Annual Midwinter Festival celebrates musical prodigies, past and present

An impressive group of child prodigies will be celebrated at Music for Galway’s annual Midwinter Festival, being held at the City’s Town Hall Theatre on the weekend of  January 20-22.

Mozart, Mendelssohn, Prokofiev and Glazunov will be among the composers whose early chamber and vocal works will be performed, as Music for Galway’s Artistic Director Finghin Collins mines a wonderful legacy of youthful genius.

And a living child prodigy will make her debut at the festival too. Eleven-year-old Alma Deutscher, from England, whose mother is Irish is acclaimed as one of today’s most exciting young composers and performs many of her works on multiple instruments.

Finghin Collins explained his artistic vision for the Midwinter Festival as he launched the programme in Dublin’s Swiss Embassy.

“The exceptional talents of child prodigies have astounded us for centuries and our Midwinter Festival Prodigy is an ideal format in which to explore their work. I’ve created a programme featuring composers whose works I feel are exemplary and inspirational. My wish is that their music connects with our audiences and that people have fun and enjoy the festival.”

Finghin thanked Music for Galway Chairperson Anne Ó Máille and the Board of Directors for their “sound judgement, enthusiasm and entrepreneurial approach to developing and supporting Music for Galway’s artistic programme”.  He also acknowledged the continued support of The Arts Council.

All the works in the Midwinter Festival were written before or by the age of 18, and cover a range of music across classical, romantic and 20th century periods.

Artists performing in the festival include Irish soprano Anna Devin, Swiss pianist Christian Chamorel and the Irish-based string quartets, ConTempo and Esposito.

A documentary feature from BBC 1’s Imagine… series will be screened on January 21. Do or Die: The Story of Lang Lang, charts the life of this Chinese classical music star and explores the challenges and rewards of managing such an extraordinary talent.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.