Oban’s exciting international pianist in concert duo at St John’s Cathedral

Classical pianist, 24 year-old Andrew Dunlop, born in Oban, brought up in Connel and already with a pretty stellar track record, is giving a concert at St John’s Cathedral in Oban on Wednesday 13th January at 7.30pm. He will be playing with fellow musician from New York’s Eastman School of Music, 22 year-old cellist, Colin Stokes whose playing is noted for its ‘eloquent abandon and ferocity’.

Dunlop, whose first music degree was at Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, has studied and is studying with the best of piano tutors, currently with Professor Barry Snyder at Eastman. A glance at his CV leaves one breathless with the prizes and awards of distinction he has already gained and delighted at seeing the prestigious scholarships he has won that have enabled him to develop his skills.

As well as his performance ability, Andrew Dunlop is interested in the pedagogy of his art. He presented a paper on practice methods at the 2009 Conference of Music Education at Exeter University.

Colin Stokes is another musical prodigy who has already collaborated with some of the leading artists of the day – Yo-Yo Ma (with whom he played in concert), James Taylor and Yuri Temirkanov. He is known for the inclusion in his repertoire of much new music.

The Concert Programme

The programme for the concert at St John’s cathedral on 13th January is:

L. Beethoven: Sonata in D Major for Cello and Piano, Op. 102 No. 2

• Allegro con brio
• Adagio con molto sentimento d’affetto
• Allegro-Allegro fugato

H. Dutilleux (b. 1916): Trois Strophes sur le nom de Sacher

Intermission – tea will be served

Liszt/Schumann

• Widmung Op.25, No.1
• Frühlingsnacht Op.38, No.12

S. Rachmaninoff: Sonata for Piano and Cello in G minor, Op. 19

• Lento – Allegro moderato
• Allegro scherzando
• Andante
• Allegro mosso

St John’s cathedral has a good piano and a good acoustic for music – ‘abandon and ferocity’ should sound stunning.

Ticket prices for this concert are: Adults: £8 ;  Concessions £5; School Children free of Charge.

Meeting school children in Oban and Lorn

The two musicians are also going into Achaleven Primary School (former stomping ground of Andrew Dunlop; Dunbeg Primary School; and Oban High School, encouranging as many of the children as possible to come, free, to the concert and to look to their own budding musianship. They will have an inspirational role model before them  in Andrew Dunlop.

The Duo

So how did these two young musicians come together for a concert tour that will take them now from Scotland to Spain – to Madrid and to San Sebastian in the Basque country?

They met at the Eastman School in New York where both are studying – Colin Stokes in the final year of his undergraduate degree and Andrew Dunlop in the second year of his doctorate. Stokes suggested that they play together for a tour and they began to work jointly from September 2009. Dunlop knew Stokes to be ‘an excellent and sensitive musician’, so jumped at the opportunity and says that he has thorougly enjoyed getting to know Stokes and playing together. The easy rapport and shared sense of fun between them is clear in the photographs accompanying this article. (Above, Dunlop is on the left, Stokes on the right.)

And – bias showing – more about the Argyll musician

Andrew Dunlop says that he enjoys performing, teaching and also composing/arranging and that therefore he hopes to have a career involving all three. And as should be the case at this early stage, he says that his musical aspirations still change on a daily basis. In fact, when we asked about his musical ambitions his first response was: ‘Have you been talking to my parents?’

The academic paper he presented on practice methods found a wide variation in approaches. Some immerse themselves in it and play for around 8 hours a day. Others swear that anything over 4 hours a day is counterproductive. The sample of 100 participants he polled for his research was effectively a foundation exercise, identifying ines of research in the subject to be pursued in depth. Wryly, Dunlop notes that he discovered that pianists and cellists tend to have to practice most.

Away from Argyll for almost 7 years now and having lived in several cities (and, he says, many different houses), Andrew Dunlop always thinks of ‘this most beautiful part of Scotland as my home and thanks to the Internet, I can still follow all that’s happening.

Thanks to the Internet, we hope to be able to follow his progress too, around the world and we are asking him to keep us posted on his achievements and developments in his career.