– DSM Invites Public to Official Opening of School Premises —

Dundalk School of Music (DSM), the area’s first comprehensive music education and training centre, today announced an invitation to the public to attend an event to celebrate the official opening of the School premises on Saturday, February 20^th from 1.45pm to 4pm.  Well-known musical figures from the area, Jim Corr, Eilhlis Farrell, Head of Music DkIT and Sharon-Treacy-Dunne, Cross Border Orchestra, will perform the opening ceremony at the School in th Brewery Business Park, Ardee Road, at 1.45pm sharp, followed by a recital by current DSM students.

During this festive afternoon, adults and children will have an opportunity to ‘try out’ a range of instruments, tour the premises, and speak with DSM staff about the courses and programmes on offer.  Everyone who enrols on the day will be entered into a draw for a chance to win some free tuition.  There will be free face painting, and discounts offered at Tony’s Pizzeria in the building, where under 11’s can eat for free and everyone can enjoy live entertainment from guest artists and DSM teachers.

The new school offers 25 different courses such as musicianship classes for adults, teens and children; beginner to advanced theory; and Junior and Leaving Cert. exam preparation, as well as group and individual instrument tuition.  DSM also prepares students for the Royal Irish Academy of Music and Associated Board of the Royal School of Music practical and theory exams in piano, violin and cello.  Uniquely, the school provides advanced training for primary school teachers, a pre-instrumental preparatory course for young children, and various innovative programmes which make the DSM a truly comprehensive centre for music education.

For more information on Open Day, and directions to the school, please visit our website at www.musicdundalk.com, or contact:

Patricia Duffy

Tel:            085-7213077

E-mail:            patriciaduffy@musicdundalk.com

You can view the programme online here or download the flyer.

The D Hotel have agreed to offer an excellent accommodation rate for our visitors to the festival, perfect for those of you who fancy a treat! Also Bru restaurant are offering a two course meal prior tot the concerts for €15. You can’t beat that.

Droichead Arts Centre newly refurbish theatre and bar/cafe facility is also worth a visit. Word on the street is that you could sleep in seats they’re so comfortable.

So for great entertainment, craic agus ceol, good value food, accommodation, entertainment and a warm atmosphere during this cold, dark month come along to Drogheda Arts Festival this year. You won’t regret it!

To book tickets for the concerts or to find out further information about the events please contact Droichead Arts Centre Box Office on 041 9875140.
To book The D Hotel call 041 980 6431
To book a pre-show meal with Bru call 041 9872784

The Festival was kindly sponsored by Louth Arts Office, The Drogheda Mayors Office, The D Hotel and the Arts Council.

Imagine confining yourself to a single letter.

Carlingford Heritage Centre, Louth
Sun Nov 22nd @ 7pm

In conjunction with the event an exhibition of recent work by Thomas Ryan and Padraig Lynch will take place from Wednesday 18th November to Friday 20th November in The Malone Room, Ardee, Co.Louth.

All welcome.

Anaverna

Friday 20th November at 8 pm

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681 – 1767)

Sonata in f-minor for bassoon and piano

Alexandre Tansman (1897 – 1986)

Sonatina for bassoon and piano

Oleg Miroshnikov (*1925)

Scherzo in Bb-major for bassoon and piano

Roger Boutry (*1932)

Interférences I

Mieczys?aw Weinberg (1919 – 1996)

Pieces from “Children’s Notebook” for piano and Sonata for bassoon solo op.133

Mathias Baier is principal bassoonist with Staatskapelle Berlin whose leader is Daniel Barenboim. Mathias is also a principal bassoonist with the orchestra of the Bayreuth Festival and teaches at the Rostock University of Music and Theatre.

Dublin based Russian pianist Elisaveta Blumina made her solo debut at the age of sixteen accompanied by the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra. She has won the International Brahms Piano Competition and international piano competitions in Russia, Germany, Italy and Belgium. Elisaveta has performed in many of the world’s great concert halls such as the Berlin Philharmonic ,the Carnegie Hall in New York and the National Concert Hall.

The Telemann F minor sonata is one of the greatest pieces in the Baroque repertoire. The Tansman Sonatina will enable the audience to see and hear some of the technical abilities of the Bassoon. Elisaveta and Mathias are currently recording a CD with a music of M. Weinberg, an important friend of D.Schostakovitch.

For tickets (e18, students e5) email verelc@gmail.com or ring 042 9371490. Pay at the door but please reserve your tickets in advance.

Mathias and Elisaveta will be giving master classes earlier in the day. If any bassoonist or pianist would like to take part or watch, please get in touch with Vere.

• Ardee Baroque Poster
• Ardee Baroque Press Release
• Ardee Baroque Flyer

Media Release

Scotland and the Baroque Voice added to the Ardee Baroque mix

With falling leaves and the return of open fires, this is the time of the year when music lovers turn their attention to the small, market town of Ardee in rural Louth, home to Ardee Baroque, one of Ireland’s smaller musical gems.

The only orchestral baroque music festival on the island of Ireland, Ardee Baroque continues its unique partnership with the Irish Baroque Orchestra, under the direction of Monica Huggett.  Decamping from their Dublin base to Ardee for a week prior to their performances, the Irish Baroque Orchestra rehearse and workshop with children from all of the schools in the town.  They also visit the local Older People’s Home to give recitals.  And that’s before they perform in public at all!  For this one week, Ardee becomes the Baroque capital of Ireland.

This year, Irish Baroque Orchestra will present two full concert programmes.  On Friday 13^th of November, the programme includes the Overture from Saul by Handel, Suite from Les Paladins by Rameau, Organ Concerto No 4 by Stanley, as well as works by De Lalande and Muffat.  This concert will take place in the Church of St. Mary’s (C of I) in Ardee, and soloist will be organist Malcolm Proud.  This will be followed by a concert in the same venue on the following Sunday evening, the 15^th,  featuring Purcell’s Fairy Queen Suite, Handel’s Concerto Grosso Op 6, as well as a selection of arias.

Joining the IBO for this second concert will be soprano Sadhbh Dennedy.  Sadhbh is a native of Blackrock, County Louth, and holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from Dublin Institute of Technology, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Opera from the Royal College of Music in London.  She has sung with Scottish Opera, British Youth Opera, and in concerts in Ireland, the U.K., and France.  She is currently studying at the National Opera Studio in London.

As well as performing two concerts, members of the IBO will be in the Library in Ardee at 11am on Saturday morning for “Meet the Instruments”. Aimed at children of all ages, “Meet the Instruments” allows young people to listen to, and interact with the IBO players in a relaxed and informal setting.  Lasting around an hour, the players talk, explain and perform, with plenty of questions and suggestions from the children present.

Later that afternoon, at 2.30, the focus then moves to Smarmore Castle for a recital by baroque guitarist, Redmond O’Toole.  Through his unorthodox playing style and committed musicianship, Redmond O’Toole has emerged as one of the most innovative and exciting young guitarists in Europe.  He plays an 8-string “Brahms Guitar” in the cello position, connected to a special resonating box.  He has performed a number of important Concerti with Orchestra, and played first guitar in the critically acclaimed Dublin Guitar Quartet from its foundation until 2005.  Collaborations with the Chieftains, the Callino Quartet, and Cora Venus Lunny, to name just a few, has resulted in numerous television and radio appearances in the UK and Ireland.  Redmond O’Toole will be performing in the Blue Room of Smarmore Castle, a new and intimate venue for Ardee Baroque.  Smarmore Castle has the distinction of being one of the longest continuously-inhabited castles in Ireland, with part of the keep dating back to 1320.  The Blue Room, the venue for Redmond O’Toole’s recital is part of an eighteenth century addition, and will provide a stunning and unusual backdrop for the music of Bach and Scarlatti.

Collon Church provides the venue for Saturday evening’s concert where the Dunedin Consort make their Republic of Ireland debut.  Winners of the 2008 Midem Baroque Award and the 2007 Classic FM Gramophone Award for Best Baroque Vocal Album for their recording of Handel’s ‘Dublin’ Messiah (Linn CKD 285), the Dunedin Consort, under the combined Artistic Direction of John Butt, Susan Hamilton and Philip Hobbs, have performed throughout Scotland and Europe.

The Consort has appeared at festivals in Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, and the Channel Islands as well as at Edinburgh International Festival. It has worked in collaboration with ensembles including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia 21, Scottish Ensemble, Mr. McFall’s Chamber, Paragon Ensemble, Florilegium, La Serenissima and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, has appeared on the major BBC television channels, and been broadcast on Radio 3 and BBC Scotland.

For their inaugural concert in this part of the world, Dunedin Consort will perform a programme entitled “Bach’s Motets and his Forefathers”.  J.S. Bach’s motets were seen as the pinnacle of virtuosic and expressive choral writing even in the late eighteenth century – a time when most of the composer’s output was entirely forgotten. Mozart famously enthused about ‘Singet dem Herrn’ and avidly studied its vocal parts, on a visit to Leipzig in 1789. Bach himself seems to have taken particular pride in the genre, distinguished by its use of singers on every line of music, with texts exclusively from the Bible or the Lutheran chorale tradition. Motets seem to have been cherished by the Bach family, and Sebastian was largely responsible for preserving the works of his elder relatives (it is likely that he requested J.C. Bach’s ‘Lieber Herr Gott’ to be sung at his own funeral). By hearing three of his greatest motets side-by-side those of the previous generations we can hear how the family craft developed towards what later commentators saw as the type of art that somehow transcends its original context and use. All the works are superbly crafted, but we can also hear considerable expressive character in the music of the earlier Bachs, such as Bach’s cousin, Johann Michael (who was also his father-in-law) and particularly in the motets of Michael’s brother, Johann Christoph. He was the organist in Eisenach at the time Sebastian lived there, and his music sounds almost Romantic in its extraordinarily direct expression.

The high vaulted ceilings and collegiate style seating of Collon Church of Ireland will ensure that this most beautiful of choral music will be experienced in a suitable setting, making the night a memorable one.

Due to its inescapable history and evocative venues, Ardee Baroque is as much about the town as it is about the music.  And a very popular feature of each Ardee Baroque to date has been the lecture on some facet of the area’s heritage.  This year, the Ardee Baroque lecture will be given by Dr Dáithí O hÓgáin, Associate Professor, School of Irish, Celtic Studies, Irish Folklore and Linguistics, UCD.  The title of the lecture is “Fear Diadh – Who was he?”, and Dr O hÓgáin will explore the placenames and mythology of Ardee and mid Louth, with particular emphasis on the way mythology influences and shapes placenames.  He will present interesting ideas on the legend of Ferdia, and on the plausibility of whether the town’s name has, in fact, anything at all to do with Cúchulainn’s erstwhile best friend.  The iconoclastic lecture will take place at 2.30pm on Sunday 15^th at the Courtroom of Ardee Castle, and admission is free.

The Bohemian Centre in Ardee will be the venue for the launch of a very special book, simply entitled “Concert Band”.  This book of photography by acclaimed visual artist Jackie Nickerson focuses on Ardee Concert Band, one of the most vibrant and well-established arts organisations in Louth.  Commissioned by Louth County Council under the Per Cent for Art Scheme, “Concert Band” captures the people, activities and places of this Ardee institution.  It will be launched by Ceann Comhairle, Séamus Kirk, TD, and copies of the book will be on sale at the launch, which will take place at 5pm on Sunday afternoon.

Ardee Baroque 2009 finishes up in style at 7.00pm at St. Mary’s, Ardee, with the second concert of the Irish Baroque Orchestra.  And while the audience will turn out into an undoubtedly cold night after the performance, they will have been warmed by a weekend of exhilarating music, stimulating ideas, and new experiences.  Ardee Baroque will have weaved its magic once again.

Ardee Baroque is an initiative of Louth County Council, and is supported by Fáilte Ireland, the Arts Council, Ardee Town Council, and local traders.  Ardee Baroque is managed by a Festival Board, chaired by Mary Capplis.

For Box Office, contact Nicola on 087 6115679, or call into Ardee Town Council Offices on the Fair Green, Ardee.

Brian Harten,

County Arts Officer,

Louth County Council – 041 – 6853234 – brian.harten@louthcoco.ie

3pm Saturday 14 November 2009
Blue Room Smarmore Castle Ardee.

Redmond O’Toole, 8-string guitar

Programme
Bach: Sonata No1 in G minor for unaccompanied violin BWV1001
Bach: Prelude Fugue and Allegro BWV 998
Scarlatti: Sonata in E major K380
Scarlatti:Sonata in D minor K213
Scarlatti:Sonata in A major K322

Redmond O’Toole will give a recital at 3pm on Saturday 14. November 2009 in Smarmore Castle . Through his unorthodox playing style and committed musicianship, Redmond O’Toole has emerged as one of the most innovative and exciting young guitarists in Europe.  He plays an 8-string “Brahms Guitar” in the cello position, connected to a special resonating box.  He has performed a number of important Concerti with Orchestra, and played first guitar in the critically acclaimed Dublin Guitar Quartet from its foundation until 2005.  Collaborations with the Chieftains, the Callino Quartet, and Cora Venus Lunny, to name just a few, has resulted in numerous television and radio appearances in the UK and Ireland.  Redmond O’Toole will be performing in the Blue Room of Smarmore Castle, a new and intimate venue for Ardee Baroque.  Smarmore Castle has the distinction of being one of the longest continuously-inhabited castles in Ireland, with part of the keep dating back to 1320.  The Blue Room, the venue for Redmond O’Toole’s recital is part of an eighteenth century addition, and will provide a stunning and unusual backdrop for the music of Bach and Scarlatti.

Redmond O’Toole
Redmond O’Toole is the 2009 National Concert Hall’s “Rising Star” and has been described as on of the most innovative and exciting young guitarists in Europe. His programmes range from renaissance to contemporary works. He was the first to adapt to Paul Galbraith’s newly invented Brahms guitar, an 8-stringed guitar played in the position of a cello. Recent engagements have seen Redmond tour Spain as a special guest with the Chieftains, a BBC recording as soloist with the BBC Ulster Orchestra conducted by Kenneth Montgomery and a performance with the acclaimed Dutch soprano Charlotte Riedjik at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival in Bantry. He performs regularly with the Chieftains and in duo with violinist Elizabeth Cooney.

Redmond has released two CDs with German Company Bornheim Klassik and will release a new CD with the Californian label VGO Recordings next year. He is the only Irish guitarist to have gained access to the famed Segovia class at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy where he studied with Oscar Ghiglia (former Assistant to Andres Segovia) over four years under scholarship. In 2003 he was the winner of the inaugural RDS music bursary, Ireland’s largest music prize. His main teachers were John Feeley, Paul Galbraith, Nigel North, and Oscar Ghiglia.

Please note that Smarmore Castle is not suitable for those with impaired mobility.

Tickets €10
For Box Office, contact Nicola on 087 6115679, or call into Ardee Town Council Offices on the Fair Green, Ardee.

As well as performing two concerts, members of the IBO will be in the Library in Ardee at 11am on Saturday morning for “Meet the Instruments”. Aimed at children of all ages, “Meet the Instruments” allows young people to listen to, and interact with the IBO players in a relaxed and informal setting.  Lasting around an hour, the players talk, explain and perform, with plenty of questions and suggestions from the children present.

All welcome but especially suitable for children aged 5 to 12.

Church of St. Mary’s (C of I) in Ardee

Irish Baroque Orchestra

Purcell:Fairy Queen Suite ( italics are vocal numbers)
Prelude
Hornpipe
If Love’s a sweet passion
Symphony while the swans come forward
Ye gentle spirits of the air
Dance for the Fairies
Dance for the Green Men
Fairies Dance
See, see, even Night herself is here
A dance of the Followers of NIght
Thrice Happy
Hark! Hark! The Echoing air a Triumph sings
Chaconne for a Chinese man and woman
Aria

Handel:Concerto Grosso Op 6 no 5 in D Major
Aria
Aria

The concert on Sunday evening, the 15 November,  featuring Purcell’s Fairy Queen Suite, Handel’s Concerto Grosso Op 6, as well as a selection of arias.
Joining the IBO for this second concert will be soprano Sadhbh Dennedy.  Sadhbh is a native of Blackrock, County Louth, and holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from Dublin Institute of Technology, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Opera from the Royal College of Music in London.  She has sung with Scottish Opera, British Youth Opera, and in concerts in Ireland, the U.K., and France.  She is currently studying at the National Opera Studio in London.