We are delighted to announce our 11th annual Chamber Music on Valentia Festival. With concerts, immersive based experiences, and music workshops, there is something for everyone and we look forward to welcoming you to the island.
Thursday, 15th August 2024
Sounds of Spain
7.30pm – 9.00pm | Church of St. John the Baptist, Knightstown
Our opening concert of the 2024 Festival presents the virtuosic Swiss Duo Singer & Fischer with their unique programme for cello and guitar programme whisking us from Bach to Debussy and finishing in the heat of Spain. The duo create an enthralling soundworld with their arrangements and compelling communication.
PROGRAMME
César Franck: Prélude, Fugue & Variation, Op. 18
Claude Debussy: Cello Sonata
Johann Sebastian Bach: Italian Concerto, BWV 971
Philippe Racine: SOIF (commissioned by the duo in 2020)
Marco De Biasi: E non chiedere nulla
Manuel de Falla: El Amor brujo
Featuring | André Fischer guitar Sébastien Singer cello
Friday, 16th August 2024
Majestic Quartets
7.30pm – 9.00pm | Church of the Immaculate Conception, Knightstown
This chamber music programme focuses on our string players with the nostalgic Second String Quartet by Russian composer Alexander Borodin and Ernest Moeran’s String Trio. Including music by this year’s featured composer, Gráinne Mulvey, the concert finishes with Brahms’ majestic Piano Quartet in G minor, with its frenzied finale ‘Rondo alla zingarese’.
PROGRAMME
Alexander Borodin: String Quartet No 2 in D major
Ernest J. Moeran: String Trio ‘Allegretto giovale’
Grainne Mulvey: Interference Patterns
Johannes Brahms: Piano Quartet No 1 in G minor, Op. 25
Featuring | Darragh Morgan violin Elisabeth Perry violin Carmen Flores viola Sébastien Singer cello Mary Dullea piano
The Satie Hour
9.30pm – 10.30pm | Church of the Immaculate Conception, Knightstown
Join us for our late-night concert featuring music by that most enigmatic and recognisable of composers, Erik Satie. You will hear music from his solo piano works ‘Gymnopédies’ and ‘Gnossienes’ to the characterful ‘Sports et divertissements’ narrated by actor Orla Charlton.
PROGRAMME to include:
Erik Satie: Gymnopédies (for solo piano), ‘Prière pour le salut de mon âme’ from Messe des Pauvres (for piano trio), Le Piège de Méduse (for piano trio), Sports et divertissements (for voice & piano)
Featuring | Orla Charlton voice Darragh Morgan violin Sébastien Singer cello Mary Dullea piano
Saturday, 17th August 2024
Family Concert at the Lighthouse
11.00am – 11.45am | The Lighthouse, Cromwell Point
A highlight every year in the stunning location of one of the Great Lighthouses of Ireland, this is a location unlike any other to experience an interactive morning of music and fun. Book early to join this popular event with a selection of our 2024 Festival Artists.
Musical Map
2.00pm – 5.00pm | Across the island
Musical Map
A cornerstone of our programme is an afternoon of short, pop-up, free entry events around the island. Full details will be revealed and will include a workshop with Tunde Jegede on the West African Kora, a specially commissioned installation by Kerry creators and music for violin and electronics by Irish composers including our 2024 Featured Composer, Gráinne Mulvey.
Celebration of Kerry
6.00pm – 7.00pm | Church of Immaculate Conception, Knightstown
Join us for this special FREE concert featuring performances from our workshops and calls for participation. This concert will feature Liam Smith (concertina), Emily and Colm Smith (mandolin and banjo), Nicolas Weismann (solo piano, peforrming music by Bach, Chopin and Schumann), and acclaimed players Michelle O’ Sullivan (concertina) and Conall Mac Thréinfhir (uilleann pipes).
HARPLAND
7.30pm – 9.00pm | Church of St. John the Baptist, Knightstown
Not to be missed, the internationally renowned harp and electronica duo FitkinWall follow threads of migration, loss and longing in their new show. Ruth Wall’s explorations into Gaelic song, fiddle and pipe tunes and the history of the Scottish Highlands where she grew up have a particular focus on migration and the Highland Clearances. Graham Fitkin has created enigmatic and mesmerising new versions of these tunes for Ruth’s three harps – the sitar-like Renaissance bray harp, the beautiful medieval Gaelic wire harp (clàrsach) and the Scottish lever harp.
Featuring | Ruth Wall harp Graham Fitkin keys, electronics
Late Night Solo: Testimony
9.30pm – 10.30pm | Church of Immaculate Conception, Knightstown
Testimony is a solo concert, by Tunde Jegede, of African Classical Music, on kora and cello, that traces a musical journey from Mali and Nigeria to its repercussions in the African Diaspora. It is an intimate and personal reflection on African and Western classical traditions drawing influences from two musical worlds. From the baroque to medieval Mali, Tunde Jegede is an artist invariably steeped in both these worlds
Sunday, 18th August 2024
Lunchtime with Harps and Strings
1.00pm – 2.00pm | Church of St Dorarca and St Teresa, Chapeltown
A culmination of our harps on Valentia, this programme features Beethoven’s ‘Harp’ String Quartet, music for Kora and String Quartet, violin and harp and solo harp. These hauntingly beautiful soundworlds will have you transported.
EVENT PROGRAMME
Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet Op 74 in E flat major ‘Harp’
Trad.: Pibroch Patterns (arr. Ruth Wall on wire strung harp)
Turlough Carolan: Carolan’s Dream, Bridget Cruise (arr. Ruth Wall & Darragh Morgan for violin and harp)
Graham Fitkin: Piano Piece 93 (arr. Ruth Wall for violin and harp)
Trad.: My Lagan Love (arr. Ruth Wall for violin and harp)
Tunde Jegede: Layline Ripples for Violin and Kora
Tunde Jegede: Exile and Return for Kora and String Quartet
Tunde Jegede: Dancing in the Spirit for String Quartet
Featuring | Tunde Jegede kora Ruth Wall harp Darragh Morgan violin Elisabeth Perry violin Carmen Flores viola Sébastien Singer cello
PRELUDE
6.45pm – 7.10pm | Church of the Immaculate Conception, Knightstown
Join the young woodwind players of Music Generation Kerry for this short, FREE showcase of their musical talent.
Four Seasons on Valentia
7.30pm – 8.45pm | Church of the Immaculate Conception, Knightstown
A thrilling finale and the perfect finish to our 11th Festival, we bring Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’ to Valentia with a host of our Festival artists.
EVENT PROGRAMME
Antonio Vivaldi: Santo Sepolcro
Maddalena Laura Lombardini Sirmen: Duet VI
Antonio Vivaldi: Le Quattro Stagioni (‘The Four Seasons’)
Featuring | Darragh Morgan violin Keith Pascoe violin Elisabeth Perry violin Carmen Flores viola Sébastien Singer cello Nathan Perry double bass Mary Dullea keyboard
