Fleischmann Choir

Sunday 2 April | 6.30pm
Curtis Auditorium, MTU Cork School of Music

Tom Doyle directs the large, mixed-voice Fleischmann Choir in a performance of John Stainer’s deeply affecting 1887 oratorio The Crucifixion: A Meditation on the Sacred Passion of the Holy Redeemer. Soloists are Eamonn Mulhall (tenor) and Brendan Collins (baritone), with accompaniment from James Taylor on organ.

Modelled on the great passion settings of J.S. Bach, Stainer’s Crucifixion is amongst the most popular of all English choral works and vividly portrays the events of the Passion of Christ. Scored for tenor and baritone soloists, organ and mixed choir, the piece combines recitatives, solos, and masterful choruses that range from the graphic mob shouts of Crucify Him to the ethereally beautiful meditation at the work’s centrepiece God so loved the world.


Tickets:

€20 (General Admission) | €15 (Concessions & COS standard members)
€10 (COS concessionary members) | €5 (Students)

Buy tickets for Cork Orchestral Society


Programme:

John Stainer: The Crucifixion

Fleischmann Choir
Eamonn Mulhall (tenor soloist)
Brendan Collins (baritone soloist)
James Taylor (organ)
Tom Doyle (conductor)


The Fleischmann Choir was founded in November 1992. Initially called the Cork School of Music Symphony Orchestra Chorus, it sang in public for the first time on 22 April 1993 when it gave a concert with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in Cork’s City Hall to mark the opening of the 40th Cork International Choral Festival. The programme was of music by Aloys Fleischmann – one of the founders of the Festival – who had died the previous year. Shortly after this concert, and with the permission of the family, the choir was renamed in memory of the man who did so much to further the cause of choral music and choral singing in Ireland. From 1992 to 2013, the choir was led by founder-conductor Dr Geoffrey Spratt (former Director of the Cork School of Music and founder-conductor of the Irish Youth Choir and Canticum Novum). In 2013, Conor Palliser was appointed conductor; and since September 2022, the choir has been under the direction of Tom Doyle.

The Fleischmann Choir has achieved an enviable reputation for fulfilling its mission to perform the large-scale repertory for choir and orchestra. Past concerts have included Puccini’s Messa di Gloria, Vaughan Williams’ Towards the Unknown Region, Poulenc’s Gloria, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Dvořák’s Te Deum, Stabat Mater and Mass in D, Finzi’s Intimations of Immortality, Tippett’s A Child of Our Time, Honegger’s Christmas Cantata, and Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace. In addition, the choir has accepted invitations as diverse as ‘Songs of Praise’ for the BBC, backing Johnny Logan during the Eurovision Song Contest broadcast by RTÉ from Millstreet, Co. Cork, and singing with Niamh Kavanagh for her RTÉ Christmas Show from Cork Opera House. The choir tours regularly with past performances in Como, Italy, and Cologne, Germany.

Wexford tenor Eamonn Mulhall trained at the Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio in London. He has performed with many theatre companies, opera houses and music festivals including productions of Peter Grimes at La Fenice in Venice, Amadeus at the National Theatre in London, Salomé and La cenerentola for Wexford Festival Opera, Dorian Gray at Slovak National Theatre, Il barbiere di Siviglia and a staged Messiah for English National Opera, the world première of James MacMillan’s Clemency at ROH2 Covent Garden and for Scottish Opera at the Edinburgh Festival, Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie for Capella Cracoviensis in Kraków, After Dido at The Young Vic in London, Tristan und Isolde; Der Kaiser von Atlantis; Acis & Galatea; Fidelio; Eithne; Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny; Madama Butterfly and Carmen for Irish National Opera.

His recordings include Victor Herbert’s Eileen, Jerome Kern’s Roberta and John Metcalf’s Under Milk Wood: An Opera. In concert performance he has appeared at the Prague International Spring Festival, Royal Albert Hall London, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Festivale Musica sull’Acqua at Lago di Como, Italy and with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra and Irish Baroque Orchestra.

Future engagements include Lizst’s Petrach Sonnets with pianist Sam Armstrong at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Werther on tour in Ireland with Irish National Opera and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in Barcelona.

Irish Baritone Brendan Collins began his training at the Cork School of Music under Robert Beare graduating with B. Mus. (Hons.) in Performance, then a P.G. Dip. (Hons.) in Performance from the D.I.T. Conservatory in Dublin and in 2007 he was granted a scholarship to study at the Opera Studio of Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels under renowned bass-baritone José van Dam. In 2005 he was one of only 12 Irish singers to take part in the 1st Wexford Festival Young Artists programme under tenor Dennis O’Neill. He has also studied privately or in masterclasses with Ildebrando d’Arcangelo, Sir Thomas Allen, Robert Dean, Susanna Eken, Veronica Dunne and John Elwes.

As a soloist he has performed across Ireland, the UK, Europe, the Middle East, China and America. Opera engagements include Irish National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Scottish Opera, English Touring Opera, Opera Theatre Company, NI Opera, Longborough Festival Opera, Anna Livia Festival, Opera Collective Ireland, Cork Operatic Society, Regents Opera and Iford Opera.

His repertoire of nearly 70 operatic roles include the title role in Gianni Schicchi, Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Marcello (La Boheme), Escamillo (Carmen), Germont (La Traviata), Tonio (Pagliacci), Alfio (Cavalleria Rusticana), Paolo Albiani (Simon Boccanegra), Masetto (Don Giovanni), Pietro de Wisants (L’Assedio di Calais), Jupiter (Orpheus in the Underworld), Marullo (Rigoletto), Elviro (Xerses), Aeneas (Dido & Aeneas), Fiorello (The Barber of Seville), Yamadori (Madama Butterfly) and Count Gil (Il segreto di Susanna) amongst others.

A regular performer on the concert platform his repertoire includes Handel Messiah (Pro Cathedral, Dublin), Handel Birthday Ode for Queen Anne (St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin), Mozart Requiem (National Concert Hall, Dublin), Mozart Vespers (Kajetanekirche, Salzburg), Mozart Coronation Mass (St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna), Mozart Mass in C Minor (Ulster Hall, Belfast), Mozart Spatzenmesse (Westminster Cathedral, London), Haydn Creation Mass (Clonard Monastery, Belfast), Haydn Nelson Mass (St Finbarr’s Cathedral, Cork), Fauré Requiem (St. Bavo’s Cathedral, Ghent) Schubert Mass in G (St Nicholas, Galway), Puccini Messa di Gloria (Cork City Hall), Orff Carmina Burana (National Concert Hall, Dublin), Mendelssohn Elijah (Wexford Opera House) and Beethoven 9th Symphony (Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels).

Highlights include his debuts at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and in the B.B.C. Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in Billy Budd under Sir Andrew Davis, his New York debut at the Brooklyn Academy of Music under Sir Mark Elder, his Swiss debut at Opéra de Lausanne under Monica Huggett, his debut at the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg in Donnacha Dennehy’s The Last Hotel and his Chinese debut in concert at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre under Maestro Henry Shek.

A graduate of both UCC and MTU Cork School of Music, Tom Doyle is highly sought after as a musical director and pianist in Cork City and its environs. With a keen interest in both musical theatre and opera, Tom’s credits as musical director have included The Stalls (Ulysses Theatre Company & Cork Midsummer Festival), Pubcrawl: the Musical (Chattyboo Productions), American Idiot (CIT Musical Society), Songs for a New World (Hibernian Ensemble), The Opera Director based on Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor, The Last Five Years (Scruffy Duck Productions), Ragtime (UCC Dramat) and [title of show] (UCC Dramat).

As a choral enthusiast, Tom has had the pleasure of working with the Blackpool Parish Choir, Mayfield Gospel Choir, Cork ETB Youth Choir, the workplace choirs at Musgraves and Cork County Council, Munster Rugby Supporters Club Choir, Cantate, the choir at Presentation Secondary School Ballyphehane, the Wilcollane Singers, and the Cork Garda Male Voice Choir. From 2008 – 2015, Tom conducted the UCC Choral Society, helping to produce the ever-popular ‘Carols by Candlelight’ in the Honan Chapel as well as winning several awards at international competitions in Ghent, Verona and Olomouc.

An accomplished pianist and répétiteur, Tom has worked with many singers including the late Cara O’Sullivan, Majella Cullagh, Mary Hegarty, Emma Nash, and Jean Wallace, as well as ensembles such as Irish Youth Opera and Cork Operatic Society. In 2015, Tom was invited as guest conductor for the Cork Concert Orchestra’s Mozart to Morricone concert series; and in early-2022, he was appointed conductor of the University of Limerick Orchestra.

Tom is the acting Conservatoire Coordinator at MTU Cork School of Music where he also lectures in conducting and directs the 100-strong Fleischmann Choir.

James Taylor began his musical education as a cathedral chorister at Southwell Minster, UK. He graduated with an honours BMus from Huddersfield University in 1998 and an MA in 1999, completing his postgraduate studies in 2006 at McGill University, Montreal, specialising in organ and harpsichord. He has held church music posts at Ripon Cathedral (UK), Wellington Cathedral of St Paul, New Zealand, and Christchurch Cathedral, Montreal. He has performed concerts across Canada, the United States, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and New Zealand, and has participated in numerous television and radio broadcasts as a soloist and accompanist.

James is a lecturer in music at MTU Cork School of Music, teaching organ and harpsichord, analysis, harmony, counterpoint and historical performance practice. He also conducts the award-winning vocal ensemble Madrigal ’75 with whom he has toured Italy, Scotland, Switzerland and Spain.