Concert Pianist
Favorite Children’s Book:
“The Children of Lir” An Irish Legend
Favorite Folk-song:
“Danny Boy” Old Irish Folk-song
Languages Spoken:
Irish, French, Italian, German, Russian
Information found in the article: “Finghin has world at his fingertips” By Sue Leonard, Irish Examiner, January 2nd 2002
Born to parents with no musical background, Finghin’s elder sister Mary began to teach him the piano when she was 13 and he was three.
In November 2000 Finghin made his American debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christoph Eschenbach. In the 2002 season, he returned to the Houston Symphony to perform with their music director Hans Graf and also played with the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra.
The ethos of Gonzaga suited Finghin because, being Jesuit, it was culturally orientated, giving him a grounding in Greek and Latin, along with Irish, French, Italian and German. Although his favourite composer is Mozart, Finghin adores Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky, a love that led him to add Russian to his list of languages. “Russian music makes up a lot of my repertoire,”he says. “And you hear the Russian consonants clashing against each other in the music. I love Russian opera. And I love Russian culture, the people and everything.”
At 24, Finghin Collins has the world at his fingertips. Since winning the prestigious Clara Haskil competition two years ago, life has continued to shine for John O’Conor’s protégé.
“If I had been told at 16 that I would play with the Chicago Symphony orchestra by 24 I simply wouldn’t have believed it”, says Finghin, who was the first ever Irish pianist to win an international award without first going abroad to train.
Yet Finghin says the day you reach perfection would be a bad day: “Your career is a progression towards a perfection that you never reach. The greatest pianists in the world at age 60 have still never achieved their highest goal.”
See Finghin with Pearl Hall students at his web site:
http://finghincollins.com/main.php?type=news&article=houston