Emerald Keys: Music at a Crossroads

An Afternoon of Chopin & Celtic Song
Archie Chen & Rhona Gouldson-Chen

Emerald Keys is an afternoon of music shaped by transition—by moments when familiar structures fall away and something truer begins to surface.

Drawing together traditional Irish and Scottish airs with the deeply personal music of Frédéric Chopin, this program explores what it means to carry one’s homeland within, even when standing between chapters. Irish folk music, born of migration and memory, speaks in the language of departure and return; Chopin’s works—written far from Poland—translate those same emotions into some of the most intimate and searching music ever composed for the piano.

At the heart of the program is Chopin’s Ballade No. 4, a work of extraordinary narrative depth—music that does not resolve quickly or easily, but unfolds like a life in motion. It is framed by beloved Celtic melodies such as The Rising of the Moon, ’Tis the Last Rose of Summer, and Garryowen, alongside reimaginings by Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, revealing how folk song and classical tradition continually speak to one another across time and distance.

Emerald Keys arrives at a moment of change for the artists on stage—a threshold between chapters. Much like the music itself, the concert honors what has been while opening space for what comes next. The piano remains a place of home, storytelling, and truth when the ground beneath shifts.

Dedication
This concert is dedicated to all who live in the in-between: those rebuilding after a sudden change, and those shaped by diaspora—families and individuals who have crossed borders by choice or necessity, carrying language, memory, and love for a homeland that may feel both near and impossibly far.

In a time when migration is often discussed in headlines, today’s concert offers something older and more human: the sound of longing, resilience, and belonging—made music.

Whether you come for the lyricism of Chopin, the soul of Celtic song, or the shared experience woven between them, Emerald Keys offers an afternoon of beauty, honesty, and quiet resolve.

Where green hills meet black-and-white keys—and music becomes a way forward.