FIACHRA GARVEY

(PIANO)

Calary Church, Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow Thurs 8pm €15 01-2818146

There was a home crowd roar for Fiachra Garvey when he played at the Dublin International Piano Competition last year (pictured), the kind of roar that betokens unstinting support and at the same time loads on the expectations. Garvey didn’t get beyond the second round, but he did take the Charles J Brennan Prize as the highest-placed Irish competitor, as well as the McCullough Bursary to assist in the production of a CD. And he also marked himself out as a player to watch.

Garvey hasn’t been that active in high-profile concerts in the wake of the competition. His next outing is in Wicklow, where he plays a programme of Debussy (the second book of Études), Barber (the Piano Sonata), Chopin (the Étude in B minor Op 25 No 10) and Schumann (the Fantasiestücke).

Music of a different hue is on offer at the Earagail Festival in Letterkenny, when pianists Emilia Sitarz and Bartlomiej Wasik join with percussionists Magdalena Kordylasinska and Milosz Pekala for an evening of experimental Chopin, that will be repeated in Dublin’s Smock Alley two nights later.

MICHAEL DERVAN