The Four Seasons Chamber Music Series: Uisce agus Oighear

Fiona Kelly, flute
Cian Ó Dúill, viola
Jean Kelly, harp

Aitken – Icicle for Solo Flute
Bernard Andrès – Algues for Flute and Harp
John Dowland - Flow my Tears (arranged for Viola and Harp)
Solfa Carlile – Dystopia for Solo Flute
Bax – Trio Elégiaque for Flute, Viola and Harp
Debussy – Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp, L. 137
Matthew Berrill - The Flood Gig for Flute and Harp

Four Seasons Chamber Music Series: inviting audiences on a journey through the seasons, with music exploring themes of light and shadow, water and ice, and the passing of time.

Curated by cellist Aoife Burke, this programme of works exploring water and its various forms encompasses two, short, evocative, contemporary pieces for solo flute – one by Canadian flautist Robert Aitken and one by Cork native composer Solfa Carlile. Alongside these features an arrangement of a song, Flow my Tears, by English Renaissance composer John Dowland, as well as a suite of seven vignettes – Algues – exploring algae and the water in which it is carried. The programme also includes two substantial works conceived in the early twentieth century especially for this formation – one by Arnold Bax, composed following the 1916 Easter Rising, and one by Debussy, written the previous year, after an extended period of limited output in the aftermath of the outbreak of the First World War. The concert will conclude with a traditional Irish jig written by contemporary composer Matthew Berrill, a work which draws its inspiration from the OPW’s archival hydrometric charts of the rivers and lakes of Ireland.

A graduate of Trinity Laban Conservatoire and The Julliard School, flautist Fiona Kelly has been hailed by the New York Times as a player with “impressive technique and elegant musicianship”. Solo and chamber music engagements have led to collaborations with ensembles and artists including the Wigmore Soloists, Antje Weithaas, Uri Caine and Håkan Hardenberger, as well as concerto performances at the BBC Proms, Rheingau and Heidelberg Festivals. Before relocating to London, where she is currently based, Fiona was Principal Flute of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra from 2012 to 2016. She is a flute professor and currently Interim Head of Woodwind at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, and also gives masterclasses at music departments and colleges throughout the UK and Ireland.

A graduate of the Royal College of Music, where she studied on a scholarship, Jean Kelly hails from an Irish family of several generations of professional musicians. She is in great demand as an exceptionally versatile harpist, with an eclectic career ranging from Early Music to Contemporary Classical and Folk Music. She regularly plays with The Telling, The Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments and the Locrian Ensemble, the latter with whom she has recorded three CDs. She has featured on numerous commercial film and TV soundtracks, and has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Irish Chamber Orchestra and Göttingen Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Viola player Cian Ó Dúill is a member of the Solas String Quartet and has performed with the Vanbrugh, Carducci and Calino String Quartets, the Fidelio Trio, the Avalon Ensemble, Fews Ensemble and the Crash Ensemble. A founder member of both the Regent String Quartet and the Rothko String Trio, he was a member of the Irish Chamber Orchestra for 22 years, was co-principal viola of the London Mozart Players and worked regularly with the London Symphony Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Britten Sinfonia. In September 2023, Cian took up the position of Head of Department of Orchestral Studies at the MTU Cork School of Music.

Presented by NCH