Dr Fionnuala Moynihan

    Music

    About

    Dr. Fionnuala Moynihan is widely acknowledged as one of Ireland’s leading pianists. She has a particular affinity with the works of baroque, classical and early romantic composers. In 2010 Fionnuala performed the Complete Piano Sonatas of Mozart in the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, in a series of five recitals. She is the only pianist to have undertaken the formidable challenge of performing this cycle in its entirety in Ireland. Since then Fionnuala has performed six complete piano sonata series performing the complete cycles by Mozart, Haydn, Clementi and Schubert.

    Fionnuala has given solo recitals and concerto performances throughout the UK, France, Holland, Italy, Israel, U.S.A, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Russia, Poland, Japan, Holland and Hungary as well as extensively and regularly in Ireland. Fionnuala was invited by the University of Warsaw and the Irish Embassy in Warsaw in November 2010 to give a recital of works by John Field and a lecture recital exploring the link between Chopin and Field to commemorate the bicentenary of the composer’s birth in November 2010. In September 2011 she gave a recital of his works in the Glinka Museum of Musical Culture, Moscow, Russia, a special occasion as it is the city where Field both spent a great deal of his life and is buried. In November 2018 Fionnuala was invited back to Moscow to give a recital of works by Tchaikovsky to mark his 125th anniversary. This concert, streamed live on YouTube, was an enormous success and took place in Moscow’s largest Catholic Cathedral. Fionnuala is an active chamber musician and has recently performed with such celebrated artists as sopranos Daniele De Niese and Deirdre Moynihan, the Contempo Quartet, violinists Mia Cooper, Helena Wood and Sarah Sew, tenor Gavan Ring, cellists Ailbhe McDonagh and Aoife Nic Athlaoich and flautist Kieran Moynihan.

    In 2009 Dr Fionnuala Moynihan became the first person to be awarded a Doctorate in Music Performance from the Royal Irish Academy of Music and the Dublin City University. Fionnuala began her piano studies at the Cork School of Music, received her Honours Bachelor of Music degree from the Birmingham Conservatoire where she graduated with the Graduate award for pianists and the prestigious Weingarten scholarship enabling her to commence her studies at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest (2001-2004). Fionnuala also studied at the Paris Conservatoire from 1999-2000. Fionnuala has been awarded many prizes both at home and abroad including a Bank of Ireland Millenium Scholarship, the prestigious Maura Teissier Bursary and the Rena Menasche Award from the Tel-Hai Piano Masterclass series held in Israel. She was awarded the John Field Prize at the 2009 AXA Dublin International Piano Competition.

    In July 2014 she gave a Summer concert tour in Japan with five of her brothers and sisters. Their fusion of both the classical and traditional genres has earned them praise both at home and internationally. Her debut CD ’The Ivory Lady’ was launched in January 2015. This CD is a classical-trad fusion CD and showcases Fionnuala’s love for both the classical and traditional music genres. In April 2016 she recorded a recital of sonatas by Muzio Clementi for The Lyric Concert on RTE Lyric FM Radio. She represented Ireland in the Embassy Festival in The Hague in September 2018. Recently Fionnuala has been performing and researching the music of Clara Schumann and gave a solo recital of her works at the 2019 Kilkenny Arts Festival and The Hugh Lane Gallery Dublin. She also gave a lecture-recital for the Gresham College of Music in Mercers Hall, London in January 2020. Future engagements include: a recital in Cairo Opera House, Egypt, a recital in Prague at the celebrated Bethlehem Chapel, a recital in the prestigious Catholic Cathedral in Moscow and a series of recitals as guest artist at the 2021 Sligo International Chamber Music Festival by kind invitation from the Vogler Quartet. Her latest CD, ‘Melodies of Nations’, was released on the Hedone Label in June 2017. Website: www.fionnualamoynihan.com Twitter: @finnmoynihan “Moynihan's love for this genre - she performed the complete Mozart works at the Hugh Lane three years ago - is palpable, and she plays with a lightness of touch and enchanting freshness that captures the rapidly shifting colours of the short works”. - Sunday Business Post, Dick O’ Riordan, 24-11-2-13. “Her best playing came in the Trio of an unfinished Son