The Syrius Trio comprises of three exciting young talents who are presenting the repertoire of the piano trio in a fresh and dynamic way. Elizabeth Cooney, violin and Bobby Chen, piano, both studied at the Royal College of Music, London and the Royal Academy of Music, London, respectively. Jane O'Hara, cello, studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester and the Mannes College, New York.

The trio was awarded a place on Music Network Ireland's Young Musicwide Scheme in 2006 and have since performed extensively in Ireland and abroad as well as recording of their first CD together for Toccata Classics. Highlights in the past three years have included the presentation of an all Shostakovich programme at the Weill Hall at Carnegie, New York, and performances at the Musica Nova Festival in Brazil where the trio performed the works of contemporary Irish composers including Ben Dwyer who was commissioned to compose a work for the trio by Music Network.

Elizabeth Cooney has performed as soloist with a number of European orchestras with conductors Alexander Anissimov, Paavo Jarvi, Shlomo Mintz, Howard Shelley, Valdimir Altschuler and Laurent Wagner and is a regular soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra in Ireland.  The Irish National Concert Hall 2006 "Rising Star", she is laureate of numerous international violin competitions including second prize and the audience prize at the 2002 Sion-Valais International Competition for Violin in Switzerland. Martin Musical Fund Prize (Royal Festival Hall recital), Maisie Lewis Prize (Wigmore Hall recital) and Royal Overseas League prizes   She has played with many distinguished partners in the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, the Wigmore Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, Victoria Hall, Geneva and the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie in New York and recently in the Musica Nova Festival in Sao Paulo Brazil, and in Tokyo, Kyoto and Nagoya in Japan.   Elizabeth has premiered works by Mark Anthony Turnage, Huw Watkins, Alexander Knaifel and Valentyn Silvestrov.

Studies with Adrian Petcu at the Cork School of Music were followed by studies with Itzhak Rashkovsky on scholarship at the Royal College of Music, London, where Elizabeth subsequently held both the Mills Williams and the Phoebe Benham Junior Fellowships at the RCM London for two years.  

Elizabeth performs on a violin by Matteo Goffriller, built in Venice  in 1700.

New York and Ireland based cellist Jane Cords - O'Hara has performed extensively in Ireland, the UK, Europe and the United States. In 2006, she made her New York recital debut at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. She was the 2004-2005 Performing Arts Foundation Artist- in –Residence at International House, New York. She is a member of The Knights, a chamber orchestra who who were recently invited to join the artist roster at Opus 3 Artists.Last season, they recorded two albums on the Sony Classical label, and performed the opening concert at the 2009 Dresden Musikfestspiele. This season they look forward to playing at the Stillwater Music Festival, Ravinia Festival and at Caramoor, with Yo Yo Ma as soloist. She is cellist of the Caravel Quartet, who enjoy a residency at the Museum of Biblical Art in New York City. She also plays regularly with SONYC (String Orchestra of New York City) and the Tarab Cello Ensemble, with whom she will record a CD of contemporary cello works later this season. She was one of three cellists selected to play with Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble in Carnegie’s Tradition and Innovation workshop, which culminated in 5 performances at Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood and Carnegie’s Zankel Hall. Jane received her Masters Degree at Mannes College of Music, New York, where she studied with Timothy Eddy. She currently resides in Brooklyn, and makes frequent trips to Ireland and Europe to play with the Syrius Trio.

Acclaimed by the Independent and Guardian in London, Irish Examiner in Ireland, the Straits Times in Singapore, and described by International Piano Magazine as: “...an armour-clad player of complete technique, a thinking musician, a natural Romantic. Young bloods come no better”, Bobby Chen has performed as soloist under conductors Mathias Bamert, Maximiliano Valdes, Lan Shui, Sir Neville Marriner, Lord Menuhin, Pierre-Andre Valade and concerti with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, London Sinfonietta, Warsaw Sinfonia, Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra.

A graduate of the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal Academy of Music with Ruth Nye and Hamish Milne, Chen appeared three times as soloist at London’s Wigmore Hall, and performed at Italy’s Fazioli Hall, Beijing’s Forbidden City Concert Hall, Dublin’s National Concert Hall, London’s Cadogan Hall and Purcell Room, Singapore’s Victoria Concert Hall and Kuala Lumpur’s Dewan Petronas at the Twin Towers. Festival appearances include UK’s South Bank Prokofiev Festival and Worcester Three Choirs Festival, Sao Paulo’s Musica Nova Contemporary Music Festival and Sweden’s Lidköping Music Festival.

Chen has made live broadcasts for Radio Television Hong Kong and Pianoforte Chicago (USA), and his six commercial recordings include two solo CDs for Jaques Samuel Recordings, a recording for the ‘Cello Classics’ label with cellist Leonid Gorokhov, a solo piano disc for SOMM Recordings and piano trio recordings for Illuminate Records and Toccata Classics.

Sample Programmes

Schubert, Fantasy in C major, D. 934

Schubert, Adagio in E flat, D. 897 'Notturno'

Schubert, Piano Trio in B Flat, D. 898

Reviews

"…Chen is an armour-clad player of complete technique, a thinking musician, a natural Romantic. His arsenal of gran expressione phrases, thunderbolt octaves and basaltic chords quarried from the deep, Arrau/Russian-descended is imperial, his ability to suggest colour and image through touch, timing and dynamic voicing already masterly…"

International Piano Magazine, Ates Orga

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.