Ensemble Avalon
Tullamore Gramophone Society Presents Ensemble Avalon Wednesday 26 October 2011, 8pm, at Charleville Castle
Tickets €20 at Heartbeat City, Tullamore
Ensemble Avalon
Ensemble Avalon is a fresh and dynamic piano trio featuring three of Ireland’s finest internationally accomplished soloists and chamber musicians. Since their inaugural concert together in the summer of 2006 the trio have performed concerts, tours and series in Ireland, Italy and UK and enjoy regular broadcasts on radio and television. Originating from both Northern and Southern Ireland, all three members are 1st-class honours laureates of prestigious colleges, they have studied intensively in Ireland, the UK, France and the US between them and currently live in three different countries. The three members of Ensemble Avalon each enjoy an active solo and chamber career and they have created Ensemble Avalon as a means to discovering and performing new and existing piano trio repertoire together. The trio were delighted to be invited to join Music Network’s Musicwide artist roster following the success of their February 2007 tour, which was generously funded in part by Music Network’s Performance and Touring Award.
A well-received performance at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin during Ensemble Avalon’s February 2007 tour led to an ongoing relationship commencing with the repeat invitation to artistically direct and perform a series of concerts at the Gallery in November and December 2007. The trio chose to title the project ‘An American and Paris’, presenting a contrasting selection of French and American piano trios throughout the critically acclaimed series. Three further performances at the Gallery followed in early 2009 as part of a pilot scheme exploring the need for a resident ensemble at Trinity College Dublin. The hugely successful project has since been refined and expanded to create a new and exciting residency at TCD, with the Hugh Lane Gallery and the National Concert Hall as active partners. The residency is to include didactic and outreach elements alongside performances of established and new piano trio repertoire and is expected to launch in early 2011.
Looking back over the calendar, Ensemble Avalon have enjoyed a number of national concert tours featuring performances from Belfast to West Cork, taking in the National Concert Hall en route, and are currently planning their next tour for January 2011. RTÉ’s Lyric fm and Ensemble Avalon are in ongoing collaboration on an extended recording and broadcast project – 2008 encompassed the ‘American and Paris’ series, the Avalon Winter Chamber Festival in its entirety and their debut CD. Recorded in St. Peter’s Church in Drogheda with producer Jonathan Allen of Abbey Road in London, the debut CD features Ensemble Avalon’s ‘sunlit playing’ (the Strad) in a selection of piano trios by Bax, Bernstein and Beethoven. ‘In the front rank of modern versions on disc’ (Classical Music Magazine), the resulting CD is now on sale through the RTÉ website and through www.amazon.co.uk as well as in shops around the country.
The Ensemble Avalon Winter Chamber Festival is an ongoing annual event taking place in Wexford over a winter weekend. Each year the festival follows a different musical theme and chosen composers are highlighted in performances of chamber classics and more unusual works, including collaborations with handpicked guest artists from Ireland and abroad. With a hugely diverse repertoire ranging from Haydn to Piazzolla already in place, the trio are committed to supporting contemporary music and are particularly delighted to have given the world premieres of specially commissioned works ‘A Little Blues’ by Irish composer Ronan Guilfoyle (2008 Festival) and of ‘Para Lennie’ by Dublin-based Ariel Hernandez (2009 Festival). Ensemble Avalon will announce details of the 2010 Festival very soon.
Ensemble Avalon gratefully acknowledge the generous ongoing support of Music Network, the Arts Council of Ireland, Fáilte Ireland, RTÉ’s Lyric fm and Music for Wexford.
