Dearbhla Collins is regarded as one of Ireland's finest and most versatile musicians. As well as being an accomplished and prize-winning solo pianist with a distinguished performing career nationally and internationally, she is respected equally as chamber musician and vocal coach.

In recent years Dearbhla has specialised in the song repertoire and appears regularly in concert with singers such as Bernadette Greevy, Regina Nathan, Franzita Whelan, Detlef Roth and Jean-Marc Salzmann. Dearbhla is the vocal coach at the RIAM and works with Opera Ireland, Opera Theatre Company and Welsh National Opera. She was the Director of the 2003 Dublin Hugo Wolf Festival, which showcased for the first time in Ireland the complete songbooks of the Austrian Lieder composer.

Dearbhla's recent engagements included performances of the 'Carnival of the Animals' with Finghin Collins and the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Altschuler in Dublin, song recitals with Robin Tritschler, Franzita Whelan, Buddug Verona James and Paul Austin Kelly and paino trio concerts with Gillian Williams and Arun Rao. In March/April 2007 she gave concerts and masterclasses in Shanghai and Beijing with John Molloy, bass. She has forthcoming performances at the New Ross Piano Festival in September 2007 and will play Mendelssohn two Piano Concerto with Finghin Collins in the NCH in January 2008.

Since January 2005 she has been the Artistic Administrator of the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition. She coordinated, in association with the Austrian Embassy, all major events taking place in Ireland to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart in 2006.

She is also opera consultant to the Royal Dublin Society for a very exciting project, the performance of the 3 operas that make up 'The Irish Ring', taking place there 2006-2008 and is a member of the board of Culture Ireland, the national agency for promoting the arts abroad.

One of Ireland's most successful musicians, Dubliner Finghin Collins studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music with John O'Conor and at the Geneva Conservatoire with Dominique Merlet.  He achieved major international success by taking first prize at the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Switzerland in 1999. Since then he has developed a flourishing international career that takes him all over Europe, the United States and the Far East.

Finghin has performed with such orchestras as the Chicago Symphony, Houston Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.  Conductors with whom he has collaborated include Myung-Whun Chung, Christoph Eschenbach, Hans Graf, Emmanuel Krivine, Gianandrea Noseda, Sakari Oramo, Tadaaki Otaka, Heinrich Schiff and Leonard Slatkin.

He is Artistic Director of the New Ross Piano Festival and gratefully acknowledges the support of The Arts Council and Music  Network through the Music Capital Scheme 2008.

Sample Programmes

Mozart: Sonata in B flat major for piano duet K. 358
Allegro
Adagio
Molto presto

Debussy, Arr Ravel: Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un Faune

Schubert: Fantasie in F minor, Op. 103 / D. 940
Allegro molto moderato - Largo - Allegro vivace - Tempo I

Interval

Mozart: Sonata in D major for piano duet K. 381
Allegro
Andante
Allegro molto

Dvorák: Slavonic Dances, selected from Op. 46

Reviews

"Finghin and Dearbhla Collins were the soloists in the 14-year-old Mendelssohn's Two-Piano Concerto in E. The two Collinses negotiated its rapid scales with ease as well as with the kind of effortless-seeming co-ordination that seems to be the preserve of siblings in a medium where simply getting everything together is notoriously difficult."

Michael Dervan, The Irish Times, January 15th 2008

More Info

For further information on availability or artist fees or to discuss a booking please contact the Performance Programme Manager by emailing .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or telephone: 01 6719429.