A concert of new Irish piano duets takes place on 30 June in London.
Pianists Debbie Armstrong and Naomi Edemariam present an entire evening of premieres at The Warehouse on London's South Bank on Wednesday 30 June 2010.
The programme features new music for piano duet specially commissioned from composers based in Ireland or Canada. The pieces by Eibhlis Farrell, Paul Frehner, Scott Edward Godin, Victor Lazzarini, David Stalling and Ian Wilson's pieces are hot off the block - brilliant, imaginative, and varied.
Debbie Armstrong studied piano with Sandra Ganly and Mabel Swainson and read music at Trinity College Dublin before pursuing postgraduate work in North America. She completed a doctoral degree in piano performance at McGill University, Montreal in 2003. Prior to her arrival there, Debbie studied at the New England Conservatory in Boston, the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and the Banff Centre for the Arts.
Her affinity for early twentieth century French music has brought her several times to France where she worked with Pascal Rogé, Jacques Rouvier, Philippe Entremont and Fredéric Aguessy. Pedagogical pursuits have included a six-month sojourn teaching piano at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, and piano instruction at McGill University, Montreal, and the New England Conservatory in Boston. She has also received notable awards for her playing, in the U.S., Ireland and Canada including second prize at the Knezkova-Hussey International Piano Competition in New Brunswick.
Since returning to Ireland, Debbie has been teaching, freelancing and performing solo and collaboratively. Appearances have included performances of Mozart’s Double Piano Concerto in Buenos Aires with Maria Laura Tumbeiro, recitals of French repertoire with soprano Sylvia O’Brien at the Kinsale Arts Week, and Airfield House, Dublin and duo recitals of American and French repertoire with flautist Roisin ni Bhraoin at St. John’s Arts Centre in Kerry and the John Field Room in the NCH, Dublin. She recently performed a programme of Polish music with violinist Ania Bard in Kinsale and Boyle Arts Festivals and recitals of French and Irish music in Wicklow and Wexford with her trio Rún.
Naomi Edemariam studied piano with Peter Lawson at Chethams School of Music and later with Joyce Rathbone and Valeria Szervansky in London, and Gregory Chaverdian in Montreal. After obtaining a first class degree in music from Cambridge University, she pursued graduate studies at McGill and Concordia Universities in Montreal. She is recipient of awards from the British government, the Cambridge Commonwealth Scholarship body, Cambridge University, McGill University, and, most recently, the Fonds Quebecois de la recherche sur la Societé et la cultures. Other bursaries brought Naomi to the International Musician's Seminar in Prussia Cove and to spend nine months as resident at the Banff International Centre for the Arts, where she had masterclasses with Gilbert Kalish, Marc Durand, Ferenc Rados, Anton Kuerti, and others. Her deep interest in contemporary music has led her to give premiere performances of works by Hywel Davies, Terry Mann, Damien Ricketson, and Arturo Villela Vega. She has performed concertos with orchestras in Cambridge and Montreal, and performed in five continents. She currently lives and works in London.