February Concert

28 February 2026

Time 7:30pm.
Tickets £20, students half-price.

Concert Programme

Claude Debussy: Syrinx [solo flute]
Gabriel Fauré: Fantaisie, op.79
William Grant Still: Three Songs for flute and piano
Francis Poulenc: Sonata for flute and piano, FP 164

- interval -

Claude Debussy: Estampes [solo piano]
Christoph Gluck: ‘Dance of the Blessed Spirits’ from Orfeo Ed Euridice
Carl Reinecke: 'Undine' Sonata, op.167

CONCERT SPONSORS: Charles & Daniela Vandepeer, Gerry Stapley

Michael McHale & Gareth Davies

Michael McHale

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Belfast-born Michael McHale has established himself as one of Ireland’s leading pianists and has developed a busy international career as a solo recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician.

He has performed and recorded as a soloist with the Minnesota and Hallé Orchestras, the Moscow, Bournemouth, Jacksonville, Fort Smith, BBC and London Symphony Orchestras, City of London Sinfonia, London Mozart Players and all five of the major Irish orchestras. He has performed at the Tanglewood, BBC Proms and Tokyo Spring Festivals, Barbican, Cadogan Hall and Southbank Centre, London, Berlin Konzerthaus, Lincoln Center, New York, Symphony Hall, Boston, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and regular appearances at Wigmore Hall, London as a founding member of the Wigmore Soloists.

Michael’s début solo album The Irish Piano was released in 2012 by RTÉ lyric fm and selected as ‘CD of the Week’ by the critic Norman Lebrecht. More recent solo releases include Schubert: Four Impromptus on Ergodos, Irish Piano Concertos on RTÉ lyric fm, Miniatures and Modulations on Grand Piano and the Strauss 'Burleske' on Chandos. His discography of over thirty albums includes releases on Delos, Nimbus Alliance, Champs Hill, and eight duo recital albums on Chandos with clarinettist Michael Collins. The début album of the McGill/McHale Trio Portraits on Cedille featuring special narrations by Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali was released in 2017 and immediately entered the Top 25 US Billboard Classical Chart. Recent releases include a recording of Richard Rodney Bennett's Piano Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor John Wilson for Chandos and Clarinet Trios for BIS.

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Michael McHale - Press Reviews

“…Bravura playing in the music of Franz Liszt drew extended ovations at pianist Michael McHale's recital… He handled with gusto and skill the powerfully climbing themes and the thunderous climaxes…”
Daniel Ginsberg, Washington Post [full review]

“…McHale played with cool authority and understated panache as one expected from a young pianist whose international career is in serious take-off mode…”
Dick O’Riordan, Sunday Business Post

“…His touch can be ethereal, as in Debussy, or extremely forceful, as in Mussorgsky's Pictures… and his mechanism is practically without blemish even in the hardest pieces… I liked his well-contrasted Schubert, and I truly enjoyed his two pieces from Debussy's Estampes, Soirée in Granada and Gardens under the Rain, fluent and mercurial… As to his Mussorgsky, it was dramatic and intense, and I didn't miss the orchestra in The Great Gate of Kiev as I often do, so big (but unforced) was his tone…”
Pablo Bardin, Buenos Aires Herald

Gareth Davies

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Gareth Davies is one of the flautists of his generation. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Shortly after graduating, he was appointed Principal flute in the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra at the age of 23. During his time on the south coast, he recorded the Nielsen concerto with the orchestra. In 2000, Gareth was invited to become Principal flute with the London Symphony Orchestra where he has remained ever since. During his time there, he has played and recorded with many of the great conductors including Gergiev, Sir Colin Davis, Haitink, Previn, Jansons, Rostropovich and Boulez. A recording of a concerto by Karl Jenkins, written especially for him is available on EMI. He can be heard on many LSO Live recordings including Daphnis and Chloe and Prelude a l’apres midi conducted by Valery Gergiev, as well as many film soundtracks including Star Wars, Harry Potter, Rise of the Guardians and the Twilight saga.

As well as performing, Gareth is in demand as a teacher and regularly coaches woodwind students at the London music colleges as well as giving masterclasses in London, New York, Tokyo and Beijing. Every four years, he is one of the directors of the LSO Woodwind Academy, an orchestral training programme for exceptional students. As part of the LSO Discovery scheme, he also works in schools in the East London Boroughs, working with young students from anything to composition, improvisation to flute performance. This culminated with a performance with these young people in the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics to a worldwide television audience of 4 billion people.

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