George Ireland – piano

The Programme

‘Piano Month’ at St Bride’s

George Ireland – piano

French Suite in D Minor, BWV 812
1. Allemande
2. Courante
3. Sarabande
4. Menuet I
5. Menuet II
6. Gigue

French Suite in B Minor, BWV 814
1. Allemande
2. Courante
3. Sarabande
4. Anglaise
5. Menuet
6. Trio
7. Gigue

French Suite in E Major, BWV. 817
1. Allemande
2. Courante
3. Sarabande
4. Gavotte
5. Polonaise
6. Menuet
7. Bourrée

Welcome to ‘Piano Month’ at St Bride’s – celebrating the acquisition of our new Steinberg Grand Piano.

The Artist

Praised for a “superbly voiced instrumental partnership of his singer” and “spectacular, sensitive and vivid accompaniment”, 30-year-old British pianist George Ireland enjoys a thriving career, in demand both as a recital partner with some of the finest singers of his generation, and as a repetiteur in Opera and Choral music. From a working-class, non-musical home, he began to play the piano from scratch, self-taught at the age of 14, and at 25 graduated with distinction from the Royal College of Music where he studied under Simon Lepper and Roger Vignoles.

A Samling Artist, George is the winner of the 2024 New Voices Competition at the Northern Aldborough Festival with Judith Lebreuilly, adjudicated by Sir John Tomlinson, Edward Gardner and Sholto Kynoch. With Rebecca Leggett, he won the 2022 London Song Festival Masterclass and British Art Song Competition with Sir Thomas Allen. He also accompanied Oksana Lepska’s winning recitals at the 2022 National Mozart Competition in London and the Kathleen Ferrier Award-winning recitals of Hugh Cutting and Jessica Cale in 2021 and 2020.

2024 saw his Italian debut at the Tuscan Crete Senesi festival alongside Guy Cutting in collaboration with Collegium Vocale Gent, preceded by two recitals at New College, Oxford, and in London for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He also returned to the Brighton Festival with Hugh Cutting and Rebecca Leggett for their acclaimed ‘South Country’ Sussex-themed programme. For St Paul’s Opera he has appeared in a Gala Recital alongside tenor David Butt Philip, baritone David Stout and sopranos Alison Langer and Rainelle Krause.

Among the highlights of 2025 were performances at the Edinburgh International Festival, live broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and operatic engagements at Garsington, Grange Park and Glyndebourne. His debut disc of English Song with Guy Cutting is to be realised by Signum Records in January 2027.
https://www.georgeirelandpianist.com/