The pianist and composer John Gibson is leading a Cork piano trio and a flautist on a twoweek, five-concert tour of Japan. Gibson, a Dubliner, studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, the State High School for Music in Munich and in Moscow. For the past 15 years he has made Cork his home and is at present a lecturer at the Cork School of Music. He performs regularly with the National Symphony Orchestra.
Some time ago he released Reflections in Water, his first CD, and on November 14th his second,Out of Ireland, will be released at the school. The recording was produced by the Secret Garden Recording Studio in Cork.
It contains the Gibson composition, Sliabh Luachra, which was commissioned by the Crawford Piano Trio and will be performed by them in Japan.
The tour was organised by Ms Kikue Yamada, a former staff member of the Cork school, and has received funding from the Fujita Printing Company of Japan as well as the cultural section of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Promusica shop in Cork.
In Japan there has been genuine excitement at the prospect of the arrival of the Cork-based musicians. They have been asked to ensure that their repertoire will give the Japanese audiences an insight into the continuing development of music in Ireland through the new composers. Traditional Irish music is already appreciated in Japan.
The Irish part of the programme will include works by T.C. Kelly, Philip Martin and Marion Ingoldsby, as well as John Gibson. The music of Vivaldi, Haydn, Brahms and Schumann will also be performed.
The Sliabh Luachra piece, which the trio commissioned with funding from the Arts Council, was premiered recently at the Sense of Cork Festival.
It will be performed by Jan Cap (piano), Joseph Calef (cello) and Adrian Pectu (violin). Patricia Moynihan, a flautist, will also join the players.
The musicians will give master classes as well as the five concerts and will perform at two schools during the tour. The Irish Ambassador to Japan, Mr Declan O'Donovan, will be present at the concert in Tokyo.
A little confused, I asked Jan Cap when a trio became a quartet.
He patiently explained that Ms Moynihan would join the trio at intervals and that her mastery of the traditional flute was demanded on Gibson's Sliabh Luachra. He also explained that she would give solo recitals during the tour.
As a footnote, I should mention that John Gibson's new CD is being sold to benefit the L'Arche Community in Cork whose members are the silent carers for people with special needs.