Russian pianist Anna Tsybuleva will tour Ireland with a new work by Irish composer Siobhán Cleary in March.

Tsybuleva was the winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2015 and has since performed with the Royal Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras among many others. She has also performed at the Wigmore Hall, Shanghai Opera House and the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.

Tsybuleva studied at the Moscow State Conservatoire – where she is now undertaking post-graduate studies – and Basel Music Academy. Her most recent album, Fantasien (2017) on the Champs Hill Records label, features Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms. 

An Cailleach
The programme for the Music Network tour features works by Chopin (including the Ballade No. 1 in G minor), Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons, Op. 37, and An Cailleach, a new commission by Siobhán Cleary. Speaking to The Journal of Music, Cleary said:

I intended to compose something to partner the Tchaikovsky Seasons which Anna is also playing. There’s actually 12 movements in Tchaikovsky’s piece which relate more to months than to seasons… I hope to finish this as a 12-movement piece some time.

An Cailleach has four movements – Dùbhlachd: ‘Darkness’; Faoilleach: ‘Wolf’; Feadag: ‘Plover’; and Scuabag: ‘Sweeper’ – and takes its title from a Scottish Gaelic legend about the embodiment of winter as an old hag. 

A recent Journal of Music review of Cleary’s opera, Vampirella, described the hallmarks of her style as ‘intimacy, direct expression, and [a] rich palette.’

Anna Tsybuleva’s eight-date tour will visit Dublin (1 March), Tinahely (3 March), Skibbereen (4 March), Dún Laoghaire (6 March), Castlebar (7 March), Cork (8 March), Newbridge (10 March), and Letterkenny (11 March). 

For more information and tickets, visit musicnetwork.ie.

Programme   
Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849)
Polonaise in F-sharp minor, Op. 44

Three Mazurkas, Op. 59
1. Moderato in A minor
2. Allegretto in A-flat major
3. Vivace in F-sharp minor

Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48 No. 1

Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 55 No. 2

Ballade in G minor, Op. 23 No. 1

Siobhán Cleary (b. 1970)
An Cailleach (new commission by Music Network)
i. Dùbhlachd
ii. Faoilleach
iii. Feadag
iv. Scuabag

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893)
‘The Seasons’ Op. 37 bis
1. January: By The Fireside
2. February: Carnaval
3. March: Song Of The Lark
4. April: Snowdrop
5. May: May Nights
6. June: Barcarolle
7. July: Song Of The Reaper
8. August: The Harvest
9. September: The Hunt
10. October: Autumn Song
11. November: Troika
12. December: Christmas

Siobhán Cleary’s Leda and the Swan, performed and commissioned by Thérèse Fahy.