This programme will include the third-to-last piano sonata in E major Op. 109 by Beethoven, alongside Brahms 6 Klavierstucke Op. 118 dedicated to Clara Schumann. Both works were written during the titans' later lives and although very intimate in nature both contain passionate outbursts. To finish will be Liszt's dazzling and virtuosic La Campanella!

Northern Ireland pianist Cahal Masterson has considerably built upon an already impressive performing profile as of late with a string of Irish debut performances including chamber collaborations with the Ulster Orchestra, debut performances at House of Waterford Crystal, Sligo Con Brio, Belfast International Arts Festival, Queens University Belfast, Music for Galway, Drogheda Classical Music, Castleconnell Concert Series, and the Hugh Lane Gallery Dublin. Having come from a musical family with four siblings who are all professional violinists, Cahal has performed extensively as a soloist, vocal repetiteur and chamber musician throughout Europe, North America, and Suzhou, China. He has a varied musical career which also encompasses music education as well as championing exciting new Irish compositions. In early 2021 he recorded Northern Irish/Welsh composer Anselm Mc Donnell’s new piano suite Ceaselessly Into The Past as the opening work to the composer’s debut album Light of Shore which was released in October last year.

​In 2018 Cahal recorded his inaugural album Transition at Sono Luminus Studios in Boyce, Virginia, releasing this debut record with a series of performances in Washington D.C, and Toronto, Canada. Upon completion of four years postgraduate study in North America he returned to Europe to concertise again for home audiences giving recitals throughout Ireland and the UK. Autumn 2019 was Cahal's first opportunity to get involved in education outreach programmes and he gave piano workshops alongside performances for secondary school music students throughout Northern Ireland. Since this first outreach experience, he has designed and delivered an extensive and comprehensive programme geared towards the upper-primary level with Music for Galway. This culminated in a combined performance this November of iconic childhood themed music inter-twinned with kids’ responses to the pieces via art and poetry. A 2021 performance in Belfast International Arts Festival and a home-coming concert tour in 2019 both received mention as feature articles in the Belfast Telegraph, and in 2020 Cahal was awarded an Emerging Artist Platform with Moving on Music.

​Cahal graduated with a Masters in Music Performance from Shenandoah University, USA in May 2019, and prior to this completed an Artist Diploma at The Glenn Gould School in Toronto, Canada. He sat his Bachelor degree in Music Performance at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin. His main teacher and mentor over the course of his study was Dr. John O’Conor. Throughout his studies he received numerous scholarships and awards. During his time at Shenandoah University USA he was awarded the E Evans Scholarship for exceptional artistic talent, at the Royal Irish Academy of Music he was a recipient of the prestigious Lucien and Maura Tessier Scholarship, and at the Glenn Gould School received The Harmony Arietta Chiu Scholarship, The Nicholas Weldon Kilburn Memorial Scholarship and The Adele Crone Memorial Scholarship. He is a previous multiple prize-winner in Dublin’s Feis Ceoil and a former recipient of the Morris Grant Bursary. Cahal has worked with many of the world’s leading pianists including Pascal Rogé, Jaques Rouvier, Arnulf von Arnim, Pavel Nersessian, John Perry, Ronan O’Hora, Anton Nell, Jonathan Biss, Joanna MacGregor, Leon McCawley and Christopher Elton.

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