Spotlight Chamber Music Series II

Clarinettist Macdara Ó Seireadáin and Lithuanian pianist Gintaras Januševicius return to Cork as part of their international tour.

Opening with Lamento et Tarantelle, a piece written by Gabriel Grovlez for the annual Paris Conservatoire clarinet competition, their programme also features works from their respective homelands – the pensive and thoughtful The Pool Amongst the Rushes by Joan Trimble, and a sonata by Saulius Šiauciulis.

Commissioned by his friend and duo partner Petras Vyšniauskas, in this short sonata Saulius Šiauciulis draws on a number of influences, most notably Keith Jarrett’s legendary Köln Concert for its last movement.

Similar influences are echoed in the last work by Paquito D’Rivera, whose pieces are based on two South American folk dances.

These will be presented alongside Johannes Brahms’ magnificent second clarinet sonata. After retiring from composing, Brahms heard clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld perform and was inspired to take up his pen again. Written in 1894 and autumnal in character, it opens with a tender, melancholy look back at life. The trio movement echoes his late piano intermezzi, before closing with a set of dreamy, wistful variations. It truly is a seminal work by the master of late Romantic music.

Musicians:

Macdara Ó Seireadáin – Clarinet
Gintaras Januševicius – Piano

Programme:

Gabriel Grovlez: Lamento et Tarantelle
Saulius Šiauciulis: Sonata for Saxophone and Organ (arranged for Clarinet and Piano)
Joan Trimble: The Pool Among the Rushes
Johannes Brahms: Sonata No 2 in E flat major, Op. 120, No. 2
Paquito D’Rivera: Contradanza – Vals Venezolano

Macdara Ó Seireadáin is a First Class Honours graduate of both the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover and Royal Irish Academy of Music.

In November 2019, after holding positions in Austria and Germany, Macdara joined the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. He has worked with numerous orchestras including Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Staatsoper Hannover, Philharmonsiches Orchester Kiel, Irish Chamber Orchestra, and performed as soloist with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Uelzen Kammerorchester and others.

A keen chamber musician, Macdara performs regularly with pianist Gintaras Januševicius and is a member of the Ficino Ensemble. He has collaborated with John O’Conor, Johannes Peitz, Sharon Kam, Finghin Collins, The Vanburgh, Apollon Musagete Quartet, and performed at numerous festivals including Great Music in Irish Houses, Fredener Musiktage, and Cellissimo.

Additionally, Macdara lectures on performance psychology and coaches at the Klaipeda Piano Masters and Feuerwerk Einbeck academies and hosts the music podcast “Harmonically Speaking”.

Gintaras Januševicius rose to fame in May 2004, after his performance at the semi-finals of the Montréal International Music Competition. His interpretation of Études-Tableaux Op. 39 by Rachmaninoff was publicly praised by pianists Jean-Philippe Collard, Akiko Ebi, Michel Dalberto and Lee Kum-Sing.

Januševicius has been a prize-winner and finalist of fifteen music competitions all over the world and has performed with respected orchestras, including the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra and both Lithuanian National and Lithuanian State Symphonic Orchestras. He has also appeared at numerous festivals, including the Chopin Festival in Duszniki-Zdroj, Mozartfest Würzburg, Festival Besançon and Dresdner Musikfestspiele, alongside Jörg Widmann, Tung-Chieh Chuang, Gintaras Rinkevicius, Leonid Gorokhov, Saulius Sondeckis, Samuel Hasselhorn, Felix Klieser, Giedre Šlekyte, Fuat Mansurov and the Ciurlionis Quartet.

Since 2017, he serves as the artistic director and professor of piano at the summer piano academy “Klaipeda Piano Masters” in Lithuania, as well as at the invitation-only piano academy, Feuerwerk Einbeck, in Germany. Throughout the year, he mentors private students in his Hanover studio. In 2020, he joined the teaching staff of the Hanover University of Music, Theater and Media (HMTM Hannover).

In 2024/2025, Januševicius is also scheduled to appear on tours, masterclasses, and competition juries in Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.