artist (and I use the word advisedly) of rare poetic empathy, one with an uncanny and moving capacity to arrive at the still centre, the very heart, of Schumann's teeming and frenzied imagination. Winner of the 1999 Clara Haskil Competition, Collins is here to stay. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that he plays in the spirit of Haskil herself...this issue deserves a heavenful of stars." Bryce Morrison, Gramophone Magazine Awards Issue, October 2006 As well as being Musician in Residence at South Dublin County Council, Finghin is Artist in Residence at Waterford Institute of Technology and Artistic Director of the New Ross Piano Festival. For further information on all Finghin's concerts and recordings you can visit his website at:
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