Photo credit John Godfrey
On October 15, 2021, renowned concert pianist David Syme delivered the inaugural concert at the Aula Maxima at UCC on the new Ritmüller RS280 piano as the newly appointed UCC/Ritmüller Classical Artist in Residence. He performed a diverse repertoire of Classical, Baroque and Irish Traditional music that both celebrated his internationally renowned talent and showcased the youthful and scintillating voice of the brand-new instrument. The RS280 exhibited a clarity and a sort of youthful ebullience that allowed David Syme space to explore the music’s subtle complexities with grace and flow. The concert received extensive publicity and, along with David’s renown in Ireland, brought in a large and highly appreciative audience. It was a superb start to a fruitful and exciting partnership between UCC, David Syme and Ritmüller.
University College Cork, or UCC, is in Cork, Ireland, a city in the midst of some of the most beautiful areas of the country. ork has an extraordinarily busy music scene that embraces everything from Irish Traditional Music to Jazz, Classical music to Pop, World music to one of the busiest Sound Art and Free Improvisation scenes outside of Berlin. UCC’s Music Dept embraces all types of music and all ways of studying it. It is renowned as the World’s leading department for Irish Traditional Music and is also highly respected for its diversity and achievements in multiple fields including World Music and Ethnomusicology; practice-based and academic studies in jazz, pop and Hip Hop; Experimental and improvised music; composition in many genres; the practice and scholarly study of multimedia work; music education and community music; Western art music; Music cognition and more.
John Godfrey, Senior Lecturer Music Department UCC
with David Syme in the Aula Maxima
