Karishmeh Felfeli

Karishmeh Felfeli is a radio broadcaster, pianist, vocalist and creator of Offbeat, a critically acclaimed classical music and arts radio program for Dublin City FM. As a radio presenter, Karishmeh Felfeli has also been heard on CBC Radio 2 and more recently, on BBC Radio 3.
She was born in Pune, Maharashtra, India to a Persian Zoroastrian family of non-musicians, is of Irani ethnicity and an Irish citizen.
Karishmeh has described Canadian pianist Glenn Gould as a personal musical icon, a creative thinker, an extraordinary musician, writer and someone who constantly challenged the evolving yet stagnant world of classical music in an interview with Doug Fisher in the Ottawa Citizen. Her musical development and journey was transformed when, aged twelve, she heard a Gould recording for the first time in India. Between 2007 and 2008, Felfeli has presented lectures and masterclasses (including two on Glenn Gould's own Steinway CD318 as well performed at the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, in an experimental performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's for piano and live electronics, along side other works from the classical and popular repertory.
Despite embarking on an extremely successful career as a performing artist at some of the world's most illustrious venues, where she presented repertoire ranging from Johann Sebastian Bach to Charles Ives, and giving her first concerto performance at the age of ten, Karishmeh left western classical piano performance at the age of nineteen to devote herself to music education (in particular with amateur and adult students), cross-genre music and radio broadcasting. As a pianist, vocalist and concert-presenter she has curated numerous sold-out concerts at Ireland's National Concert Hall, amongst them, the platform series "Musicians of the Future" as well as lecture-recitals featuring diverse programs, from early vocal music to contemporary repertoire under her "Sarabande - The Glenn Gould Project" outreach project. She has also written on the subject of music education, amateur pianists and alternate careers in music for Pianist Magazine.
Following her acclaimed radio interviews and features for RTÉ Radio 1 on Glenn Gould as well as her contributions to the station's flagship Arts programs, The Eleventh Hour and The Arts Show, Felfeli began presenting and producing her own independent classical music radio program for Dublin City FM (formerly Anna Livia FM) entitled Offbeat in 2008. Notable guests Felfeli has interviewed on the program include Kronos Quartet founder David Harrington, Canadian pianists Louis Lortie and Naida Cole, legendary American pianist Leon Fleisher, Percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, Hollywood Singer and American Soprano Marni Nixon as well as impressario Maxim Gershunoff, Guitarist Pierre Bensusan, tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain and many more acclaimed musicians. More recently, Karishmeh has been featured in two separate conversations with the British rock guitarist Dave Davies from the 60s band The Kinks as well as sufi rock musician Salman Ahmad of Junoon fame, Indian soprano Patricia Rozario, legendary pianist Byron Janis and the film and television composer David Carbonara. The program includes conversations, essays, prose and discussion about music, and has featured composers as diverse as Charles Ives and Eric Satie, as well as A. R. Rahman and Bollywood. An avid animal lover, Felfeli is passionate about animal rescue and has been involved with numerous animal charities in her native Pune, as well as in Ireland and England doing hands-on rescue work, as well as fundraising through her music concerts.

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