Guest Artist Profiles - 10/11 Season

“…Why is it that the 25-year old Northern Irish pianist Michael McHale can play with the fluency and inspiration of, for instance, Lang Lang, yet we have not heard of him?
Michael McHale remains the discovery of the evening…”

Christiane Peitz, Der Tagesspiegel, August 2008

 “…Bravura playing in the music of Franz Liszt drew extended ovations at pianist Michael McHale's recital at the Phillips Collection… He handled with gusto and skill the powerfully climbing themes and the thunderous climaxes…”

Daniel Ginsberg, Washington Post, May 2007

“…an elegant sensibility, and bright, even-fingered articulation that was instantly engaging…”

Hilary Finch, The Times, March 2006

Belfast-born pianist Michael McHale came to widespead attention in February 2009 as winner of the 2009 Terence Judd/Hallé Award and has established himself as one of the leading Irish pianists of his generation.

After early piano studies with John O’Conor and Reamonn Keary at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Michael read Music at Cambridge University, graduating with a double first-class honours degree. He completed his formal studies with Christopher Elton at the Royal Academy of Music, graduating with distinction in 2006.

Michael was featured as a 'rising star' in International Piano magazine as a result of his performance of two Mozart concertos with the Hallé Orchestra at the Piano 2006 festival in Manchester. He won the Brennan and Field Prizes at the 2006 AXA Dublin International Piano Competition prior to his biggest competitive success at the Terence Judd/Hallé Award finals in 2009, as a result of which he will have a recording opportunity with EMI Classics or the Hallé label in addition to a number of high profile concert engagements.

Michael has performed throughout the UK and Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Hungary and USA, including broadcast performances for BBC TV, Radio 3, RTE, PBS television and Deutschlandradio Kultur. Highlights include Beethoven Concertos 3, 4 and 5 with the Ulster Orchestra, critically acclaimed début recitals in Washington DC and the National Concert Hall, Dublin, concertos in Berlin Konzerthaus and Vígadó Concert Hall, Budapest and four performances of Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos with Barry Douglas and Camerata Ireland.

Also an active chamber musician, Michael has recently collaborated with distinguished artists such as Richard Watkins, Sir James Galway, Barry Douglas, Patricia Rozario and Michael Collins. September 2008 saw the release of an album of piano trios with Ensemble Avalon on the RTE lyric fm label. The disc was chosen as 'selection of the month' in The Strad, described by critic Julian Haylock as 'one of the highlights of my listening year', while Classical Music magazine's Phillip Sommerich wrote that 'the Beethoven [Ghost Trio] is in the front rank of modern versions on disc'.

An interest in the music of living composers has seen Michael give premières of solo piano works by Irish composers Breffni O'Byrne and Philip Hammond as well as a collaboration with the celebrated Estonian composer Arvo Pärt last year. Michael recently recorded a CD for Louth Contemporary Music Society featuring solo works by John Cage and Arvo Pärt and chamber works by Silvestrov, Knaifel and Gorecki, which garnered praise from BBC Music magazine ('a sensitive reading by Michael McHale') and the Sunday Business Post ('[he] has an intuitive feel for music, and can cross musical boundaries effortlessly').

 Earlier this year he made studio recordings for RTE of the four new solo works by Irish composers written for the AXA Dublin International Piano Competition and he has recently commissioned a new solo piano work from Belfast composer Ian Wilson.

Future engagements include concerto performances with the Hallé (under Rory Macdonald) and Ulster (with Carlos Kalmar) orchestras, chamber music concerts around the UK and Ireland including King's Place, London and Symphony Hall, Birmingham, and a solo recital début in the Wigmore Hall.

Michael is grateful to Camerata Ireland / Accenture, the Musicians' Benevolent Fund, EMI Music Sound Foundation and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland for supporting his performing career. For further information visit www.michaelmchale.com

Soprano soloist - Mahler Symphony No.4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ottoline Maas began learning the violin aged 7, with her mother. At 15, she gained a place in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. She attended a 4 year graduate course in music at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester from 1975-1979, and from there, started a 5 year period of freelance work. Much of this consisted of touring Britain with Northern Ballet, interspersed with tours to Europe, Ireland, Hong Kong, and South America with various different orchestras. In 1984, she joined the Ulster Orchestra.

Otti started leading Studio Symphony Orchestra in 1996, having played the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with us in 1995. She has given several other concerto performances with the SSO, including the Bach Concerto for Violin and Oboe (2001), the Dvorak Violin Concerto (also in 2001), Haydn's Violin Concerto in G (2004), and most recently Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending in 2008.