Booking for the 30th West Cork Chamber Music Festival open

 

Booking for the 30th West Cork Chamber Music Festival opens Wednesday 12 March  Five international quartets are at the heart of this year's programme –Doric Quartet from UK; Ardeo Quartet with musicians from Japan, France and South Korea; Tchalik Quartet from Ukraine; Marmen Quartet consisting of Swedish, Swiss, Irish and New Zealand-born musicians; and Chiaroscuro Quartet which is made up of musicians from Russia, Spain and France.  Their collective repertoire will include much-loved works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Brahms as well as a wide selection of less familiar works.   The line-up of world-class soloists will be led by Irish pianist Barry Douglas, who also performed at the first Festival in 1996. He will be joined by Norwegian violinist Henning Kraggerud and his musical sons and daughter; Irish violinist Mairéad Hickey; Dutch cellist Ella van Poucke; French pianist Nathalia Milstein; Australian mezzo soprano Lotte Betts-Dean and her violist/composer father Brett Dean; French transverse flute player Anna Besson who will bring her a nocte temporis ensemble with the tenor Reinoud Van Mechelen; French harpist Agnès Clément; American soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon; American pianist Ryan MacEvoy McCullough; German – Irish cellist Nuala McKenna; British baroque violinist Rachel Podger and her ensemble Brecon Baroque; Austrian-German violist Emma Wernig and many more.   Ensembles include Pacific Quintet, five young wind players from Ukraine, Honduras, South Korea, Germany and Japan; and Woodpeckers Quartet, a Scandinavian ensemble of recorders led by Kate Hearne. Throughout the week, the Festival Fringe presents free, family-friendly concerts on Whiddy, Sherkin, Bere and Heir Islands as well Cork Airport, Levis Corner House in Ballydehob, Uillinn in Skibbereen, Amar's Cafe in Schull, Two Green Shoots in Glengarriff, Arundels by the Pier in Ahakista and other venues.   Former BBC Radio 3 presenter Sean Rafferty will be interviewing musicians in the Talking Music morning sessions in the Brick Oven restaurant while young musician masterclasses and Ireland’s only instrument exhibition run throughout the week.  Images, clockwise from top left: Marmen Quartet; Tchalik Quartet; Chiaroscuro Quartet; Doric Quartet; Henning Kraggerud; Lucy Fitz Gibbon; Brett Dean; Mairéad Hickey, Ella van Poucke and Nathalia Milstein; Ardeo Quartet. Book Now 2025 Festival Brochure 2025 Concert Series Yukine Kuroki – Winner of the Dublin Piano Competition Sunday 9 March 3pm St Brendan's Church, Bantry Programme:  Debussy - Suite bergamasque L.75 - III. Clair de lune Bach-Busoni - Chaconne from Partita No.2 in D minor BWV1004 Fergus Johnston - Music Network Commission Stravinsky - The Firebird Suite (arr. Guido Agosti) - Danse infernale du roi Kastcheï, Berceuse, Finale Minako Tokuyama - Musica Nara, Op. 25 Rachmaninoff - Sonata for Piano No. 2 in B -flat Minor, Op. 36 Kapustin - Variations, Op. 41 More Details The Kates Friday 28 March 8pm St Brendan's Church, Bantry "You don't hear harmonies like this often, their blend of harmonies is life affirming" Tom Dunne, Something Happens and Newstalk. "Without a doubt, one of the WOW moments of Night & Day festival " Gignoise. Join The Kates for an unmissable acoustic "in the round" session of their own songs, interspersed with their solo tracks. More Details Séamus and Caoimhe Uí Fhlatharta Friday 25 April 8pm St Brendan's Church, Bantry Following their performance at last summer's Masters of Tradition, Séamus & Caoimhe Uí Fhlatharta are returning to Bantry for a concert on 25th April. Born into a musical family in the Gaeltacht region of Connemara, siblings Séamus & Caoimhe are noted for their sean nós singing and their unique arrangements of both Irish and English language songs. Their Late Late Show performance in 2022 of the soulful lament Anach Cuain went viral around the world and in 2024 they won the RTÉ Folk Award for Best Emerging Artist. Séamus and Caoimhe are both accomplished multi-instrumentalists, Irish dancers and All-Ireland-winning performers who keep the Irish language and their heritage at the heart of all their musical endeavours. In 2023 they released their debut EP simply titled Séamus & Caoimhe. It is available to download on all digital platforms and was produced by Riverdance composer Bill Whelan. More Details RÓIS Friday 9 May 9.30pm St Brendan's Church, Bantry RÓIS is a composer, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and electronic artist from Fermanagh, whose songs breathe new life into a forgotten Ireland. Blending elements of folk, sean-nós, electronics, and jazz harmony, RÓIS’ genre-bending sound transports listeners to a different realm. With shapeshifting sets, no two performances are ever the same, as audiences accompany RÓIS into her sound world. Expect twists and turns of tempo and genre, and moments of sheer magic, as she conducts the energy of the room. This is a place where the ancient meets the new. RÓIS’ ethereal voice has been compared to the likes of Björk, Meredith Monk and Hatis Noit. It is a vocal style rooted in traditional sean-nós singing, as she summons the dead and forgotten, with ancient ‘keening' songs. With RÓIS’ performances the old and the new are enmeshed, alongside encapsulating visuals, in the hope of creating good art. Leading audiences into a realm of mysticism and creating a space for introspection, these live experiences are completely unique. More Details