Resurgam Celebrate Giovani Gabrieli in Dublin

Resurgam Celebrate Giovani Gabrieli in Dublin

Stephen Graham rounds up classical news, including Resurgam celebrating Gabrieli, an exciting line-up for MaerzMusik 2012 in Berlin, Cara O'Sullivan in Sligo, the first EPTA Piano Festival and Concorde at the Contemporary Music Centre.

Resurgam Celebrate Giovani Gabrieli

Resurgam, one of Ireland’s leading choirs, are celebrating the four hundred year anniversary of the death of Venetian composer Giovani Gabrieli across three concert programmes on 4, 11 and 18 February.

The concerts will each take place at 6pm in City Hall in Dublin, and all will be led by Mark Duley and feature guest appearances by organist Malcolm Proud. The Irish Baroque Orchestra and period wind ensemble QuintEssential will participate in the latter two concerts. In accordance with Gabrieli’s famous ‘cori spezzati’ technique of spatial composition, the musicians and singers will be arranged in a ‘surround sound’ format around the circular space of the rotunda.

www.resurgam.ie

Concorde at the Contemporary Music Centre

Concorde contemporary music ensemble present the next edition of their free Up Close with Music series, which celebrates the ensemble’s thirty-fifth anniversary, at 2pm on 11 February at the Contemporary Music Centre in Dublin.

Madeleine Staunton, Paul Roe, Elaine Clark and David James will perform solos, duos and trios in three separate programmes at 2pm, 3pm and 4pm. Featured composers are the ensemble’s director, Jane O’Leary, alongside Irish composers Alyson Barber and Massimo Davi, both of whose pieces celebrate Concorde’s anniversary, Korean Si-Hyun Yi and Scottish composer Katrina Burton. All of the composers will be present at the concert.

Admission is free but advance booking is recommended. To book email:  concorde [at] eircom.net.

EPTA Ireland Piano Competition

EPTA Ireland, the Irish branch of the European Piano Teachers’ Association, is hosting its first Piano Festival, which will mark the organisation’s thirtieth anniversary. The festival will celebrate the work of piano teachers and student throughout Ireland, and focuses in its first year on second level piano students.

The festival will take place in the Kevin Barry Room of the National Concert Hall in Dublin from 22 to 24 February. Pádhraic Ó Cuinneagáin will adjudicate. Entry is free to all events.

www.nch.ie

John Cage and Wolfgang Rihm at MaerzMusik 2012

MaerzMusik, the Berlin international festival of contemporary music, will celebrate the work and influence of composers John Cage and Wolfgang Rihm this year over nine days and thirty-five events from 17 to 25 March. The Berliner Festspiele’s 11th MaerzMusik will include thirteen world premieres, including seven works commissioned by MaerzMusik, as well as one European and five German premieres. Key works by Cage and Rihm will be presented alongside work by composers and performers who they have influenced.

Performers include Joan le Barbara, the Arditti Quartet, SWR Sinfonieorchester and, in their first European performance, Marian Zazeela with the Just Alap Raga Ensemble. The Sonic Arts (Re)Union features music by composers Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Alvin Lucier and Gordon Mumma. Music by younger generations of composers, including Elliott Sharp, Annie Gosfield, Tomomi Adachi, Werner Dafeldecker and Valerio Tricoli, can be experienced during the late-night Sonic Arts Lounges. Other events include the premiere of a collaboration between choreographer Sasha Waltz and composer Mark Andre and a performance in Berlin’s Botanical Garden.

In addition to the music programme, exhibition and installations, the festival will also be accompanied by an international symposium entitled ‘Cage and Consequences’.

www.berlinerfestspiele.de

Cara O’Sullivan and the Degani Quartet in Sligo

Soprano Cara O’Sullivan will perform with the string trio and oboe group the Degani Quartet, which features current leader of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra Alan Smale on violin, in The Model in Sligo at 8pm on 4 February.

The programme features oboe quartets by Mozart, Haydn and classical period composer Luigi Gatti, the String Trio Movement D. 471 by Schubert, and mélodies and songs by Ravel, Bellini and Gounod. 

Tickets are priced at €18 and €20, and are available at www.hawkswell.com.

Published on 23 January 2012

Stephen Graham is a lecturer in music at Goldsmiths, University of London. He blogs at www.robotsdancingalone.wordpress.com.

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