Dublin (March 29, 2023) – John Gilhooly, Director of London’s Wigmore Hall and Fellow of the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM), today announced a Wigmore Hall Festival to open the new Whyte Recital Hall in the redeveloped RIAM campus in Dublin, bringing world-class artists to Ireland’s intimate new chamber music venue.
Some of the top artists from Wigmore Hall’s 2023/2024 season will travel to RIAM in September 2023 opening the new 300 seat hall. Dublin audiences can expect world-class, intimate performances in superb acoustics from international artists of the highest calibre.
Alongside the performances, artists will give exclusive masterclasses and Q & A sessions to RIAM students, providing unparalleled access to the experience and teachings of these world-renowned performing artists.
Deborah Kelleher, Director of the RIAM, said:
“RIAM's newly completed Whyte Recital Hall promises to be a performance venue of international repute. Audiences will encounter Ireland and the world's great artists in acoustically stunning surroundings in the heart of Dublin. With that ambition in mind, I approached John Gilhooly for advice as to how we might make a strong opening artistic statement. I was overwhelmed by the generosity of his response, which was to connect us to some of the Wigmore Hall's most exciting artists from this year's season. In the Wigmore Hall Festival, we offer audiences an unforgettable debut season in the Whyte Recital Hall that is beyond my imagining.”
John Gilhooly, Artistic and Executive Director of Wigmore Hall, and RIAM Fellow, said:
“We’re delighted to collaborate with RIAM in its 175th anniversary year, a remarkable milestone, and to bring these great artists to Dublin to open the beautiful new Whyte Recital Hall. It will be an outstanding artistic asset for RIAM and, as its first purpose-built chamber sized concert hall, right in the heart of Dublin, a hugely important cultural asset for Ireland.”
Wigmore Hall Festival
The Festival opens with pianists Mitsuko Uchida and Jonathan Biss who together perform works by Schubert for piano duo (Tue 5 Sep) and continues with pianist and composer Sir Stephen Hough performing Liszt, alongside works by Mompou, Debussy, Skryabin and one of his own works (Tue 12 Sep).
Viktor Ullmann, who was murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944, had composed a number of works in another camp – Theresienstadt – in 1943 which remarkably survived. Among them is his String Quartet No.3, which is performed by the Schumann Quartet (Tue 19 Sep).
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the young star cellist who was the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2016, performs works by Brazilian composers with guitarist Plínio Fernandes (Tue 26 Sep), and fresh from her recital debut at Wigmore Hall, the exceptional Swiss soprano Regula Mühlemann performs Lieder by Schubert and Strauss, and English and American Song by Frank Bridge and Dominick Argento (Thu 28 Sep) closing the Festival.
Complementing the Wigmore Hall Festival is a series of ‘Homecoming Concerts’ welcoming some of the Academy’s most distinguished alumni back to their musical alma mater. The Homecoming Recitals programme includes:
- Ailish Tynan, soprano and Robin Tritschler, tenor, with visiting artist Iain Burnside on 26th April
- Finghin Collins and Dearbhla Collins, piano duo on 25th May, and
- Celine Byrne, soprano and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra on 21st October
Priority booking for Friends of RIAM and for Wigmore Hall Festival Season Tickets (purchasing tickets to all 5 performances) opens on Thursday 30 March, 10:00 am. General Booking opens Thursday 6th April, 10:00 am. Tickets for all RIAM events are available at riam.ie/whats-on.