See 5 performances featuring Michael Collins“…that most persuasive of clarinettists, Michael Collins…” (The Independent)
Michael Collins' dazzling virtuosity and sensitive musicianship have made him one of today's most sought-after soloists. He performs as a soloist with many of the world’s major orchestras, including the Philadelphia, NHK Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, City of Birmingham Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, BBC Symphony and Philharmonia Orchestra.
In 2007 he won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year Award, placing him amongst past recipients of the award who include Itzhak Perlman, Mitsuko Uchida, Murray Perahia and Andras Schiff.
Wholly committed to the expansion and development of the clarinet repertoire, Michael Collins commissions and premieres repertoire by prominent composers, including John Adams, Elliott Carter, John Corigliano, Elena Kats-Chernin, Thea Musgrave, Mark Anthony Turnage and Erkki-Sven Tuur. Highlights of the 2007/8 season include the Dutch, Belgian, Scandinavian and London premieres of Mark Anthony Turnage’s Riffs and Refrains, the UK premiere of Brett Dean’s Ariel’s Music with the BBC Symphony and the world premiere of Elena Kats-Chernin’s new Clarinet Concerto, written for Collins.
Michael Collins is also in demand as a chamber musician, regularly performing in recital with Leon McCawley and in chamber ensembles with artists such as the Belcea Quartet, Martha Argerich, Mikhail Pletnev, Lars Vogt and Joshua Bell. In 1988 he founded London Winds who have since appeared regularly throughout the UK and at many international festivals. Michael Collins’ most recent recording to be released is the first recording in a new partnership between London Winds and the Onyx label, in which they marked the 2006 Mozart anniversary year with a disc of Mozart wind serenades.
“…A class act. A classy disc…” (Editor’s Choice, Gramophone Magazine, January 2007)
Michael Collins is represented by Hazard Chase
http://www.hazardchase.co.uk/artists/michael_collins
His personal website is:
http://www.michael-collins.co.uk/
| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 18-Oct-2012 Cadogan Hall | Stravinsky and Adams with City of London Sinfonia and Michael Collins |
 Before last night I had reserved judgement on John Adams’ Grand Pianola Music (1982), which I knew from CD but hadn’t previously heard live. It was an effect-piece, I thought, so while it had left me a little cold in recorded form, I was open to the possibility that this enormous, ecstatic major-key pile-up would blow me away in the concert hall. But while City of London Sinfonia’s gleeful rendition in Cadogan Hall last night certainly made an impression, I can’t help but continue to think that the piece is a bit daft.
Read full review... | |
| 22-Aug-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 52: Gergiev and the LSO play Prokofiev's Cinderella |
 Concert performances of ballets are a rare event at the BBC Proms and Wednesday night gave us the Proms première of what is a very popular ballet score on the stage. Prokofiev’s ballet, Cinderella, follows the traditional story of the downtrodden heroine, unlike the two operas which take this tale as their basis, and the music overflows with the magic of this beloved children’s story. Prokofiev started work on the ballet in 1940, but work on it had to be postponed because of Hitler’s declaration of war on the Soviet Union in June 1941.Read full review... | |
| 20-Aug-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 50: Michael Collins steals the show |
 Osmo Vänskä strode onto the stage to great applause, paused for the slightest of moments and then lunged at the orchestra with his baton. The gesture was sudden and lacked clarity, and as a result, the first note of the Prom wasn’t together in the strings. In Beethoven's Egmont Overture, Vänskä seemed to veer between extremes of dynamics, which sometimes worked well, such as in the first pianissimo, and at others appeared ungainly and unsubtle.Read full review... | |
| 18-Mar-2012 Wigmore Hall | Poise and Passion: Michael Collins joins the Belcea Quartet for Mozart and Brahms |
 Reviewing is a remarkable pastime. Last week I reviewed a new jazz opera about baseball for kids from Hackney, something I never thought I’d do. Now I’m reviewing a concert about as far removed from Shadowball as could be possible: not physically, but musically, philosophically and emotionally. For there can be few more ‘establishment’ concerts than this Sunday Morning Coffee Concert at Wigmore Hall, the programme of which featured two of the most popular pieces ever written: Mozart and Brahms’ Clarinet Quintets.Read full review... | |
