Sundays at Noon Concert Catch-up : The Far Flung Trio

Filmed in the sculpture hall, Hugh Lane Gallery on March 3rd 2024
The Far Flung Trio : Under Paris Skies
A very special concert infused with Parisian charm. In characteristic fashion, the Trio’s repertoire will be drawn from many idioms including Romantic Opera, the Moulin Rouge and Hot Club Jazz, with music by Bizet, Satie and Michel Legrand among many others.
Celebrating their 10th anniversary with a national tour in 2024, the Far Flung Trio promises you a musical saunter to touch the heart and lift the spirits.
The Far Flung Trio are Katherine Hunka (violin), Dermot Dunne (accordion) and Malachy Robinson (double bass): the name reflects their sense of fun and the eclecticism in their programming and performances. All leading Irish players, this trio is fuelled by the sheer joy generated in playing together. This evident rapport is one of the elements that particularly delights audiences; their aim has always been to deliver the highest calibre of musicianship, with lots of flair, in a way that is appealing and accessible to all.
Born in London, Katherine Hunka began playing the violin at the age of four. She grew as a young musician under the guidance of Sheila Nelson, performing at concert halls at London’s South Bank and the Royal Albert Hall, was soloist with the City of London Sinfonia and led the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Katherine studied for five years with Gyorgy Pauk at the Royal Academy of Music and furthered her studies in the USA at Indiana University where she also acted as teaching assistant to her professor, Mauricio Fuks. She has since returned to Indiana as a guest Professor and been made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London. Katherine is Leader of the Irish Chamber Orchestra since 2002 and regularly directs from the leader’s chair. As director and soloist, with the ICO, she has toured Germany, China and Singapore, and appeared at festivals including the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, and the Kilkenny Arts Festival.
In 2020 Katherine became Artistic Director of the Killaloe Music Festival for which she devises programmes to include world class musicians. She has also been guest soloist with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra and Concert Orchestra and gave the world premiere of Benjamin Britten’s concerto for violin and viola at the Aldeburgh Festival in the UK. She is currently a Lecturer at the MTU Cork School of Music and Artistic Director of ConCorda, a chamber music course for young musicians.
Malachy Robinson is a dedicated chamber musician, as passionate about Early Music as he is about New Music. He is a founder of the Gregory Walkers, a group performing “Early Music from Ireland and beyond” in which he plays the viola da gamba, and is director of the Robinson Panoramic Quartet, a revelatory alternative to the standard string quartet. Principal double-bass with the Irish Chamber Orchestra since 1995, he is also a founder member of the cutting-edge Crash Ensemble as well as appearing with period-instrument orchestras such as The Sixteen, the English Concert, the OAE and the Academy of Ancient Music. He was a founder member of the Irish Baroque Orchestra and of the quintet Lunfardia led by Argentinean guitarist Ariel Hernandez, which received four-star reviews from the press for their recordings. He has performed with the Vanbrugh, Navarra, Callino, Parisii, T’ang, Con Tempo and Vogler String Quartets, the Phoenix Piano Trio, Daghda Dance Company, the Brian Byrne Big Band, and theatrical diva Camille O’Sullivan. After taking a Master’s Degree in Historical Musicology at the University of London, Malachy returned to Ireland in 1994 and has since been in constant demand, working in all idioms both on stage and in studio. Compositions include String performed by Crash Ensemble 2001; Where Art Thou, Muse? performed by Deirdre Moynihan and the Dublin Viols 2010; Hallow’d Ground performed by the Eidola Trio 2014; Shark recorded by Crash Ensemble 2017; Dream of the Green Men performed by the Irish Chamber Orchestra 2018; For I Shall Consider My Cat Jeoffry performed by the Dublin Viols 2019; and Galcoville and the Forest with poet Jane Robinson.
Accordionist Dermot Dunne began his performing career after winning the Irish National Music Competition - ‘Musician of the Future’ in 1996. He studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Kyiv, Ukraine from 1996-2001 and now follows a busy career as performer and as a teacher at TU Dublin Conservatoire. He performs regularly at venues and festivals in Ireland and has given chamber music recitals and concerto performances in many European countries and also in the USA, Canada, China, Singapore and Qatar. He has performed with leading European musicians including Pekka Kuusisto, Natalie Klein, Katherine Hunka and the Vogler Quartet and has recorded with groups including Crash Ensemble, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Lunfardia, cellist Adrian Mantu, singer Mary Coughlan and The Far Flung Trio.