Finghin Collins
After winning several major prizes in his native Ireland and abroad, pianist Finghin Collins traveled the world performing a variety of concertos, chamber, and solo music and is very active in Irish music circles. His growing recording catalog has emphasized works from the Romantic period and the music of Irish composers, and he accompanied fellow Irish singers Benjamin Russell and Sharon Carty on a recording of the Irish song cycles of Charles Villiers Stanford in 2024.
Collins was born on March 31, 1977, in Dublin. While his parents were not musical, he and his three older siblings were all heavily involved in music. Finghin began piano lessons with his sister Mary at three, earning admission to the Royal Irish Academy of Music at six. He studied there until he was 22, with John O'Conor. Collins gained notice early with a win at the 1994 RTÉ Musician of the Future Competition in Dublin. He followed that with semi-finalist finishes at the 1996 Leeds International Piano Competition, the 1997 Guardian Dublin International Piano Competition, and the 1998 Classical Category at the National Entertainment Awards in Ireland. After a disappointing result in Spain's Paloma O'Shea Santander International Piano Competition in 1998, he scored a major breakthrough by winning Switzerland's Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in 1999. That year, Collins graduated from Dublin City University with a bachelor's degree in music performance, moving on to the Geneva Conservatoire for studies with Dominique Merlet, earning a first prize with distinction there in 2002. He made his recording debut on the Vienna Modern Masters label as one of several performers on Music from Six Continents: 2000 Series.
Collins has since embarked on an international performing career, appearing with such major orchestras as the London Philharmonic, the Seoul Philharmonic, and the Chicago Symphony, under notable conductors including Sakari Oramo, Leonard Slatkin, and Frans Brüggen, among many others. Collins made his solo recording debut in 2005 with Impromptu, a program of popular hits of the Classical world, on the RTÉ Lyric FM label. In 2006, he founded Wexford's New Ross Piano Festival, serving as artistic director since its founding. That year, he began a fruitful association with Claves label, making his debut there that year on the first volume of a survey of Schumann's complete piano works, which earned an Editor's Choice nod from Gramophone Magazine; there is no volume two, but a third volume followed in 2009. The following year, he turned to the music of Dublin-born composer Charles Villiers Stanford, performing the composer's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Variations on "Down among the Dead Men" with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra under conductor Kenneth Montgomery. Collins was named the artistic director of the Music for Galway organization at the University of Galway in 2013.
He issued recordings dedicated to the music of Mozart, Chopin, and Schubert through the 2010s and into the 2020s, and was named the artistic director of the Dublin International Piano Competition in 2023. The following year, Collins returned to the music of Stanford, backing mezzo-soprano Sharon Carty and baritone Benjamin Russell on a recording of that composer's Irish song cycles on the Somm Recordings label.
© Keith Finke /TiVo
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Discographie
13 album(s) • Trié par Meilleures ventes
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Stanford: Cushendall, Op. 118 & Other Song Cycles
Sharon Carty, Benjamin Russell, Finghin Collins
Classique - Paru chez SOMM Recordings le 9 févr. 2024
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
The bright day is done
Classique - Paru chez Claves Records le 11 nov. 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
LPO plays the Classical Period Favourites
Finghin Collins, London Philharmonic Orchestra, David Parry
Classique - Paru chez X5 Music Group le 28 déc. 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Piano Quartets
Musique de chambre - Paru chez Claves Records le 13 mars 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Greatest Piano Pieces
Classique - Paru chez Warner Music Group - X5 Music Group le 14 juin 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Chopin Recital
Classique - Paru chez Claves Records le 6 oct. 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Piano Concertos
Classique - Paru chez RTÉ Lyric FM le 17 mai 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Clair de lune
Classique - Paru chez Warner Music Group - X5 Music Group le 12 juin 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Finghin Collins: XVIIIth Clara Haskil Competition 1999, Vevey/Switzerland
Classique - Paru chez Claves Records le 1 janv. 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Die Schöne Müllerin, D. 795: VIII. Morgengruß (Arr. by Leopold Godowsky)
Classique - Paru chez Claves Records le 21 oct. 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Music from 6 Continents (2000 Series)
Azumi Takada, Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Olomouc, Finghin Collins, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Jiří Mikula, Kazuhiko Komatsu
Classique - Paru chez Vienna Modern Masters le 1 nov. 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Claro de luna
Classique - Paru chez Warner Music Group - X5 Music Group le 12 juin 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo