Friday 30th April 2010, 7.30pm, St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork The Choral Festival is delighted to welcome back to Cork the country’s most distinguished choral ensemble together with conductor and Artistic Director Paul Hillier.   The National Chamber Choir of Ireland return to Cork as Choir in Residence, and present ‘To Music’ in a follow up to last year’s sold-out concert (the first in the festival’s Friday ‘Cathedrals Evening’).

This year also continues the partnership of the Festival and the NCC in co-presenting the Seminar on New Choral Music, to take place on Saturday May 1^st at the Cork School of Music.

This partnership encompasses not only the world premiere performance of these new works in this concert, but also an engaging and expert discussion and performance at the Seminar the following day, with the composers themselves in attendance. All concert attendees are very welcome to attend.

This year’s concert will feature a new work by renowned British composer Roxanna Panufnik, and also a new work by an Irish Composer. This composer will be the winner of the Seán O’Riada Composition Competition 2010, which has received a warm welcome  this year on its return to the Festival after several years absence. The O’Riada provides a platform for young and emerging composers to

This year of course also marks the Centenary of Prof Fleischmann - the Irish composer, conductor, scholar, campaigner, organiser, professor of music at University College and Freeman of the City of Cork who also founded the Seminar on [Contemporary] Choral Music in 1962. We are delighted that this concert includes a performance of his Poet in the Suburbs – itself a commissioned piece of the Seminar in 1974. 

For more information on the Seminar on New Choral Music and the composers and new commissions which will be performed at this concert, please see here and also www.roxannapanufnik.com.

Listen to: Stories Kneeplay 1 from Einstein on the Beach, Phillip Glass (Please turn up your volume for this track)

TO MUSIC

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

Winner of the Sean O Riada Composition Competition - (NEW WORK)

Gerald Finzi THREE SHORT ELEGIES

    1. Life a right shadow is

    2. This world a hunting is

    3. This life, which seems so fair

Roxanna Panufnik TWO POEMS BY WENDY *Premiere Performance

    1. The homeless hammer

    2. Some rules

Gabriel Jackson CECILIA VIRGO

NATIONAL CHAMBER CHOIR OF IRELAND

Artistic Director: Paul Hillier

The National Chamber Choir of Ireland is widely regarded as Ireland’s most distinguished choir. It is celebrated both in Ireland and internationally for its fresh and innovative sound. Founded in 1991 by composer and conductor, Colin Mawby and developed under the direction of Brazilian conductor Celso Antunes until early 2007, the National Chamber Choir of Ireland is the country’s only professional vocal ensemble. In 2008, the internationally celebrated and grammy-award winning conductor Paul Hillier joined the National Chamber Choir of Ireland as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor.

The National Chamber Choir is made up of extraordinary vocalists drawn from the ranks of Europe’s leading choral singers. Each vocalist has a different and wide-ranging background in solo, opera and choral performance, which enhances the choir’s ability to undertake some of the most diverse and challenging choral work and contributes to the warm and special sound that is unique to this Irish ensemble.

Through collaboration with some of the world’s leading choral conductors together with its dedication to performing the finest vocal music old and new, the National Chamber Choir of Ireland remains at the pinnacle of vocal performance in Ireland and beyond.

The National Chamber Choir of Ireland’s repertoire extends from early to contemporary music, regularly commissioning new pioneering vocal work from Irish and international composers. In recent years the National Chamber Choir of Ireland has worked with such distinguished guest conductors as Stephen Layton (Cambridge), Robert Hollingworth (London), Erwin Ortner (Vienna) and Catherine Simonpietri (Paris) as well as Irish conductors Brian MacKay, David Brophy and Orla Flanagan.

As well as its flagship work in Ireland, which includes a national tour the National Chamber Choir is dedicated to performing internationally. In 2008 it performed at the Midsummer Festival in Leipzig and the Festival Europaeische Kirchenmusik in Schwaebisch Gmuend, Germany together with the renowned instrumental group, the Rascher Saxophone Quartet, directed by James Wood.

PAUL HILLIER

Paul Hillier is from Dorset in England and studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. His career has embraced singing, conducting, and writing about music. Earlier in his career he was founding director of the Hilliard Ensemble, and subsequently founded Theatre of Voices. He has taught in the USA at the University of California campuses at Santa Cruz and Davis, and from 1996-2003 was Director of the Early Music Institute at Indiana University. He was Principal Conductor of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (2001-2007) and has been Chief Conductor of Ars Nova Copenhagen since 2003. His recordings, over a hundred CDs including seven solo recitals, have earned worldwide acclaim and won numerous prizes. His books about Arvo Pärt and Steve Reich, together with numerous anthologies of choral music, are published by Oxford University Press. In 2006 he was awarded an OBE for services to choral music. In 2007 he received the Order of the White Star of Estonia, and was awarded a Grammy for Best Choral Recording. In 2008 he took up the position of Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the National Chamber Choir of Ireland.

For further information, please contact: Eibhlin Gleeson - Chief Executive Officer Telephone: 00353 1 7008090 Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it The National Chamber Choir, DCU, Glasnevin, Dublin 9. Ireland.