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Thérèse Fahy

Thérèse Fahy
Ireland

Dublin-born Thérèse Fahy, one of Ireland’s foremost pianists, enjoys an active performing and teaching career at home and abroad. Her regular recital and concerto appearances throughout Europe and the United States have met with critical acclaim, as have her numerous broadcasts for both RTÉ and BBC.

In recent seasons, Thérèse has toured the United States with a recital-programme of solo Irish contemporary piano music supported by Culture Ireland and the Fulbright Commission, and in 2012 with performances of the 24 Debussy Preludes, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the composer`s birth. Other engagements have included solo recitals, lecture-recitals and masterclasses in France, Italy, Poland, Spain, USA, the Czech Republic, Ethiopia and Ireland, as well as serving on the international juries of the Dublin International Piano Competition, the Manchester International Concerto Competition in Great Britain, and the prestigious Baltic International Piano Competition.

Thérèse Fahy has an affinity for French music, having performed the complete works for solo piano by Debussy at Dublin`s Hugh Lane Gallery, in addition to many performances of works by Debussy and Ravel throughout Ireland. She has also recorded a documentary, `The Snow is Dancing`, on Debussy`s life and piano music for Ireland`s national broadcasting station, RTE Lyric FM.

Thérèse is particularly identified with the performance of Olivier Messiaen`s piano music, having given the Irish premieres of Reveil des Oiseaux (2008) with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, under its Principal Conductor, Gerhard Markson, at Dublin`s National Concert Hall, and, Visions de l`Amen (1990) for two pianos. In 2001, she curated a four-day international Messiaen Festival at the National Gallery of Ireland, centred around the 60th anniversary of the first performance of Quartet for the End of Time. Her performances of the solo works of Messiaen have been described by The Irish Times as a “tour de force”.

Recently, Thérèse received a major Music Project Award from the Arts Council for her especially commissioned collection of six solo piano pieces, entitled Handprint, from Irish composers Bill Whelan, Raymond Deane, Siobhan Cleary, Michael Holohan, Grainne Mulvey and Benjamin Dwyer. The world première recital of all six pieces was an acclaimed highlight of the New Music Dublin Festival in March 2014, followed by a uniquely curated recital series (Handprint: Before and Beyond, incorporating each new piece into a non-contemporary recital setting) in Dublin`s Hugh Lane Gallery in May and June 2014.

A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, a Fulbright scholar and a French Government scholar, Thérèse Fahy is a senior professor of the piano faculty of the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and served as Director of Chamber Music there from 2000 to 2010. Her students have been First Prizewinners and Finalists in many international competitions, including the Shanghai International Piano Competition, Hammamatsu International Piano Competition, EU International Piano Competition, the Hong Kong International Piano Competition, the Maria Canals Competition in Barcelona (2012) and the Beethoven Competition in Bonn (2013).