In 2011, my father died of cancer. He was really okay and then four months later he was gone. It was a time of enormous pain and sadness, but also extraordinary beauty. He was able to open up and talk in a way that hadn’t been possible for him before.
Following his death I experienced a wake up that only an experience such as this could have given me. I have enjoyed a richness and love of life since he departed and I have him to thank. Out of pain comes beauty and freedom - he let me fly.
Filmed live from the sculpture hall in the Hugh Lane Gallery on January 15th 2023.
Sundays at Noon concert series with the Spotlight Chamber Music Series present duo partners Katherine Hunka and Sophia Rahman. Their recital will consist of Romantic works by Germanic composers Johannes Brahms, Clara Schumann and Robert Schumann, late nineteenth-century soaring and lyrical Romance by American composer Amy Beach, and a short movement, A Virtue, from Cork native Sam Perkin’s 9 Snapshots for Violin and Piano. This work was commissioned in 2012 by Ruxandra Petcu-Colan and Gabriela Mayer with funds from Cork City Council Arts Office. Sam writes that “each snapshot in this suite of intimate miniatures for Violin and Piano captures a cherished moment of friendship spent with friend and violinist Eoin Ducrot, student of Ruxandra Petcu-Colan”.
Programme
Brahms: Scherzo in C minor (from The F-A-E Sonata)
Clara Schumann: Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Op. 22
Sam Perkin: A Virtue from 9 Snapshots for Violin and Piano
Schumann: Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105
Amy Beach: Romance for Violin and Piano, Op. 23
Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 2
(transcribed by Joseph Joachim)
With thanks to the Arts Council of Ireland for their continued support.
On January 29th 2023, the Solas Quartet were featured on RTÉ's The Tommy Tiernan Show, performing String Quartet in D Major, Op. 15 No. 1, G. 177, by Luigi Boccherini.
The training of a classical violinist is rigorous and starts at a young age. I have found the lifetime dedication to the violin and music splendidly rewarding, though it comes with many rules. There are structures in music that need to be understood and assimilated, endless exercises and the constant striving to realise a composer’s wishes. I wondered what I would play if untethered to any rules.
I was awarded a week’s residency at the Tyrone Guthrie centre last summer and I spent a lot of time with my violin, a loop pedal and no scores. It was very liberating to let all musical influences in and let loose. “Unwound” refers to this letting loose as well as the literal unwinding of the strings. It is said to be unwise to “untune” a violin in public as it might not want to be retuned later in the piece, but I discovered new sound worlds and quickly developed a disregard for perfection as my goal. This is an honest and visceral portrayal of what it is to be untethered.
Unwound had its world premiere at the Killaloe Music Festival in June 2023.
