BRIAN O ’ KANE
B I O G R A P H Y
Brian O’Kane is quickly establishing himself as one of the finest Irish musicians of his generation. An award winning graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, he is in increasing demand as both a soloist and chamber musician. Brian‘s biggest influences have come from his professor and mentor Louise Hopkins and at the International Musicians Seminars, Prussia Cove from studies with the renowned Ralph Kirshbaum, Gabor Takacs-Nagy and Steven Isserlis.
Brian came to prominence by taking first prize at the Windsor Festival International String Competition and is also a former prizewinner of the Haverhill Sinfonia and Royal Overseas League Competitions. In early 2008, Brian won the Prince’s Prize of the Worshipful Company of Musicians and is a former winner of the Accenture Bursary Award and Camerata Ireland Young Musician Award. In that same year, Brian performed with Camerata Ireland in Dublin’s National Concert Hall under Barry Douglas and with the Philharmonia Orchestra at Highgrove before the Prince of Wales. He recently appeared again with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy at the 2009 Windsor Festival.
An avid chamber musician, Brian has toured extensively throughout the Far East, Australasia and Europe. He has collaborated with a wide variety of artists such as the Vanbrugh Quartet, Michael Collins, Alison Balsom, Anthony Marwood, Barry Douglas, Pekka Kuusisto and as a founding member of the Cappa Ensemble who are currently on the Young Artist roster of Ireland’s Music Network. Also a keen explorer of conetemporary music, he has had the pleasure of working closely with composers such as Maxwell-Davies, Kancheli, Auerbach and Widmann. Brian has appeared at many festivals and concert halls throughout the world, including the West Cork, Edinburgh, Verbier, Radio France/Montpellier and Clandeboye Festivals, Bridgewater Hall, St. John’s Smith Square, the Barbican, Bozar – Brussels, Suntory Hall – Tokyo and has been broadcast on RTE Lyric FM, BBC Radio 3, Radio New Zealand and Radio France. Brian will make his full Wigmore Hall debut in 2012 with Irish pianist Michael McHale.
Brian is extremely grateful for the continued and generous support of the Musicians Benevolent Fund, the Martin Musical Scholarship Fund, the Worshipful Company of Musicians from whom he was recently awarded their Silver Medal and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama for the loan of a J.B Vuillaume cello c.1840, where he remains a Junior Fellow.
