FINGHIN COLLINS

One of Ireland's most successful musicians, 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 takes him all over Europe, the United States and the Far East.

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, Vassily Sinaisky and Leonard Slatkin.

Chamber music plays an increasingly important role in his musical life and he has collaborated with ensembles such as London Winds and the Aviv, Chilingirian, Ebène, Panocha, Shanghai, Skampa, St Petersburg, Vanbrugh, Vertavo and Vogler String Quartets. Instrumentalists with whom he has collaborated include violinists Isabelle van Keulen, Anthony Marwood and Raphaël Oleg, cellists Han-Na Chang, Marc Coppey and Guy Johnston and clarinettists Michael Collins and Sharon Kam.

In August 2008 Finghin made his début at the BBC Proms in London, performing Stanford’s Second Piano Concerto with the Ulster Orchestra conducted by Kenneth Montgomery; his performance was widely praised by the critics. During the 2008/09 season he makes his débuts with the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Tsimono Tatsuya, the Seoul Philharmonic conducted by Myung-Whun Chung, the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Ralf Sochaczewsky and the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie conducted by Ari Rasilainen, as well as giving recitals at the Wigmore Hall in London and – together with soprano Lenneke Ruiten – at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

Finghin's first volume of recordings in Claves Records' complete survey of Schumann's piano works 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. A further double album was released in March 2009.

Finghin is Artist in Residence at Waterford Institute of Technology and Artistic Director of the New Ross Piano Festival.
 
www.finghincollins.com