The Vanbrugh and special guests present the annual National String Quartet Foundation Scholarship Gala Fundraiser. The Foundation supports and creates projects which bring live chamber music to venues throughout Ireland and is committed to supporting Ireland’s next generations of musicians and particularly those emerging from Cork. This wonderful event is always a spectacular finish to our season and is not to be missed!

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A recital by this year’s COS Emerging Artist Award, pianist Ellen Jansson. Hailed as “a major talent” after her Carnegie Hall debut, the multiple award-winning Irish pianist is a graduate of CIT Cork School of Music. For this unmissable recital, Ellen will perform works by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Scriabin & Janáček.

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Pianist Xenia Pestova presents a radical new version of Bach’s ‘Goldberg Variations’ “re-imagined” by Austrian composer Karlheinz Essl. “Gold.Berg.Werk” (2013-16) was originally conceived for string trio but is featured here in an amazing version for piano and live electronics, never before performed outside of Austria, that brings together Baroque and contemporary sound worlds.

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The CSM SO presents a FREE lunchtime performance of Vaughan Williams‘ A London Symphony. Although not strictly programmatic (the composer suggested it would have been better titled “Symphony by a Londoner”), the work still depicts various London scenes, including the Westminster chimes, the street cries of flower sellers, and also some of the grimmer aspects of city life.

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Dietrich, Brahms & Schumann: F-A-E Sonata
Stravinsky: Duo Concertant (for violin & piano)
Finola Merivale: Music Network Commission
Beethoven: Violin Sonata No.9 in A major, Op.47 ‘Kreutzer’

Alena Baeva (violin)
Katia Skanavi (piano)

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The Fleischmann Choir joins the CSM Symphony Orchestra for a performance of Elgar’s “The Black Knight”, a piece described by the composer as “a symphony for chorus and orchestra”. The work will bring the listener on a journey to a mysterious medieval court filled with Knights and Kings and a mysterious guest whose arrival brings disastrous consequences. Vaughan Williams’ “A London Symphony” completes the unmissable programme.

POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE DUE TO CONCERNS OVER COVID-19

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Michael Daugherty: UFO – Concerto for Solo Percussion and Wind Ensemble
Fergal Carroll: Amphion
Gary Carpenter: Latchford Locks
Edward Gregson: The Sword and The Crown

POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE DUE TO CONCERNS OVER COVID-19

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Les Trois, a captivating new trio of exemplary Cork based talents – Maria Mulcahy (flute), Cian Ó Dúill (viola) and Anne-Marie Papin (harp) – presents an ethereal programme including works by Beethoven, Debussy, Bax and Kraus, plus 20th century French composers Bernard Andrès, Théodore Dubois and Marcel Tournier.

In the interest of public safety and in accordance with official advice, this event has been cancelled due to concerns over covid-19 virus

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The ascent of music’s Everest continues in Cork! The third of this ten-year, fifty-concert series provides you with the opportunity to hear Symphony No. 49 (“La Passione”) – a dark-hued, sombre work in the minor mode – and the second of three symphonies he wrote for London in 1782: No. 77 in B flat. The orchestra is led by Liz Charleson and conducted by Geoff Spratt.

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For the final concert of the series, Donnacha Dennehy presents a new companion piece for Beethoven’s last and most reflective quartet, his F major quartet Op.135. ‘The pieces in this concert reflect upon each other, their makers or the myths around the music. Janacek’s first string quartet, “Kreutzer Sonata”, not only relates to Beethoven’s sonata for violin and piano of the same name but also to Tolstoy’s novella in which the Beethoven piece features dramatically. 

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A lot can happen in a thousand years. Condensing it into just two hours might be a bit of a challenge, but Saltarello Trio step up to the plate, tracing a clear musical line from Hildegard Von Bingen to David Fennessy, taking in multiple stops along the way to admire the work of Dowland, Vivaldi and Purcell.

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The second concert in this series traces threads of connection from the work of Beethoven through to New York’s Julia Wolfe and Cork composer sisters Irene and Linda Buckley. There is a particular focus on his String Quartet No. 14 in C Sharp Minor, Op. 131, written in 1826, the year before Beethoven died. It is said that upon listening to a performance of this quartet, Schubert remarked, “After this, what is left for us to write?”

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The first concert in the Beethoven Reflected series is centred upon Ficino Ensemble’s thoughtful and impassioned performance of Beethoven’s fifteenth string quartet (1825) with its famous “Holy song of thanksgiving” that opens the third movement. The first four movements of this breath-taking masterwork are preceded by specially commissioned works by Amanda Feery, Garrett Sholdice, Cora Venus Lunny and Benedict Schlepper-Connolly.

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CHRISTMAS CONCERT No.1: WEDNESDAY 18 DECEMBER
CHRISTMAS CONCERT No.2: THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER

Madrigal ’75 presents their ever-popular Christmas Concerts featuring a stunning selection of seasonal choral music. Madrigal ’75’s repertoire will include both rarely performed works alongside Christmas classics, with music spanning the ages from early to contemporary.

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