Leading young pianists take centre stage in Music for Galway’s ‘Café Gourmand’ treat

Award-winning young pianists Nathalia Milstein and Juan Pérez Floristán will be in concert in the Aula Maxima, NUIG on Sunday, February 4, at a ‘Café Gourmand’ event being presented by Music for Galway.

Café Gourmand is a French treat consisting of a selection of desserts with coffee – and this event, starting at 3pm on February 4 in the Emily Anderson Hall, will offer audiences a diverse selection of music.

First up is Nathalia Milstein, who won first prize at the 2015 Dublin Piano Competition.  French-born Nathalia, who comes from a musical family, became the first woman to win that contest in its 25-year history. Since then, she has played the major concert halls of Europe and North America, including Carnegie Hall in New York, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, and Dublin’s National Concert Hall.

For her Galway concert, Nathalia will perform Debussy’s Estampes and the Fantasie in C by Schumann. And she will give the world premiere of Sam Perkin’s Dandling.  Music for Galway commissioned its resident composer, Corkman Sam Perkins, to write a piece in keeping with the ‘Let’s Dance!’ theme of this concert season. The result is a piece inspired by songs that parent might sing while dandling a child on their knee.

Following an interval, during which coffee, tea and pastries will be served, Juan Pérez Floristán will take to the stage.

The 24-year-old Spaniard is regarded as one of the finest performers of his generation, having won first prize and the audience prize at the Santander Piano Competition in 2015. In the same year, he took first prize at the Berlin Steinway Competition and the Medal of the City of Seville.

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