Ring on my Finger

The story of love in song and music

Schumann’s iconic Frauenliebe und -leben, a song cycle charting the journey of life as defined by the experience of love, will be the centrepiece of the concert.

The concert, entitled Ring On My Finger, featuring Irish soprano Helen Hancock, cellist Eszter Cetinceviz (Hungary) and pianist Ramin Haghjoo (USA), takes place in St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church, Galway city, on Sunday 28th April at 3pm. It is kindly supported by Cobwebs, Galway

Themed around the experiences of love, marriage, life together, painful departures, and the depths of the human heart, the programme also includes works by Schubert, Strauss, Beach and Bruch.

Frauenliebe und -leben was composed by Schumann in 1840, the year he married his beloved Clara Wieck. The eight songs in the cycle explore one woman’s life from falling in love, to becoming engaged, married, and giving birth, to her grief and pain after her husband’s death, and how these experiences have moulded and shaped her.

Love and death reoccur in Schubert's ‘Auf Dem Strom’, written towards the end of the composer's life. It depicts a man setting out on the water, a metaphor for the journey towards death, gazing up at the stars and hoping he might encounter, in some way, someone only referred to as ‘Her’.

The joy of love will be given expression in Strauss's iconic lied ‘Morgen’ - written in 1894 and part of a set of songs as a wedding gift to his wife, Pauline Struss-De Ahna - and the ecstatic, charming ‘Chanson d'Amour’, by the pioneering American composer, Amy Beach.

The concert also features Max Bruch’s Kol Nidrei. Written for the cello and inspired by the Jewish liturgy, it is his most frequently performed piece after his famous Violin Concerto No.1.

Dublin born, Galway based soprano, Helen Hancock, is a busy recitalist, with a particular passion for the lieder and baroque repertoire. She has performed at the Ulysses Centenary for the Embassy of Ireland, Berlin, in 2022; Castleknock Music Festival 2023; and Galway Early Music Festival 2023. She returns to Germany this June to perform as part of the Zeitgeist Irland 24 programme, an initiative of Culture Ireland the Embassy of Ireland, Germany.

Eszter Cetinceviz, from Hungary, is a highly accomplished professional cellist. Formerly Principal Cellist in The Miskolc National Theater Orchestra and a member of The Hungarian Symphony Orchestra Miskolc, she is now based in Galway. She is a member of the Ivernia String Quartet and Trio and will play with The Luminosa Orchestra for the first time in April.

Pianist Ramin Haghjoo is a graduate of, and former teacher at, the University of California Music Department. He moved to Galway in 2012 and works as piano and theory/composition teacher for Maoin Cheoil na Gaillimhe, where he also conducts the youth orchestra. Since 2018, he has taught at the University of Galway Music Department.