Clara Schumann’s piano in Ireland

Soprano Elisabeth Goell, came across a unique historic treasure on one of her concert tours in a remote place in Donegal.In the mid 19th century a very musical young Donegal woman, Fanny Montgomery was engaged to be married to a Colonel in Dresden.
The family frequently made visits to Dresden, where at that time lived one of the greatest pianists of the 19th century in Germany, Clara Schumann, from whom they purchased a piano and brought back to Donegal. This is a very unique piano, it has no serial number and is most beautifully decorated inside and out, with lots of filigree wood work on the music stand and the pull out panels on either side for the candle stands.

This concert bring to you the music of Clara Schumann and her Irish contemporaries such as Arthur O’Leary from Tralee, George Alexander Osborne from Limerick, Samuel Lover both a poet and musician, Augusta Holmes and Lady Dufferin, also both poets and musicians, Michele Esposito, to whom Ireland owes the establishment of a resident orchestra in Dublin, the Dublin Orchestral Society.
Together with the music by Stanford, Field and Harty, the music chosen is only a fragment of the rich classical musical heritage that Ireland can boast and which has been unduly “forgotten”

The piano is in extraordinary condition, thanks to the efforts of the piano technicians Brian and Brendan Henderson, Derry City, Northern Ireland
It can be heard in all its beauty at this series of concerts.
The event is supported by the Arts Council Ireland, First Trust Bank, Centre of Irish German Studies and the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick and a great variety of public and private sponsors.

The concert takes place on Monday 9th February at Nuns Island Theatre Galway at 8pm. Tickets €15/25