Two programme of events for West Wicklow Festival 2021
THE line-up for this year’s West Wicklow Festival has been announced with dates taking place in May, while details of events due to take place in November will be announced in Autumn.
Fiachra Garvey, Founder and Artistic Director, grew up as a pianist and farmer in Ballyknockan, West Wicklow, on the glistening Blessington Lakes. The festival is now in its fifth year and featured artists for 2021 include Sean Shibe (guitar), Rosanne Philippens and Zoltán Fejérvári (violin and piano), Quatuor Van Kuijk, Jamal Aliyev and Sam Armstrong (cello and piano), Trio Sitkovetsky, Rachel Kelly (mezzo-soprano), Fiachra Garvey (piano), Phoebe White and Peter Regan (violin and piano). The programme will also feature a new commission by composer Linda Buckley.
Sean Shibe was the first guitarist to be selected for the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme, and to be awarded a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, he was selected for representation by the Young Classical Artists Trust artist between 2015-2017. In 2018, Sean Shibe became the first guitarist to receive the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Young Artists.
He performs in Russborough House on Wednesday, May 26 at 8 p.m.
Rosanne Philippens and Zoltán Fejérvári will be the performers at Russborough House on Thursday, May 27 at 8 p.m. Violinist Rosanne Philippens is an extraordinary communicator, with an innate musicality and an infectiously joyful yet sincere approach to music-making. She is in high demand across the Netherlands where she performs regularly in the major halls and series both as soloist and chamber musician
Zoltán Fejérvári has emerged as one of the most intriguing
pianists among the newest generation of Hungarian musicians. Winner of the 2017 Concours Musical International de Montréal and recipient of the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in 2016, Zoltán Fejérvári has appeared in recitals throughout the Americas and Europe.
Russborough House is once again the venue on Friday, May 28 for a performance by Van Kuijk Quartet and Fiachra Garvey. Quatuor Van Kuijk’s international accolades boast First, Best Beethoven, and Best Haydn Prizes at the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet competition; First Prize, and an Audience Award at the Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition; as well as becoming laureates of the Aix-en-Provence Festival Academy.
The Rising Star’s concert at St Mary’s Church on Saturday, May 29 will feature Phoebe White (violin) and Peter Regan (piano). At 23 years of age, Phoebe White has already embarked on an exciting career. She has won many prizes including the Flax Trust Bursary at Clandeboye Festival in 2019, National Concert Hall Young Musician Award, The Dublin Philharmonic Award, and 1st prize in Noor Muusik Young Musician Competition in Tallinn, Estonia.
Peter Regan is a London based Irish pianist. His playing has taken him from New York’s Carnegie Hall to Dublin’s National Concert Hall and the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto.
The line-up for Saturday, May 29 at Russborough House is Jamal Aliyev (cello) and Sam Armstrong (piano). In 2017 Jamal Aliyev made his solo debut at the BBC Proms with the BBC Concert Orchestra, won the Arts Club – Sir Karl Jenkins Music Award and was selected for representation by YCAT UK. His debut CD with pianist Anna Fedorova; “Russian Masters” was released by Champs Hill records to critical acclaim.
Hailed as ‘a major new talent’ International Piano and a ‘pianist of splendid individuality’ Arts Desk English pianist Sam
Armstrong has made solo recital debuts at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York as well as at the Wigmore Hall in London, and as concerto soloist with the National Symphony of Ecuador.
Rachel Kelly and Fiachra Garvey feature at the concert due to take place in St Mary’s Church on Sunday, May 30. Irish mezzo-soprano Rachel Kelly continues to delight audiences with “sheerly lustrous singing” (Arts Desk) and her “credible, touching” portrayals (Guardian) in an impressive range of repertoire.
The final performance in the May programme will feature Sitkovetsky Trio at Russborough House. The Sitkovetsky Trio has established itself as an exceptional piano trio of today, with sensational performances in the foremost concert halls around the world. Alexander Sitkovetsky (violin) and Wu Qian (piano) were joined recently by German-Korean cellist Isang Enders to continue their journey of successful appearances.