University Concert Hall Rising Stars 2018 to take place April 19th

(From top left to bottom right) Robert Finegan, Ellen Jansson, Emma Nash, Kevin Neville, Corina Ignat and Robert McAllister, the partakers in the Rising Stars Concert 2018.

University Concert Hall Rising Stars Concert 2018 to take place April 19th

University Concert Hall (UCH) is delighted to announce details of its Rising Stars Concert 2018 which now forms part of the venue’s annual programme of events. UCH has invited a group of exceptional young artists to become its 2018 Rising Stars and they will perform on Thursday 19th April.

The UCH Rising Stars Concert 2018 brings gifted, young Irish classical artists to the UCH stage, showcasing their considerable talents, through varied, popular, musical programmes of their own choosing.

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This year’s six selected artists are Robert Finegan (Saxophonist), Corina Ignat (Soprano), Ellen Jansson (Piano), Robert McAllister (Bass Baritone), Emma Nash (Soprano) and Kevin Neville (Bass Baritone). Having been put forward by various renowned institutions including the Royal Irish Academy of Music, DIT Conservatory of Music, CIT Cork School of Music, Irish National Opera and Northern Ireland Opera, the successful artists were then chosen by a panel comprised of Sinéad Hope, Director of UCH, Lorcan Murray, RTÉ Lyric Fm, and well known Limerick tenor Owen Gilhooly.

Individual programmes on the evening will feature pieces by Strauss, Donizetti, Mahler, Mozart, Bizet, Bernstein and many more.

Once again UCH is delighted to welcome back Dearbhla Collins as accompanist on the evening. Regarded as one of Ireland’s finest and most versatile musicians, Dearbhla is a prize-winning solo pianist with a distinguished performing career both nationally and internationally. Rising Stars will be presented by Lyric Fm’s Lorcan Murray.

Rising Stars Concert 2018

University Concert Hall, Limerick
Thursday 19th April, 8 pm
Tickets: €10
Friends of UCH Complimentary
Booking: 061 331549

Robert Finegan

SAXOPHONIST

DIT Conservatory of Music

Programme:

Decruck 1st Movement Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano

Sweeney Duo for Soprano Saxophone and Piano

Ravel Piece en forme de habanera for Soprano Saxophone and Piano

Robert Finegan (20) is currently a 3rd-year student at DIT Conservatory of Music studying music performance with Kevin Hanafin.  He began his musical education with the Ardee Concert Band where he has since regularly featured as a soloist. In 2013 Robert was awarded a scholarship from St. Peter’s Male Voice Choir to study at DIT Conservatory of Music where he was the recipient of the School of Excellence Award and went on to win the Macardle Young Classical Musician Award in 2014. In 2017, Robert was awarded 2 nd prize in the Irish Freemasons Young Musician of the Year and was also the inaugural winner of the Flax Trust Music Award. This summer Robert will represent Ireland at the World Saxophone Congress in Zagreb, Croatia playing music by contemporary Irish composers.

Corina Ignat

SOPRANO

Royal Irish Academy of Music

Irish National Opera

Programme:

Strauss Cäcilie

Heggie Animal Passion

Donizetti Quel guardo il cavaliere

Corina Ignat is currently doing her Masters in Music Performance at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, studying with Virginia Kerr. She has performed with Lyric Opera at the National Concert Hall, at the Wexford Opera Festival 2017 and as Queen of the Night in Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Samuel Beckett Theatre. Prizes include 2nd place in the Irene Sandford competition 2017, 3rd place in Navan Choral Festival – Young Opera Voice competition 2017, the Mignon Rumbold Cup in Newpark Music Festival, 1st prize in the Vocal Solo Classical, Vocal Solo Musical Theatre, Vocal Baroque Aria and Vocal Lieder Competition in the Midlands Feis 2015 and Most Promising Singer in the Irene Sandford competition 2013.

Ellen Jansson

PIANO

CIT Cork School of Music

Programme:
Shostakovich Prelude and Fugue No.11 in B major
Brahms Fantasien Op.116 Nos.1-3

Cork pianist Ellen Jansson (21) began her studies at CIT Cork School of Music with Eleanor Malone and is currently studying there full-time with Mary Beattie. She graduated from the prestigious Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester in 2014, where she was the winner of the Chetham’s Yamaha Piano Competition as well as attaining an LRSM performance diploma with distinction. She spent last year studying on an Erasmus scholarship with Professor Martin Hughes at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Ellen has appeared as soloist with the New York Concerti Sinfonietta, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine and the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland, and is a multiple prize winner at Electric Ireland Feis Ceoil in both chamber and solo competitions.

Robert McAllister

BASS BARITONE

Royal Irish Academy of Music

Programme:

Mahler Rückertlieder: um mitternacht

Mozart Aprite un po- Le nozze

Bizet Quand la flamme de l’amour

Robert is currently studying at The Royal Irish Academy of Music under the aegis of Dr Veronica Dunne and répétiteurs Dr Dearbhla Collins and Alison Young. He is a multiple prize winner in the Electric Ireland Feis Ceoil and in 2017, from a field of 37 singers, he emerged the winner of the prestigious Irené Sandford bursary in RIAM. Robert was selected as the 2017 ‘plec pick’ classical artist to watch by Goldenplec.ie. In 2017, he was presented with the Count John McCormack medal in the Dublin Mansion house by the John McCormack society.  He also finds ample time to practice the fine art of choral singing and is a member of the Lassus Scholars under the direction of Dr Ite O’Donovan.

Emma Nash

SOPRANO

Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama

Programme:

Mozart Saltro che lagrime-La Clemenza di Tito

Debussy Quatre chansons de jeunesse

Liszt Enfant, si j’etais roi

Bernstein Glitter and be gay-Candide

Cork soprano Emma graduated with distinction from the M.A in Opera Performance course at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where she was winner of the Lee Freeman

Scholarship Prize, the Dolan Evans Award and a Leverhulme Scholarship. Emma is this years

winner of the PWC/Wexford Festival Opera “Emerging Young Artist” bursary.

She made her Wexford Festival Opera debut in 2015 as Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, returning for their 2017 season where she sang the role of Polly in the world premiere of the The Dubliners (nominated for Best Opera ITTA 2018). Recently Emma featured in The Merry Widow and La Traviata as part of The Cork Opera House Concert Performance Series and this season she will return to sing the role of Yum-Yum in the Mikado conducted by John O Brien.

Kevin Neville

BASS BARITONE

Northern Ireland Opera

Programme:

Mozart Madamina! Il catalogo è questo (Don Giovanni)

Wagner O du mein holder Abendstern (Tannhäuser)

Adams For you there is no song (Five Millay Songs)

Kevin Neville is a bass-baritone from Limerick city who began his training with Olive Cowpar. He completed his BA (Hons) in Music and English Literature at Trinity College Dublin in 2013 and his MMus with First Class Honours under the tutelage of Emmanuel Lawler at D.I.T. Conservatory of Music and Drama in 2015. Kevin has won numerous competitions for opera, lieder, oratorio, sacred

song, art song and musical theatre at Feis Ceoil Dublin, Feis Ceoil Sligo, Féile Luimní (Limerick), Feis Maitiú (Cork) and Birr Festival of Music & Voice. He is currently a member of the Northern Ireland Opera Studio.

Kevin is a grateful recipient of the Capuchin Bursary, the Arts Council of Ireland and The

Lyon’s Club Award. He will début with Irish National Opera as Peter Schlémil in The Tales of

Hoffmann later this year.

For further information, or photographs of the individual performers, please contact Emma Foote, University Concert Hall at 061 213307.

More information on Rising Starts Concert 2018

To book tickets for Rising Stars Concert 2018, go here.

For more stories featuring University Concert Hall, go here.