China Meets Ireland 26 May – 2 June 2014

Traditional and New Music from China and Ireland

Concerts:  Thursday, 29 May, 1.15pm St. Ann’s Church; Saturday, 31 May, 7.30pm; Sunday, 1 June, 3.30pm Birr Castle

Works by Zhao Xi, Peng Zhimin, John Buckley, Seoirse Bodley

Traditional Chinese Music for Er Hu, Bamboo Flute, Xun and Gu Zheng

Traditional Irish Music for Fiddle, Flute, Irish Harp and Guitar

An inter-cultural programme presenting two aspects of Chinese and Irish music featuring traditional Chinese music from a thousand year tradition and new music from China written in the past 10 years. Ireland’s rich heritage of traditional music is presented with airs and dance tunes for fiddle and flute. New Irish music is represented with the iconic work by John Buckley, ‘I Am Wind On Sea’ for solo voice and a selection from A GIRL by Seoirse Bodley with poetry of by Brendan Kennelly. A new work by the renowned Chinese composer Zhao Xi using similar ancient Chinese and old Irish poetry, piano and Gu Zheng will be premiered.

Zhao Xi, Composer, professor and head of the composition Department of the Wuhan Conservatory of Music, is also the director of the Hubei Music Association. His prize-winning compositions encompass both chamber music and symphonic works.

Li Da Xin, Bass Baritone, is a vocal Professor at the Wuhan Conservatory of Music.  He studied in Wuhan, Beijing and Shanghai and won many prizes in international Opera Competitions.  Renowned for his beautiful and powerful bass baritone voice and strong stage presence, he has sung major opera roles in Paris, Shanghai, Italy and Hungary. Many of his students have won national and international vocal competitions.

Gu Ling-Yin, Pianist, was born in Taiwan and was awarded a DAAD scholarship for studies in Hannover, Germany, where she received a Masters in Piano Performance and a Diploma as Solo Pianist.  She has given concerts in Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg, Dreseden and Leipzig.  Since 2010 she teaches at the Wuhan Conservatory of Music and gives concerts and lectures on stylistic interpretation.  She is dedicated to the performance of contemporary music, chamber music and Lieder recitals.

Zhou Ke Qi, Bamboo Flute and Xun, is an associate professorof the Chinese Instrument Department of Wuhan Conservatory of Music, where he also directs various Chinese Music ensembles.  He has performed in the USA, Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Switzerland in such prestigious concert halls as the Wiener Musikverein and the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.  He has won many competitions in China and is known for his creative compositions.

Wan Ji, Er Hu, has won numerous prizes as one of the best Er Hu players in China.  Her most recent awards were from the Chinese Cultural Ministry in 2005 and the Chinese Education Ministry in 2009. She is currently teaching Er Hu at the Wuhan Conservatory of Music.

Liu Le, Gu Zheng, is also the winner of many awards including the highest award for a musician in China, the Golden Bell Award. He plays at numerous music festivals and concerts and was a soloist with the Radio Orchestras of Berlin, Copenhagen, Göteborg, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Singapore and Shanghai.  He has performed more than 10 world premieres featuring works that were written for him.  His repertoire also includes programmes of Chinese music and World Music.

Aylish Kerrigan, Mezzosoprano, has been a guest professor at the Wuhan Conservatory of Music in China since 1994, where she gives master Classes in the performance of German Lieder and has established the first library of Irish music in China. She has also founded a competition for the Interpretation of German Lieder, the first of its kind in China, and has begun a Foundation to promote further study of this music by Chinese singers. In 2009, she was awarded a PhD from the Dundalk Institute of Technology for her research project on the vocal music of Arnold Schoenberg, which was published by Peter Lang publishing company in September 2011.  In May 2011 she was made a ‘Chu Tian Scholar’, the highest academic award given to foreign professors. by the Chinese government. Sheperforms throughout Europe, China, Russia and the USA in concerts of new Irish works, Lieder and German Theatre Music.

Dearbhla Collins, Pianist, is regarded as one of Ireland’s finest and most versatile musicians. As well as being an accomplished and prize-winning solo pianist with a distinguished performing career nationally and internationally, she is respected equally as a chamber musician and vocal coach and teaches at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.  Dearbhla specializes in the song repertoire and appears regularly in concert with Irish and international singers. In addition to European and American performances, she has given many concerts and Master Classes in China at the conservatories in Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan and has performed at the prestigious ‘National Centre for the Performing Arts’ in Beijing with Aylish Kerrigan.

Gerry O’Connor, Fiddle, is one of Ireland’s most outstanding traditional players. His family has played fiddle for at least four generations and Gerry is able to draw on this wealth of music learned from his mother Rose O’Connor and also from hand-written manuscripts passed down through the family.

His unique personal style and splendidly fluid bow-hand combined with technical virtuosity have brought him to concert stages throughout the world and have earned him international renown. He is a founding member of the band Skylark and recorded four albums with this highly respected band that had toured Europe for 10 years. The Brighid’s Kiss album of his own band La Lúgh was voted album of the year.

Fintan Vallely, Traditional Flute Player, is a musician, writer, lecturer and researcher on traditional music. From Co. Armagh, he has taught flute at the Willie Clancy summer school in Co. Clare since 1986.  His PhD research – Flute Routes to 21st Century Ireland- concerned the entry of the flute in Ireland, and his work since includes investigation of the origins of the bodhrán in Ireland. His published works include the major reference work, the edited, A-Z Companion to Irish Traditional Music (1999) and the newly edited version (2011) and his new edition of  The Irish Flute Tutor (2013).  A lecturer on Irish traditional music, he has taught on programmes in NUI Maynooth, University of Ulster, DkIT and Trinity College Dublin and has lectured extensively in Germany and the USA.

Anne-Marie O’Farrell, Irish Harp, is the leading exponent of the Irish harp as a recital instrument and has performed worldwide, including at numerous world harp congresses and state events. She has recorded several solo albums, some of which feature the unique levering techniques for which she is renowned. She was consultant to the world’s leading harp makers, Salvi on the design of their Livia harp. As a composer she has received numerous awards, both at home and abroad. Her music has recently been performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra in a live broadcast on BBC3 radio and her choral music will be performed by the BBC Singers in 2014.

John Feeley, Guitarist, is internationally known as a performer and teacher and is a particular champion of Contemporary Irish Music.  He has performed world-wide as soloist in prestigious guitar festivals and collaborated with the American Symphony Orchestra, the RTE Naitonal Symphony Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra and the Irish Chamber Orchestra. The Washington Post named him Ireland’s leading classical guitarist”.

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