Today, the National Concert Hall will ring with the music of pianos as the semi-finals of the 15th Axa International Piano Competition take place.
Today, the National Concert Hall will ring with the music of pianos as the semi-finals of the 15th Axa International Piano Competition take place. The six finalists who make it through will each perform at a concert later this week on Thursday and Friday at the NCH with the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of principal conductor Gerhard Markson. The 62 pianists from around the world have been busy over the last fortnight playing their hearts out to reach this stage.
Following a reception this week to announce the NCH's 2003/2004 concert season, the names that jumped off the programme launched by the Minister for Arts, John O'Donoghue, included some of the world's most celebrated artists, including mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Bobby McFerrin, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and pianists Alfred Brendel, as well as Evgeny Kissin, Lang Lang and Simon Trpceski.
Among those at the reception was architect Ann Blackwell, who is on the board of the Music in Great Irish Houses Festival, which will be running over a two-week period in June; Philip Furlong, secretary general of the Department of Arts; Matthias Müller-Wieferig, director of the Goethe Institute; pianist Finghin Collins, youngest member of the National Concert Hall board, who will be conducting the Orchestra of St Cecilia with violinist Catherine Leonard as soloist later in the year, and cellist Gerald Peregrine, who will be making his début recital at the National Concert Hall in October.
Actor and broadcaster Seán Rocks also came to the Wednesday launch to announce the NCH's new website (www.nch.ie). Rocks will be in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, playing in the Island Theatre Company's production of The Quiet Moment by Mike Finn, which is currently touring the country. On Monday, the company will be back in his home town of Monaghan, in the town's Garage Theatre which is currently celebrating its 10th anniversary.