NEW! Album Release: LISTEN HERE
Celtic music often brings to mind pipes and fiddles, but its cheery melodies and narrative qualities are equally suited for solo piano. On CELTIC LEGENDS: THE PIANO MUSIC OF HELEN HOPEKIRK, pianist Hannah Roberts explores the repertoire of the prolific Scottish composer. Classically trained in Vienna, Hopekirk combined a late-Romantic style with her Scottish roots, using the piano to tell the tales of her homeland and bring a slice of celtic style to classical music. Roberts performs the works with crisp clarity and buoyant energy, and champions another female voice in the keyboard repertoire.
The Helen Hopekirk Project
Library of Congress,
Washington D.C.
Helen Hopekirk (1856-1945) was a distinguished Scottish-American pianist, composer, and pedagogue in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Over the six decades of her professional career, Hopekirk concertized widely in Europe and the United States, performing in prestigious venues such as Steinway Hall in New York, the Crystal Palace in London, and Salle Pleyel in Paris. Also a dedicated teacher, Hopekirk joined the piano faculty at the New England Conservatory in Boston in 1897, where she taught for four years before transitioning to private teaching in Boston. In addition to her performing and teaching, Hopekirk devoted significant attention to composition and produced a substantial body of work in both large- and small-scale genres. Hopekirk is now counted among the first generation of professional American female composers.
Additional Resources:
Scores:
New publications of Hopekirk’s music to be announced soon! In the meantime, selected scores may be found on IMSLP.
Research:
A Stylistic and Performance Analysis of Selected Solo Piano Works by Helen Hopekirk
(DMA dissertation by Hannah Roberts)
Biographical Sketch of Helen Hopekirk (By Gary Steigerwalt and Dana Muller)
Questions?
Please reach out via the Contact page on this website. I’d love to answer your questions on Hopekirk or share more information!