KBC Music in Great Irish Houses Festival Opens
12 June 2011
KBC Music in Great Irish Houses Festival Opens
The beautiful surroundings of the Baroque Chapel in the historic Royal Hospital Kilmainham was the setting for the opening concert in the 2011 KBC Music in Great Irish Houses festival this evening.
Now in its forty first year the festival is a highlight in Ireland’s cultural calendar and brings some of the finest chamber music in the world to a wide audience in some of the most beautiful settings in the country.
KBC has been a proud sponsor of KBC Music in Great Irish Houses for the past eight years and earlier this year announced its commitment to the festival for the coming two years.
John Reynolds, Chief Executive, KBC Bank Ireland said; “The KBC Music in Great Irish Houses festival continues to preserve and celebrate Ireland’s heritage in terms of both chamber music performance and fine architecture by bringing this great music to some of the most beautiful houses in the country. All of us at KBC Bank Ireland are very proud to play a role in the Festival”.
Artistic Director Ciara Higgins has put together a world class line up of artists both from Ireland and overseas who will perform in some of Ireland’s finest venues over the coming week. Highlights of the festival include:
June 13th: Leading Irish and international musicians - pianist Lance Coburn, violinist Michael d’Arcy and cellist Hannah Roberts - collaborate in piano trios by Schubert, Beethoven and Smetana, in the magnificent surroundings of Killruddery House.
June 14th: Hillsborough Castle, courtesy of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, is the venue for a programme of some of the ‘greats’ in chamber music repertoire by cellist Guy Johnston and pianist Kathryn Stott.
June 15th : the world renowned Pavel Haas Quartet perform works by Britten, Janácek and Schubert in the Orangery in Killruddery House.
June 16th: The Pavel Hass Quarter will collaborate with the brilliant young German-Japanese cellist Danjulo Ishizaka for Schubert’s sublime Cello Quintet at Dublin’s Freemasons’ Hall.
June 17th: La Serenissima, the award-winning period ensemble and champions of the music of Antonio Vivaldi, makes its Festival début in the magnificent setting of Christ Church Cathedral with Vivaldi’s much-loved Four Seasons masterpiece, and with the Irish première of the composer’s recently discovered Grand Mogul concerto with flautist Katy Bircher.
June 18th: Members of La Serenissima can be heard again in the Festival’s first morning concert in the serene setting of the Chapel of Trinity College Dublin.
Also on June 18th, the dazzling Quatuor Ebène return to perform a classical programme in the magnificent surroundings of Castletown House.
June 19th: Wearing an alternative hat, Quatuor Ebène line out as L’Autre Ebéne in a programme of popular/jazz repertoire at Dublin’s Sugar Club.
Ends.
