This January and February, Chamber Choir Ireland will host a series of free Tuesday lunchtime lectures at the National Concert Hall titled ‘Choral Music in Ireland: History and Evolution’.  

Curated by Stuart Kinsella, the series will explore the Chamber Choir’s history and origin by looking at the tradition of choral music in Ireland, amateur and professional, both in Ireland and within a wider European context. Some of the talks will include musical illustrations by members of Chamber Choir Ireland.

Featuring contributions from Dr Frank Lawrence, Professor Raymond Gillespie, Dr Tríona O’Hanlon, Professor Harry White, Leo Samama and Helen Gubbins, the series starts on Tuesday 17 January at 1.10pm in the National Concert Hall’s Kevin Barry room.

Tickets are free but must be booked in advance here.  The full line-up of speakers and topics is below.

For more, visit www.chamberchoirireland.com

Choral music in Ireland: History and Evolution

Tuesday 17 January 2017, 1.10–2pm
MEDIEVAL SACRED MUSIC (-1540)
Frank Lawrence (University College Dublin)
Dr Frank Lawrence, lecturer in early music studies at UCD will speak on the early church origins of choral music in Ireland and trace its development through innovations in sacred music.

Tuesday 24 January 2017, 1.10–2pm
GEORGIAN GLEES, CATCHES & CLUBS (1700-1850) 
Tríona O’Hanlon (Queen’s University Belfast)
Dr Triona O’Hanlon, Marie Curie Research Fellow in the School of Arts, English and Languages at QUB will examine the traditions of choral singing, private and public, in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Tuesday 31 January 2017, 1.10–2pm
SINGING AND SOCIETY (1540-1700)
Raymond Gillespie (Maynooth University)
Professor Raymond Gillespie of the Department of History in Maynooth will deliver a wide-ranging lecture on the role of choral music and singing in society in Ireland within the early modern period.

Tuesday 7 February 2017, 1.10–2pm
IMPERIAL TO INDEPENDENT (1850-1930)
Harry White (University College Dublin)
Professor Harry White of the School of Music in UCD traces the cultural changes in Irish choral music from the imperial colony of the nineteenth century to the independent state of the twentieth.

Tuesday 14 February 2017, 1.10–2pm
CHAMBER CHOIRS: THE EUROPEAN TRADITION (1990-2016) 
Leo Samama (TENSO network)
Leo Samama, composer, musicologist and former managing director of the Nederlands Kammerchor, for his lecture will draw on his wide knowledge of Tenso: the European network for professional chamber choirs.

Tuesday 21 February 2017, 1.10–2pm
BROADCASTING (1930-1990)
Helen Gubbins (University of Sheffield)
Helen Gubbins, a doctoral candidate at Sheffield will bring her knowledge of the history of Radio Éireann and RTÉ to examine the history and evolution of the professional broadcasting choir in Ireland.

For tickets, visit https://goo.gl/xdgG9P