Tuesdays Till Two - Lunchtime Concert: Irena Radić

About

Our lunchtime concert season continues with our final solo piano concert of the season, given by Irena Radić, a former young musician of the year in both Peterborough and Oundle, now a graduate of the RCM in London and an award winning pianist.

As ever the church will be open for an hour before the concert begins, with volunteers from the pop-up café team offering lots of home made sweet and savoury treats as well as hot and cold drinks.

This will be an hour-long concert, but for those who need to be elsewhere by 2pm, there will be an opportunity to leave just after 1.45pm, before the final piece.

The concert will begin promptly at 1pm. Admission is free, but those who are able to afford it are asked to make a donation. The suggested amount is £5.

Irena's programme for this concert, which has been in preparation for many months, includes several works by Russian born composers, which some may find difficult at the current time. Irena writes:

"I whole-heartedly condemn the actions of Putin and anyone who supports him. The music has not in any way been chosen because of the composers' nationalities. While Medtner, Rachmaninoff and Scriabin were born in Russia, they spent large portions of their lives living abroad - in the UK, US and Switzerland respectively. But first and foremost, these works were not in any way intended as political statements when written, so their music has been programmed simply because it is wonderful music. This programme includes pieces that are dear to me for many reasons - some of which have helped me through difficult times. They came from the hearts and minds of individual humans, yet they have the transcendental power to move and connect with anyone anywhere in the world, more than a century after they were written, through the pure and universal language that is music."

Programme:

Frédéric Chopin (1810 - 1849)
- Prelude in C# minor Op. 45 (1841)
- Prelude in Ab major Op. posth (1834)

Nikolai Medtner (1880 – 1951)
4 Fairy Tales Op.26 (1910 - 1912)
- No.1 in Eb major: Allegretto frescamente
- No.2 in Eb major: Molto vivace
- No.3 in F minor: Narrante a piacere
- No.4 in F# minor: Sostenuto

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 – 1943)
10 Preludes Op.23 (1901 - 1903)
- No.1 in F# minor: Largo
- No.2 in Bb major: Maestoso
- No.3 in D minor: Tempo di minuetto
- No.4 in D major: Andante cantabile
- No.5 in G minor: Alla marcia
- No.6 in Eb major: Andante
- No.7 in C minor: Allegro

----- (short break) -----

Alexander Scriabin (1872 - 1915)
Piano Sonata no.4 in F# Op.30 (1903 - 1904)
- i. Andante
- ii. Prestissimo volando

About Irena Radić:

An award-winning pianist and versatile chamber musician, Irena Radić is a recent graduate of the Royal College of Music, London, where she studied with Niel Immelman and Dina Parakhina as a Cotes-Burgan Scholar. She completed her Master of Performance degree with distinction in 2020, and holds a First Class Bachelor of Music (Honours) degree (2018). Prior to that she attended the RCM’s Junior Department where she studied with Lynette Stulting, supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation, the Wolfson Foundation and the Else and Leonard Cross Charitable Trust. As a recipient of the John Mortimer Award, Irena was selected as a Philharmonia MMSF Piano Fellow 2018-19, and was a Help Musicians UK Postgraduate Award Holder 2018. She is also grateful to have received support from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, the Hilda Martindale Educational Trust and the St Marylebone Educational Foundation.

A finalist in the Bromsgrove International Musicians Competition (2018), Irena won second prize in the RCM’s Kendall Taylor Beethoven Competition (2018) and was a prizewinner at two international music festivals: Verão Classico Masterclasses (2017) (Portugal) and Alion Baltic International Music Festival (2017) (Estonia). Other awards include the Teresa Carreño Piano Prize (2014), Young Musician of the Year (2013) at both Peterborough and Oundle Music Festivals, the Head of Junior Programmes Prize (2013), and runner up in the Gordon Turner Memorial Competition (2013) receiving the May Edwards Memorial Prize. She was also chosen to perform at the Wigmore Hall as a prizewinner in the Jaques Samuel Junior Department Piano Festival (2012 & 2013). Irena has performed in venues such as the Royal Festival Hall, The Forge, Bolivar Hall, Routh Hall, West Road Concert Hall and the Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall. She has also performed in numerous masterclasses with pianists including Bruno Canino, Charles Owen, Cristina Ortiz, Eldar Nebolsin, Jura Margulis, Mikhail Voskresensky and Norma Fisher.

Most recently, performances have featured works such as Rachmaninoff’s 10 Preludes Op.23, Brahms’ Piano Trio no.1 in B major, Prokofiev’s Five Melodies Op.35 for Violin & Piano, Poulenc’s Sonata for Flute & Piano, Schumann’s Three Romances Op.94 for Oboe & Piano and Beethoven’s Piano Trio in D major Op.70 No.1 ‘Ghost’. Other recent performances have included Mozart’s Sonata in D for 2 Pianos, Schumann’s Humoreske Op.20, Shostakovich’s Piano Trio no.2 in E minor, a world première of Tantrum – a new work for Piano and Percussion by Nino Russell, and two performances of Bartok’s Sonata for 2 Pianos and Percussion. She regularly works with musicians including Martin James Bartlett (piano), Katherine Bryer (oboe), Sirius Chau (flute), and is a founding member Trio Tonada with David López Ibañez (violin) and Deni Teo (cello). With Swedish guitarist Jonatan Bougt, she creates new arrangements for their Guitar and Piano duo and their current programme includes Ravel’s Ma Mère l’Oye and Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes Op.34, which they have arranged with kind permission from Irina Shostakovich. In 2016 they won second prize at the Twents Guitar Festival in the Netherlands.

Alongside her career as a concert pianist, Irena is a dedicated and passionate teacher who has a wide range of students of all ages and abilities. When working with children, her teaching is inspired by the Suzuki method, having studied with Jenny Macmillan from an early age. Irena teaches privately and, since 2020, as a Visiting Music Teacher at St Catherine’s School in Bramley.

Irena also plays orchestral piano and celeste and has performed with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Bernard Haitink, Diego Masson, Alexander Polishchuk, Peter Stark, Richard Dickins and Tim Lines in venues including Cadogan Hall, St John’s Smith Square and the Royal Festival Hall. Recent performances include works such as Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Ravel’s Daphnis & Chloé, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet Suite, Shostakovich’s Symphonies nos. 1 & 5, Bernstein’s West Side Story – Symphonic Dances, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, Reich’s Three Movements for Orchestra and Webern’s Five Pieces for Orchestra.