Cork International Choral Festival 2024: Chamber Choir Ireland

Chamber Choir Ireland returns to Cork International Choral Festival  as Choir-In-Residence, with a brand new commission by Gabriel Jackson.

Jackson's The Dancers Inherit the Party is based on Ian Hamilton Finlay's poem: 

When I have talked for an hour I feel lousy – 
Not so when I have danced for an hour: 
The dancers inherit the party 
While the talkers wear themselves out and 
sit in corners alone, and glower. 

The programme also features I am, a new piece by CMC Composer Eoghan Desmond which holds a centuries-apart conversation with the medieval composer and saint, Hildegard of Bingen. CMC Composer David Fennessy's  eccentric  chOirland is made up of nonsense lyrics taken from the choruses of traditional Irish songs and ballads. In  Cassandra Miller’s  The City, Full of People, the audience eavesdrops on 'a cacophony of private secrets,' immersing them in the meditative echoes of Tallis' sixteenth-century lamentations.

Chamber Choir Ireland will also perform the world premiere of the winning work in this year's Seán Ó Riada Composition Competition - 'Gallagher' by CMC Composer Anselm McDonnell. Anselm collaborated with the author Tim MacGhabhann on the composition, after they bonded over a mutual love of Rory Gallagher, during their time on artist residencies at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris. Anselm's composition 'Gallagher', weaves several quotations from the musician’s work into a musical texture that plays off the rich imagery in Tim's poems.

The City, Full of People  was commissioned by Eamonn Quinn of Louth Contemporary Music Society with funding provided by the Arts Council / an Chomhairle Ealaíon and Robert D. Bielecki Foundation.  

The Dancers Inherit the Party  was commissioned by Chamber Choir Ireland and New Music Dublin with funding from the Arts Council/an Chomhairle Ealaíon. 

Anselm McDonnell's composer residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais took place from October - November 2023 and was co-funded by the Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland and the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris.

Programme 

David Fennessy —chOirland 

Thomas Tallis —Lamentations of Jeremiah I 

Eoghan Desmond —I am 

Cassandra Miller —The City, Full of People 

Gabriel Jackson —The Dancers Inherit the Party 

Anselm McDonnell - Gallagher [Winning entry of the Seán Ó Riada Composition Competition 2024]

Tickets

€27. Booking online here.