Mairéad Hickey (violin):
One of Ireland’s most accomplished violinists, Mairéad Hickey was National Concert Hall Irish Young Musician of the Year 2010 – 2012. She won third prize as well as a Special Prize for the best interpretation of a virtuoso work in the 2016 International Louis Spohr Competition and first prize in the 2012 Jeunesses Musicales Violin Competition, Romania. She has performed in every major concert hall in Ireland and abroad in venues including the Beethoven-Haus, Bonn and Carnegie Hall, New York.
Mairéad began playing the violin aged 3 with Jyrki Pietila. From 2003 she studied with Adrian Petcu at the CIT Cork School of Music in Ireland. She is now studying with Mihaela Martin at Kronberg Academy, Germany, sponsored by the Hilmar Kopper Stipendium. She also plays traditional Irish music and is the winner of eight All Ireland fiddle titles.
In this concert Mairéad will be playing the Klotz violin once owned by Elizabeth Friedlander. When Friedlander left Nazi Germany she took with her the violin belonging to her mother and dating from 1703. The violin was gifted to the Cork School of Music. When Mairéad was studying at the School she was considered one of the most outstanding students and given the privilege of using the violin. She will be reunited with the violin after several years for this very special concert.
Yoko Ono (piano):
Japanese pianist Yoko Ono moved to London in 1981 to join the Royal Academy of music, where she worked with Christopher Elton and won several prizes and scholarships including the Leverhulme Postgraduate Studentship. After leaving the Academy, she studied with Maria Curcio and Benjamin Kaplan.
Yoko is much in demand as a soloist and chamber musician performing in many countries including China, Europe Japan, and the USA. When she gave her Tokyo debut recital, the music critic of Ongaku no Tomo, a major Japanese music magazine, named her as one of the best national pianists of the year. She gave concerts at the Purcell Room and Wigmore Hall amongst others. She was nominated for the Best Classical Act during the Brighton Festival 2007. She has also recorded for BBC Radio. Recently, she performed Shostakovich Piano Concerto No.2 with Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra and made a concert tour of China playing piano duets with the pianist Clelia Iruzun.
The evening will begin with a talk by Counterpoints Arts:
Counterpoints Arts is a leading national organisation in the field of arts, migration and social change. Their mission is to support and produce the arts by and about migrants and refugees, seeking to ensure that their contributions are recognized and welcomed within British arts, history and culture.
Central to their mission is their belief in the ability of the arts to inspire social change and enhance inclusion and cultural integration of refugees and migrants.
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