2019 Season Finale
JEAN SIBELIUS - FINLANDIA
MAURICE RAVEL - PIANO CONCERTO IN G MAJOR
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN - SYMPHONY NO. 9
On Sunday, April 28 at the Roland E. Powell Convention Center in Ocean City, MD, the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra will conclude its 2018-19 season with a Grand Finale concert. Maestro Julien Benichou will conduct a stellar program of works, including: Finlandia by Jean Sibelius, the Piano Concerto in G Major by Maurice Ravel, and Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.
Ravel’s masterful Piano Concerto in G Major will be performed by Irish pianist Michael McHale, who gripped the Philadelphia Enquirer with a performance described as “…brimming with rhythmic vitality and a symphonic sense of scope…”
The 9th Symphony’s iconic, timeless message of humanity and joy will feature a superstar cast of soloists: Allysa Packard, soprano; Jordan Swett, alto; Israel Lozano, tenor; and Kevin Short, bass. The final movement’s famed “Ode to Joy” will be performed by a 100-person choir comprised of members from the Carter Legacy Singers and the Southern Delaware Chorale.
Tickets are $50 and can be purchased online using the button below, by phone at 888.846.8600, or at the box office (open 1 hour before each performance - subject to availability).
The concert begins at 7:00, with a pre-concert lecture at 6:15.
About Our Soloist:
Belfast-born Michael McHale has established himself as one of Ireland’s leading pianists and has developed a busy international career as a solo recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician.
He has performed as a soloist with the Minnesota, Hallé, Moscow Symphony and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras, City of London Sinfonia, London Mozart Players and all five of the major Irish orchestras, and performed at the Tanglewood and Tokyo Spring Festivals, Wigmore Hall, London, Berlin Konzerthaus, Lincoln Center, New York, Symphony Hall, Boston and Pesti Vigadó in Budapest.
Michael’s début solo album The Irish Piano was released in 2012 by RTÉ lyric fm and selected as ‘CD of the Week’ by the critic Norman Lebrecht. More recent solo releases include Schubert: Four Impromptus on Ergodos, Miniatures and Modulations on Grand Piano, and a first orchestral album Irish Piano Concertos featuring works by John Field and Philip Hammond with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Courtney Lewis. His discography of over twenty albums includes releases on Delos, Nimbus Alliance, Champs Hill, and seven duo recital albums on Chandos with Michael Collins. The début album of the McGill/McHale Trio Portraits on Cedille featuring special narrations by Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali was released in 2017 and immediately entered the Top 25 US Billboard Classical Chart. Upcoming releases include a recording of Strauss’s ‘Burleske’ with the BBC Symphony Orchestra on Chandos, and a recording of two new works by Cliff Eidelman with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Winner of the Terence Judd/Hallé Award in 2009, Michael was also awarded the Brennan and Field Prizes at the 2006 AXA Dublin International Piano Competition, the 2005 Camerata Ireland/Accenture Award, and in 2016 a Major Individual Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. He studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music, and his teachers and mentors include John O’Conor, Réamonn Keary, Christopher Elton, Ronan O’Hora and Barry Douglas.
In 2017 Michael was invited to become a Patron of the Ulster Youth Orchestra, and in 2018 he was appointed as a part-time professor of piano for undergraduate and postgraduate students at the Cork School of Music in Ireland.
Michael collaborates regularly with Sir James Galway, Michael Collins, Patricia Rozario, Dame Felicity Lott and Camerata Pacifica.