Artistic Director & Principal Conductor - Paul Hillier
Autumn Tour 2010
Conducted by David Brophy
Programme includes works by Aaron Copland, Ralph Vaughan Williams, David Fennessy and Samuel Barber.
Friday 24th Sept Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, Dublin
Saturday 25th Sept Church of Ireland, Clifden, Co. Galway
Tuesday 28th Sept Burren College of Art,Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare
Wednesday 29th Sept Borris House, Co. Carlow
Thursday 30th Sept Birr Theatre and Arts Centre, Co. Offaly
Saturday 2nd Oct Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal
Walking Home
Conducted by Paul Hillier
John Godfrey, Piano
Thurs July 22, 7.30pm, The Chapel Royal, Dublin Castle, Dublin
Friday July 23, 8pm,The Friary, Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo
The National Chamber Choir of Ireland will present the world première of a new work written for the NCC by the internationally renowned Irish based composer, Kevin Volans together with renaissance masterpieces from Spain, Portugal and Italy.
Programme:
Monteverdi: "The Faithful Shepherd"
Eight madrigals for Guarini's "Il Pastor Fido"
Kevin Volans: Canciones del Alma (world première)
Renaissance motets from Spain & Portugal
Hostias et preces - Fernao Correia
Inter vestibulum et altare - Pedro de Cristo
Pater peccavi - Duarte Lobo
Monteverdi: Magnificat à4,(1640)
Tickets
Dublin: €14.00 (12.00 conc). Available from 01 7005665
Please note: The Dublin Performance is now sold out
Mayo: Free but ticketed. Contact Mayo Co. Council Arts Office on +353 94 9024444 Ext 7558 or 7471
email: mayoarts@mayococo.ie
Feldman - IMMA
The National Chamber Choir and Crash Ensemble will be performing Morton feldman's seminal work, Rothko Chapel during the Feldman Festival at the Irish Museum of Modern Art,Dublin.
The concert will also feature renowned Beckett actors, Barry McGovern and Owen Roe, in the performance of Words and Music by Samuel Beckett.
Sunday 30th May, 2010, 8pm
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Kilmainham, Dublin
Programme
Morton Feldman,Rothko Chapel
Morton Feldman,Words and Music by Samuel Beckett
Tickets available at: www.ticket.ie
To Music
Conductor Fergal Caulfield
Friday 30th April, 7.30pm, St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral Cork
Wednesday 5th May, 8.00pm, St. Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick
Thursday 6th May, 6.30pm, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
Programme:
Gabriel Jackson TO MUSIC
Edmund Rubbra TENEBRAE (Third Nocturne)
1. Eram quasi agnus innocens
2. Una hora non potuistis
3. Seniores populi
Aloys Fleischmann POET IN THE SUBURBS
Simon MacHale WITH HEART AND SOUL AND VOICE, Winner of the Sean O Riada Composition Competition – NEW WORK
(World Premiere)
Benjamin Britten HYMN TO ST CECILIA
Roxanna Panufnik TWO POEMS BY WENDY COPE (World Premiere)
1. The homeless hammer
2. Some rules
Gabriel Jackson CECILIA VIRGO
*********************************
The National Chamber Choir of Ireland & Irish Baroque Orchestra, conducted by Paul Hillier.
Thursday 25th March, 8.00pm, Black Abbey, Kilkenny
Friday 26th March, 8.00pm, Christ Church Cathedral,Dublin
Saturday 27th March, 7.30pm, Parish Church of St George, High St, Belfast
Programme:
BWV 4: Christ lag in Todesbanden
BWV 6: Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden
BWV 131: Aus der Tiefe rufe ich, Herr, zu dir
Tickets Prices:
Kilkenny - €20/€16 (conc.)
Dublin - Priority area €25/€20 (conc.); Unreserved, €20/€16(conc.)
Belfast £18/£16 (conc.)
Booking: www.irishbaroqueorchestra.com
Or by Phone: 01 44 345 22 or +44 (0) 7974 341 123 (from Northern Ireland)
No Booking Fees
Christmas Tidings
Conductor David Brophy
This year the NCC will welcome back one of Ireland’s most celebrated conductors, David Brophy in a programme featuring Christmas settings by Gabrielli, Elgar and Tavener as well as some familiar favourites. The programme will also see the NCC première two new Irish Christmas Carols, written for and gifted to the National Chamber Choir, by the composer Shaun Davey.
Tuesday 22nd December 2009, 3.00pm
The Shaw Room, The National Gallery of Ireland
Tickets €14/€12 (concession)
Credit Card Booking 353 (0)1 7005665 (no booking fee)
Handel’s Messiah
Conductor Jonathan Cohen
The Irish Chamber Orchestra and the National Chamber Choir of Ireland
Together with a world-class line up of soloists.
Thursday 17th December: City Hall, Cork
Friday 18th December: University Concert Hall, Limerick
Saturday 19th December: RDS Concert Hall
For booking information, visit: www.irishchamberorchestra.info or phone +353 (0) 61 202 620
One Day Fine
Conductor: Paul Hillier, Artistic Director
A programme exploring Ireland’s influence in choral music, from the early anonymous collection of The Dublin Troper; through to the much-loved music of C.V. Stanford and Arnold Bax, together with work by some of Ireland’s leading contemporary composers.
Tuesday December 1st, 8pm
The Great Hall, Queens University Belfast
Thursday December 3rd, 6.30pm
National Gallery of Ireland, Merrion Square, Dublin 2
Programme
Laeta lux est hodierna (in honour of Saint Patrick)
from the Dublin Troper
The Beloved and her Lover
Ian Wilson
One Day Fine
Kevin Volans
Irish Tune from County Derry
arr.Percy Grainger
The Blue Bird
C.V. Stanford
Everything is Ridiculous
Andrew Hamilton
This Worldes Joie
Arnold Bax
Songs of Springtime
E.J. Moeran
Music for the Golden Vale
Conductor: James Wood
Friday 4 September 2009, 8pm
Cashel Cathedral, John St, Cashel
An evening of contemporary choral works performed by The National Chamber Choir conducted by James Wood, including The world premiere of The Beloved and Her Lover, a special commission
by Irish composer Ian Wilson featuring soloist Iarla Ó Lionáird.
The performance is presented by Music for Tipperary and is supported by The Arts Council
and media partners RTÉ Lyric fm.
Performance 8pm, doors open 7.30pm
This performance is promoted by Music for Tipperary with support from the Arts Council, RTÉ Lyric fm and South Tipperary County Council.
From The Sublime To The Ridiculous
Conductor: Paul Hillier, Artistic Director
Thursday 16th July 2009 ,6.30pm
National Gallery of Ireland, Merrion Square, Dublin 2
From The Sublime To The Ridiculous: Programme
Seven Shakespeare Songs George Macfarren (1813-1887)
i) Orpheus, with his lute (King Henry VIII)
ii) When icicles hang by the wall (Love’s Labour Lost)
iii)Come away, come away death (Twelfth Night)
iv) When daisies pied (Love’s Labour Lost)
v) Who is Sylvia (Two Gentlemen of Verona)
vi) Fear no more the heat o´th’ sun (Cymbeline)
vii)Blow blow thou winter wind (As you like it)
Glorious Hill Gavin Bryars (1943-)
Everything Is Ridiculous Andrew Hamilton (1977-)
Beowulf: Scyld’s Burial Ezequiel Vinao (1960-)
The Flight of Song Howard Skempton (1947-)
i) The arrow and the song
ii) Becalmed
iii)Chimes
iv) The tide rises, the tide falls
Download the flyer here
This program is conceived as a kind of sandwich, with romantics as the bread and moderns as the meat. The opening set of Shakespeare partsongs were written in the 1860s by George Macfarren, one of the leading composers of his day - now (unjustly!) forgotten. They are fine examples of choral writing and demonstrate the Victorian partsong at its very best.
Howard Skempton is a contemporary composer (b.1947), whose choice of texts frequently shows a predilection for the romantics, and in The Flight of Song we have a little cycle of poems (opening with a pictorial score) by the American romantic poet, Henry Longfellow. The music is quietly eloquent, tonal, but with a freshness of touch that always distinguishes Skempton’s music.
In between these two romantic collections are three works that provide a varied and very contrasted perspective on the world. First is a work presenting one of the iconic texts of Italian humanism, Pico della Mirandola’s ‘On the dignity of man’. The music was originally composed by Gavin Bryars in the 1980’s for my earlier group, the Hilliard Ensemble. Both Skempton and Bryars are part of what used to be known as the English Experimental Tradition - the ‘experiment’ being to write tonally when this was still completely against the establishment grain.
It is followed by two new works commissioned for the NCC and were given their world premieres at the Cork International Choral Festival this year. The two works are strikingly different, yet both show an influence of minimalism in their treatment of rhythm. The first is a short setting of a short text from the writings of the Austrian author, Thomas Bernhard, which states that everything is ridiculous when you think of death. The music is by the young Irish composer, Andrew Hamilton.
The other work is by Ezequiel Vinao, an Argentinian composer now resident in New York City. The music sets a substantial fragment from the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, describing the funeral of the warrior Scyld (Shield). This presents the heroic world of Bronze Age Ancient Britain - though the action of the poem is in fact set in Denmark. Beowulf should need no introduction to Irish audiences, who can read the entire epic in the splendid translation published just a few years ago by Seamus Heaney.
Paul Hillier
L'amour français
Conductor: Catherine Simonpietri
Thursday 25th June 2009 ,6.30pm
National Gallery of Ireland, Merrion Square, Dublin 2
French conductor Catherine Simonpietri returns to conduct the National Chamber Choir of Ireland in a programme of romantically inspired French music.
The programme includes the lush setting of Le Cantique des Cantiques (Song of Songs) by Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur, Romance du Soir by Saint-Saëns, as well as new works by Ohana, Kerhoas, Peigne and Hersant, based on melodies by Fauré, Ravel and Chausson.
L'amour français: Programme
Le Cantique des cantiques Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur
Le tombeau de Louise Labbé Maurice Ohana
Dyptique grec Maurice Ravel - Olivier Kaspar
Romance du soir Camille Saint-Saëns
Soir & Mélisande’s song Gabriel Fauré - Bruno Kerhoas
Hébé Ernest Chausson - Bertrand Peigne
Chanson des cueilleuses de lentisques Maurice Ravel - Philippe Hersant
Download the flyer here
'Conductor In Training' project with the Association of Irish Choirs and the National Chamber Choir
Cork International Choral Festival 2009
Friday 1st May @ 7.30pm
St. Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork
This concert will include two world premieres, one by Irish composer, Andrew Hamilton and the other by internationally lauded composer, Ezequiel Vinao.
FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE RIDICULOUS
Seven Shakespeare Songs George Macfarren (1813-1887)
i) Orpheus, with his lute (King Henry VIII)
ii) When icicles hang by the wall (Love’s Labour Lost)
iii)Come away, come away death (Twelfth Night)
iv) When daisies pied (Love’s Labour Lost)
v) Who is Sylvia (Two Gentlemen of Verona)
vi) Fear no more the heat o´th’ sun (Cymbeline)
vii)Blow blow thou winter wind (As you like it)
Glorious Hill Gavin Bryars (1943-)
Everything Is Ridiculous Andrew Hamilton (1977-)
Beowulf: Scyld’s Burial Ezequiel Vinao (1960-)
The Flight of Song Howard Skempton (1947-)
i) The arrow and the song
ii) Becalmed
iii)Chimes
iv) The tide rises, the tide falls
This concert will be followed up on Saturday 2nd May 2009 with workshops investigating the newly commissioned pieces.
Stay tuned for announcements about future performances by the National Chamber Choir
Conducted by David Brophy
Programme includes works by Aaron Copland, Ralph Vaughan Williams, David Fennessy and Samuel Barber.
Friday 24th Sept Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, Dublin
Saturday 25th Sept Church of Ireland, Clifden, Co. Galway
Tuesday 28th Sept Burren College of Art,Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare
Wednesday 29th Sept Borris House, Co. Carlow
Thursday 30th Sept Birr Theatre and Arts Centre, Co. Offaly
Saturday 2nd Oct Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal
Walking Home
Conducted by Paul Hillier
John Godfrey, Piano
Thurs July 22, 7.30pm, The Chapel Royal, Dublin Castle, Dublin
Friday July 23, 8pm,The Friary, Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo
The National Chamber Choir of Ireland will present the world première of a new work written for the NCC by the internationally renowned Irish based composer, Kevin Volans together with renaissance masterpieces from Spain, Portugal and Italy.
Programme:
Monteverdi: "The Faithful Shepherd"
Eight madrigals for Guarini's "Il Pastor Fido"
Kevin Volans: Canciones del Alma (world première)
Renaissance motets from Spain & Portugal
Hostias et preces - Fernao Correia
Inter vestibulum et altare - Pedro de Cristo
Pater peccavi - Duarte Lobo
Monteverdi: Magnificat à4,(1640)
Tickets
Dublin: €14.00 (12.00 conc). Available from 01 7005665
Please note: The Dublin Performance is now sold out
Mayo: Free but ticketed. Contact Mayo Co. Council Arts Office on +353 94 9024444 Ext 7558 or 7471
email: mayoarts@mayococo.ie
Feldman - IMMA
The National Chamber Choir and Crash Ensemble will be performing Morton feldman's seminal work, Rothko Chapel during the Feldman Festival at the Irish Museum of Modern Art,Dublin.
The concert will also feature renowned Beckett actors, Barry McGovern and Owen Roe, in the performance of Words and Music by Samuel Beckett.
Sunday 30th May, 2010, 8pm
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Kilmainham, Dublin
Programme
Morton Feldman,Rothko Chapel
Morton Feldman,Words and Music by Samuel Beckett
Tickets available at: www.ticket.ie
To Music
Conductor Fergal Caulfield
Friday 30th April, 7.30pm, St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral Cork
Wednesday 5th May, 8.00pm, St. Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick
Thursday 6th May, 6.30pm, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
Programme:
Gabriel Jackson TO MUSIC
Edmund Rubbra TENEBRAE (Third Nocturne)
1. Eram quasi agnus innocens
2. Una hora non potuistis
3. Seniores populi
Aloys Fleischmann POET IN THE SUBURBS
Simon MacHale WITH HEART AND SOUL AND VOICE, Winner of the Sean O Riada Composition Competition – NEW WORK
(World Premiere)
Benjamin Britten HYMN TO ST CECILIA
Roxanna Panufnik TWO POEMS BY WENDY COPE (World Premiere)
1. The homeless hammer
2. Some rules
Gabriel Jackson CECILIA VIRGO
*********************************
The National Chamber Choir of Ireland & Irish Baroque Orchestra, conducted by Paul Hillier.
Thursday 25th March, 8.00pm, Black Abbey, Kilkenny
Friday 26th March, 8.00pm, Christ Church Cathedral,Dublin
Saturday 27th March, 7.30pm, Parish Church of St George, High St, Belfast
Programme:
BWV 4: Christ lag in Todesbanden
BWV 6: Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden
BWV 131: Aus der Tiefe rufe ich, Herr, zu dir
Tickets Prices:
Kilkenny - €20/€16 (conc.)
Dublin - Priority area €25/€20 (conc.); Unreserved, €20/€16(conc.)
Belfast £18/£16 (conc.)
Booking: www.irishbaroqueorchestra.com
Or by Phone: 01 44 345 22 or +44 (0) 7974 341 123 (from Northern Ireland)
No Booking Fees
Christmas Tidings
Conductor David Brophy
This year the NCC will welcome back one of Ireland’s most celebrated conductors, David Brophy in a programme featuring Christmas settings by Gabrielli, Elgar and Tavener as well as some familiar favourites. The programme will also see the NCC première two new Irish Christmas Carols, written for and gifted to the National Chamber Choir, by the composer Shaun Davey.
Tuesday 22nd December 2009, 3.00pm
The Shaw Room, The National Gallery of Ireland
Tickets €14/€12 (concession)
Credit Card Booking 353 (0)1 7005665 (no booking fee)
Handel’s Messiah
Conductor Jonathan Cohen
The Irish Chamber Orchestra and the National Chamber Choir of Ireland
Together with a world-class line up of soloists.
Thursday 17th December: City Hall, Cork
Friday 18th December: University Concert Hall, Limerick
Saturday 19th December: RDS Concert Hall
For booking information, visit: www.irishchamberorchestra.info or phone +353 (0) 61 202 620
One Day Fine
Conductor: Paul Hillier, Artistic Director
A programme exploring Ireland’s influence in choral music, from the early anonymous collection of The Dublin Troper; through to the much-loved music of C.V. Stanford and Arnold Bax, together with work by some of Ireland’s leading contemporary composers.
Tuesday December 1st, 8pm
The Great Hall, Queens University Belfast
Thursday December 3rd, 6.30pm
National Gallery of Ireland, Merrion Square, Dublin 2
Programme
Laeta lux est hodierna (in honour of Saint Patrick)
from the Dublin Troper
The Beloved and her Lover
Ian Wilson
One Day Fine
Kevin Volans
Irish Tune from County Derry
arr.Percy Grainger
The Blue Bird
C.V. Stanford
Everything is Ridiculous
Andrew Hamilton
This Worldes Joie
Arnold Bax
Songs of Springtime
E.J. Moeran
Music for the Golden Vale
Conductor: James Wood
Friday 4 September 2009, 8pm
Cashel Cathedral, John St, Cashel
An evening of contemporary choral works performed by The National Chamber Choir conducted by James Wood, including The world premiere of The Beloved and Her Lover, a special commission
by Irish composer Ian Wilson featuring soloist Iarla Ó Lionáird.
The performance is presented by Music for Tipperary and is supported by The Arts Council
and media partners RTÉ Lyric fm.
Performance 8pm, doors open 7.30pm
This performance is promoted by Music for Tipperary with support from the Arts Council, RTÉ Lyric fm and South Tipperary County Council.
From The Sublime To The Ridiculous
Conductor: Paul Hillier, Artistic Director
Thursday 16th July 2009 ,6.30pm
National Gallery of Ireland, Merrion Square, Dublin 2
From The Sublime To The Ridiculous: Programme
Seven Shakespeare Songs George Macfarren (1813-1887)
i) Orpheus, with his lute (King Henry VIII)
ii) When icicles hang by the wall (Love’s Labour Lost)
iii)Come away, come away death (Twelfth Night)
iv) When daisies pied (Love’s Labour Lost)
v) Who is Sylvia (Two Gentlemen of Verona)
vi) Fear no more the heat o´th’ sun (Cymbeline)
vii)Blow blow thou winter wind (As you like it)
Glorious Hill Gavin Bryars (1943-)
Everything Is Ridiculous Andrew Hamilton (1977-)
Beowulf: Scyld’s Burial Ezequiel Vinao (1960-)
The Flight of Song Howard Skempton (1947-)
i) The arrow and the song
ii) Becalmed
iii)Chimes
iv) The tide rises, the tide falls
Download the flyer here
This program is conceived as a kind of sandwich, with romantics as the bread and moderns as the meat. The opening set of Shakespeare partsongs were written in the 1860s by George Macfarren, one of the leading composers of his day - now (unjustly!) forgotten. They are fine examples of choral writing and demonstrate the Victorian partsong at its very best.
Howard Skempton is a contemporary composer (b.1947), whose choice of texts frequently shows a predilection for the romantics, and in The Flight of Song we have a little cycle of poems (opening with a pictorial score) by the American romantic poet, Henry Longfellow. The music is quietly eloquent, tonal, but with a freshness of touch that always distinguishes Skempton’s music.
In between these two romantic collections are three works that provide a varied and very contrasted perspective on the world. First is a work presenting one of the iconic texts of Italian humanism, Pico della Mirandola’s ‘On the dignity of man’. The music was originally composed by Gavin Bryars in the 1980’s for my earlier group, the Hilliard Ensemble. Both Skempton and Bryars are part of what used to be known as the English Experimental Tradition - the ‘experiment’ being to write tonally when this was still completely against the establishment grain.
It is followed by two new works commissioned for the NCC and were given their world premieres at the Cork International Choral Festival this year. The two works are strikingly different, yet both show an influence of minimalism in their treatment of rhythm. The first is a short setting of a short text from the writings of the Austrian author, Thomas Bernhard, which states that everything is ridiculous when you think of death. The music is by the young Irish composer, Andrew Hamilton.
The other work is by Ezequiel Vinao, an Argentinian composer now resident in New York City. The music sets a substantial fragment from the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, describing the funeral of the warrior Scyld (Shield). This presents the heroic world of Bronze Age Ancient Britain - though the action of the poem is in fact set in Denmark. Beowulf should need no introduction to Irish audiences, who can read the entire epic in the splendid translation published just a few years ago by Seamus Heaney.
Paul Hillier
L'amour français
Conductor: Catherine Simonpietri
Thursday 25th June 2009 ,6.30pm
National Gallery of Ireland, Merrion Square, Dublin 2
French conductor Catherine Simonpietri returns to conduct the National Chamber Choir of Ireland in a programme of romantically inspired French music.
The programme includes the lush setting of Le Cantique des Cantiques (Song of Songs) by Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur, Romance du Soir by Saint-Saëns, as well as new works by Ohana, Kerhoas, Peigne and Hersant, based on melodies by Fauré, Ravel and Chausson.
L'amour français: Programme
Le Cantique des cantiques Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur
Le tombeau de Louise Labbé Maurice Ohana
Dyptique grec Maurice Ravel - Olivier Kaspar
Romance du soir Camille Saint-Saëns
Soir & Mélisande’s song Gabriel Fauré - Bruno Kerhoas
Hébé Ernest Chausson - Bertrand Peigne
Chanson des cueilleuses de lentisques Maurice Ravel - Philippe Hersant
Download the flyer here
'Conductor In Training' project with the Association of Irish Choirs and the National Chamber Choir
Cork International Choral Festival 2009
Friday 1st May @ 7.30pm
St. Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork
This concert will include two world premieres, one by Irish composer, Andrew Hamilton and the other by internationally lauded composer, Ezequiel Vinao.
FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE RIDICULOUS
Seven Shakespeare Songs George Macfarren (1813-1887)
i) Orpheus, with his lute (King Henry VIII)
ii) When icicles hang by the wall (Love’s Labour Lost)
iii)Come away, come away death (Twelfth Night)
iv) When daisies pied (Love’s Labour Lost)
v) Who is Sylvia (Two Gentlemen of Verona)
vi) Fear no more the heat o´th’ sun (Cymbeline)
vii)Blow blow thou winter wind (As you like it)
Glorious Hill Gavin Bryars (1943-)
Everything Is Ridiculous Andrew Hamilton (1977-)
Beowulf: Scyld’s Burial Ezequiel Vinao (1960-)
The Flight of Song Howard Skempton (1947-)
i) The arrow and the song
ii) Becalmed
iii)Chimes
iv) The tide rises, the tide falls
This concert will be followed up on Saturday 2nd May 2009 with workshops investigating the newly commissioned pieces.
Stay tuned for announcements about future performances by the National Chamber Choir