PICTURES | Longford’s inaugural Camlin Keys Piano Festival strikes the perfect chord

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Whilst outside on Saturday evening, thunder and lightning was crashing through the skies, inside St John’s Church, 12-year-old Lenny Chen’s fingers were flying across the grand piano keyboard playing Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Chopin and many more.

Lenny had come down from Boyle, Co Roscommon to close Longford’s inaugural Camlin Keys Piano Festival with a Grand Concert, and as the winner of most of the piano competitions nationwide this year, he was indeed a very special guest. READ MORE BELOW PHOTO

Lenny has promised to come back down St John’s, Longford for a Christmas Concert, so watch out for that.

The Camlin Keys Piano Festival started at 10am in St John’s NS, with Tamara Niekludow, composer, teacher, examiner and performer delivering a workshop on Performance and Exam Anxiety, hopefully getting everyone ready for the day ahead.

Meanwhile, in the next room a very energetic early years Music with Dee Dee was taking place in a room full of children enjoying musical fun, songs, and stories.

The Competition Classes started at 11am, again with Tamara Niekludow adjudicating each group. A very difficult job as all the participants had put so much effort into their work. Entries were of a very high standard and with experienced pianists travelling to play, 9-year-old Abishek Varghese coming all the way from Limerick, having won the Feile Lumnigh 2023 and 2023 Castleknock Piano Competition already this year. Entrants also played their own compositions which was a great opportunity for them and for the audience to hear.

Tamara was quick to acknowledge the dedication of parents and guardians in supporting their upcoming talents, it was very special that everyone stayed for the duration of the competition, a valuable audience experience for all entrants. Camlin Keys is very grateful to Tamara for taking the time to come to Longford and look forward to seeing her again for next year’s festival, when she has promised she will play for us.

The afternoon saw a series of workshops with multi-instrumentalist, Andrew Yau, who joined us from Moate to work with Ukrainian children giving them masterclasses in vocal, flute and piano ensemble music.

Thirteen-year-old Yeva Titorenko, living in Ireland for over a year, told us, “I’m a vocal singer and a student of a Ukrainian musical school in Ukraine. I was delighted to sing at the workshop. Our teacher was fabulous, and I had a feeling that I started to hear my voice in a different way and be more confident. I am grateful for organising this class for Ukrainian children and would be delighted to participate in other activities as well!”

Alla Shmyhovska, liaison for the group said, “It was a pleasure to see so many talented children, who performed classic music at Camlin Piano Festival in St.John’s Church, Andrew has a miraculous ability to work with the children, I'm so happy our Ukrainian community could also be a part of this beautiful celebration. Thanks to Joanna Pearman and all involved, we had a perfect, inspiring day.”

“This Festival has been such a great day for everyone involved,” said Festival Director, Joanna Pearman, “the feedback has been so positive. Music isn’t a competitive thing - more a collaborative thing - listening and sharing with each other. Spending the day experiencing all the different performances and pieces is so beneficial to everyone, I think this is a positive development opportunity for County Longford.”

None of this would be possible without the support of the Camlin Keys Festival committee, Carmel Keenan, Francesca Pawelczyk and Jemma Thomsen. Thank you to Andrew Yau and Tamara Niekludow for their advice and support in the build-up and during the event and Eliza for their help at the competition.

Many thanks to Creative Longford and Longford County Council, Rev Simon Scott and St John’s Church of Ireland, Carron Flynn, St John’s National School, without whom Camlin Keys could not have happened. Thanks also to the Longford Leader for their continuous engagement with the event.

At the end of the Grand Concert, Acting Arts Officer, Shane Crossan enthused, "Camlin Keys is the first time ever we’ve had a piano festival in Longford which is surprising as the piano is the only classical instrument we play in Longford. Such an important thing for children to have the opportunity to perform and so great for them to be able to do it in St John’s Church, the best acoustics in Longford."

Camlin Keys Piano Festival is on the map, looking forward to next year and events in between, until then, practice, practice, practice!

Many thanks to Slavek and the Midlands Polish Community television for recording our final concert, which is available to see on their YouTube channel, MPC-TV.