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Tomorrow, Monday, April 16 at 8pm, Santa Ignace will be playing the greatest classics of all time – Beethoven Moonlight Sonata, Liszt Mephisto Waltz, Rachmaninov Sonata No 2 and Chopin ballade No 4 – at the Brehon Hotel in Killarney.

Santa, who is currently a Piano Lecturer at the Cork School of Music, was nominated by her professor Jan Čap and honoured to start a 10-month Female Conducting Programme at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, which is specifically designed to promote female conductors in Ireland. The course is led by world-renowned conductors such as Alice Farnham (Welsh National Youth Opera), David Brophy (RTÉ Concert Orchestra) and Bobby Houlihan. The course will conclude with participants conducting Beethoven Symphony No 1 and Warlock Capriol Suite on June 27.

Santa recently also applied for an external Conducting Masterclass in St Petersburg, Russia with world renowned conductor Maestro Korchmar (conducting method of Ilya Musin). She was very pleased to be accepted as an active participant, which gave her an opportunity to conduct symphony orchestra at the concert for the first time. On April 1, she was conducting Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 2 and Mozart Symphony No 40 at the Assembly Hall in St Petersburg.

Another opportunity to conduct symphony orchestra for Santa will present itself to Santa at the International Berlin Masterclasses where she will be conducting selected pieces by Mendelsohn.

Santa is also excited to be involved in the forthcoming Edinburgh Fringe Festival as a solo recitalist performing pieces by Chopin, Beethoven, Godowsky, Listz and Rachmaninov. And this coming summer, she will be recording her first CD which will include Passacaglia by Godowsky, Sonata No 2 by Rachmaninov and Four Ballades by Chopin.

Tickets for her Brehon show are available at the door before the concert and funds raised will go towards the fees for the upcoming conducting masterclasses.