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28 February 2026Time 7:30pm.
Tickets £18, students half-price. |
Concert Programme
Michael McHale
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.
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.
Michael McHale - Press Reviews
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“…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…” “…McHale played with cool authority and understated panache as one expected from a young pianist whose international career is in serious take-off mode…” “…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…” |
Michael McHale
Michael McHale - John Field's Nocturne in C minor |
Rehearsal with Michael McHale - Ravel Piano Concerto |
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