Award winning Armagh pianist Cahal Masterson has developed an impressive performing profile in Ireland and internationally, with recent performances at the Centre Culture Irlandais Paris, the National Concert Hall Dublin, Belfast International Arts Festival, and Cork Orchestral Society. In addition to soloist, vocal repetiteur and chamber work that has taken him throughout Europe, North America, and Suzhou, China, Cahal is dedicated to championing exciting new works by Irish composers. He has collaborated on the premiere of solo piano & chamber works, song cycles, and a new ballet commission with composers including Anselm McDonnell, Stephen Gardner, and Amelia Clarkson. 

 

In 2021 Cahal recorded to great critical acclaim, the piano suite Ceaselessly Into The Past by current Séan Ó Rioda competition winner Anselm Mc Donnell. Also that year he designed and delivered a comprehensive programme geared towards the upper-primary level with Music for Galway. This culminated in a combined performance of iconic childhood themed music inter-twinned with kids’ responses to music via art and poetry. In April 2024 he gave the world premiere of The Brahmdel Variations for solo piano by CMC composer Stephen Gardner at Rosemary Street First Church, a work he gave repeat performances of for Music in Fermanagh last November. More recent album collaborations have included Kraina by McDonnell and debut album Traverser by Rebecca Murphy.

 

Cahal is co-founder of the brilliant chamber ensemble Trio Cantaré, whose debut recital in Drogheda Classical Music festival wowed audiences. Trio Cantaré have performed in festivals across the island of Ireland and will make their international debut in Monteverdi Tuscany this April. Other upcoming engagements include performances and workshops in Galway and Cork.

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In 2018 Cahal recorded his inaugural album Transition at Sono Luminus Studios in Boyce, Virginia, releasing this debut record with a series of performances in Washington D.C, and Toronto, Canada. Upon completion of four years postgraduate study in North America he returned to Europe to concertise again for home audiences giving recitals throughout Ireland and the UK. Autumn 2019 was Cahal's first opportunity to get involved in education outreach programmes and he gave piano workshops alongside performances for secondary school music students throughout Northern Ireland. Since this first outreach experience he has designed and delivered an extensive and comprehensive programme geared towards the upper-primary level with Music for Galway. This culminated in a combined performance this November of iconic childhood themed music inter-twinned with kids responses to the pieces via art and poetry . A 2021 performance in Belfast International Arts Festival and a home-coming concert tour in 2019 both received mention as feature articles in the Belfast Telegraph, and in 2020 Cahal was awarded an Emerging Artist Platform with Moving on Music.

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Cahal graduated with a Masters in Music Performance from Shenandoah University, USA in May 2019, and prior to this completed an Artist Diploma at The Glenn Gould School in Toronto, Canada. He sat his Bachelor degree in Music Performance at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin. His main teacher and mentor over the course of his study was Dr. John O’Conor. Throughout his studies he received numerous scholarships and awards. During his time at Shenandoah University USA he was awarded the E Evans Scholarship for exceptional artistic talent, at the Royal Irish Academy of Music he was a recipient of the prestigious Lucien and Maura Tessier Scholarship, and at the Glenn Gould School received The Harmony Arietta Chiu Scholarship, The Nicholas Weldon Kilburn Memorial Scholarship and The Adele Crone Memorial Scholarship. He is a previous multiple prize-winner in Dublin’s Feis Ceoil and a former recipient of the Morris Grant Bursary. Cahal has worked with many of the world’s leading pianists including Pascal Rogé, Jaques Rouvier, Arnulf von Arnim, Pavel Nersessian, John Perry, Ronan O’Hora, Anton Nell, Jonathan Biss, Joanna MacGregor,  Leon McCawley, and Christopher Elton.

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Cahal is an international ambassador for the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans