From Paris to Dublin – solo piano and songs

Béal presents Rathfarnham resident, soprano Elizabeth Hilliard with distinguished pianist Rachel Quinn. While preparing Clearances by Maynooth-based Ryan Molloy and April Awake – Three Songs from the Glens of Antrim by Elaine Agnew for a concert presented by the National Concert Hall in May ’22, they were struck by the resonances between these new works by Northern Irish composers and works of the French impressionist composers and decided to programme a concert of music placing these Irish songs at the centre.

On 4th June at 1.15 pm, they perform piano works by Debussy, Poulenc and Ravel alongside beautiful songs by Nadia Boulanger, Ryan Molloy’s setting of Séamus Heaney, Clearances, and Elaine Agnew’s April Awake, setting poems of John Hewitt.

This concert is supported by South Dublin County Council Arts Office through the Local Live Performance Scheme funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts , Sports and Media.

From Paris to Dublin – Solo Piano and Songs

Saturday 4th June |1.15 pm | Rathfarnham Parish Church

Rachel Quinn (piano) | Elizabeth Hilliard (soprano)

Poulenc: Novelette No1 in C major

Debussy: Clair de Lune

Ravel: Jeux d’Eau

Ravel: Pavane pour une Infante Défunte

Debussy: L’Isle Joyeuse

Agnew: April Awake

Molloy: Clearances

Boulanger: Heures Ternes

Boulanger: Le Beau Navire

Boulanger: Chanson

Rachel Quinn

Rachel has performed numerous concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Cesar Franck, Prokofiev, Liszt, Turina and Finzi with Irish orchestras such as the National Symphony Orchestra, RTE Concert Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra and with the West Bohemian Orchestra in the Czech Republic. She has appeared in solo recital programmes at arts centres throughout Ireland, and abroad in Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria and the UK. In addition she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to the Peabody Conservatory in the USA and was a Foundation Scholar at the Royal College of Music London.

As a well-known Irish accompanist, she has also worked with many of Ireland’s leading classical musicians in concerts, competitions, live radio and television broadcasts. She curated and produced “Beethoven -Words and Music” for RTE and “Pride & Passion – Vistas of South America” in the past year, which was featured by the European Broadcasting Union. She is a founding member of the Degani Piano Trio and most recently completed an Arts Council funded Irish Tour of ‘Whale Tales and Irish Folksongs’ featuring music specially written for the trio by leading Irish composers Ian Wilson, John Buckley, Phillip Martin and Colman Pearce. Rachel’s solo album ‘Mosaic’ features a diverse collection of solo piano music.

Elizabeth Hilliard

Irish Soprano Elizabeth Hilliard is an exceptional singer based in Dublin and is widely regarded as an imaginative and dramatic interpreter of new music. She has worked in close collaboration with composers including Gráinne Mulvey, Jennifer Walshe, Christopher Fox and David Bremner and champions Irish art, music and composers, achieving recognition in the US and UK as well as her native country. She has been supported in her career by bursaries from Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon, Creative Ireland, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and South Dublin County Council.

Performances in 2022 include part of Contemporary Music Centre’s Ulysses Journey with Hungarian guitarist Katalin Koltai in Belfast, Dublin, Budapest and Paris, Irish Airs presented by the National Concert Hall with Rachel Quinn, Annette Cleary and Alan Smale of the Degani PianoTrio, Slow Recognition an opera by David Bremner composer and Helene Montague dramaturg with singers Rory Musgrave and Naomi Louisa O’Connell.

In 2021, she presented How The World Begins Again, a short feature series for RTÉ lyric fm on women composers and sound artists from Ireland.