One of the greatest operatic composers of all time turned his attention to the mass text in his early 20s which resulted in his Messa di Gloria. First performed in 1880, it portrays Puccini’s flair for drama, sublime orchestrations and overwhelmingly beautiful melodic lines. St. Michael’s Church is the perfect setting for this sacred masterpiece.

Click for details.

Ficino Ensemble was formed by Artistic Director Nathan Sherman in 2012 as a flexible group aiming to perform popular chamber music alongside lesser known works that deserve to be appreciated. Their programme features one of Haydn’s finest string quartets; Donnacha Dennehy’s rhythmically entertaining Stamp; and William Walton’s second string quartet, written just two years after his celebrated score for Laurence Olivier’s film of Shakespeare’s Henry V.

Click for details.

Cork’s own Mairéad Hickey, one of Ireland’s most accomplished and well-loved violinists, joins Belfast-born Michael McHale, one of its leading pianists, for a programme of sublime works for piano and violin by Bach, Mozart, Schubert and Debussy.

Click for details.

Join the CSM Symphony Orchestra for their first concert of the season in this delightful lunchtime programme featuring the fireworks of Malcolm Arnold and the pastoral fumes of Gustav Holst. At the heart of the programme lies Edward Elgar’s beloved Cello Concerto featuring one of the leading young cellists to emerge from Ireland in recent years. 

Click for details.

Since its formation in 2002, the Navarra Quartet has built an international reputation as one of the most dynamic and poetic string quartets of today. For this concert, titled “Love and Death”, the programme features contrastive masterpieces by Schubert, Janáček, Turina and Puccini, plus two sublime works from the acclaimed contemporary Hungarian composer György Kurtág.

Presented in association with the National String Quartet Foundation.

Click for details.

Cork Fleischmann Symphony Orchestra presents a “Save Our Seas” concert. Alongside famous works by Elgar and Debussy, the pelagic programme features a symphonic poem by Ina Boyle, the most prolific and significant female composer from Ireland before 1950, in which the surge of the ocean and the calls of the seabirds are evocatively caught.

Click for details.

To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of his win at the Clara Haskil Competition in Switzerland, pianist Finghin Collins is undertaking an extensive tour of Ireland this Autumn, performing at seventeen venues north and south. Between major works by Mozart and Schubert, the programme will feature selected extracts from the Ros Tapestry Suite, which was commissioned and premiered at the New Ross Piano Festival of which Finghin is a founding Artistic Director.

Click for details.

Formed in Bucharest in 1995, the multiple award-winning ConTempo Quartet is Ireland’s longest established string quartet. Turner was one of Debussy‘s favourite painters, and the sense of motion and activity in Turner’s skies and seas finds its way into this stunning, sensual quartet from 1893. Cork pianist Ellen Jansson joins the quartet for Brahms’ magnificent piano quintet, published in 1865.

Click for details.

A recital for clarinet and piano by Macdara Ó Seireadáin and Gintaras Januševičius. The celebrated duo first met in 2008 while studying in Germany, and began performing in together in 2010. Since then they have delighted audiences on tours through Germany, Lithuania, Ireland and Switzerland.

Click for details.

Founded for Barry Douglas’ 2017 Clandeboye Festival, the Lir Quartet is one of Ireland’s most exciting chamber groups. Schubert’s E flat quartet D.87 is a masterpiece of Viennese charm and elegance, written in 1813 when Schubert was just 17. Shostakovich’s third quartet, from 1946, is one of the finest, most evocative works in the repertoire, a heart-rending response to the horror of the second world war.

Click for details.

The Bangers and Crash Percussion Group is a collective of Irish percussionists who regularly collaborate for a wide range of projects. For this concert, three young and energetic virtuosos – Alex Petcu, Emma King and Brian Dungan – cook up a menu of new music which will tickle tastebuds and defy expectations.

Presented in association with Music Network.

Click for details.

Made up of four of our outstanding young artists, the Ophelia Quartet made their concert debut earlier this summer at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival. Mendelssohn wrote his Op.13 quartet as a teenager, just a few months after Beethoven’s death, and in deep fascination with the master’s late quartets. Ravel’s 1903 quartet exudes a heady blend of classicism and exoticism which has seen it become a firm favourite amongst both musicians and audiences.

Click for details.

Mozart’s brief, poignant and rarely programmed Masonic Funeral Music partners Hindemith’s achingly beautiful Trauermusik, commissioned on the death of George V. Mozart adds his own voice to Bach’s music, paying tribute to the master of fugue while Australian Brett Dean’s Short Stories, five evocative abstract miniatures, serve as interludes in between. Mahler’s great Tenth Symphony traverses an unremitting arc of emotion. Its atmospheric Adagio, an immensely spacious and gloriously scored cadence, closes an ethereal programme.

Click for details.

A fundraising concert for the National String Quartet Foundation
The Vanbrugh and special guests present a celebration of string playing in Cork, featuring two of the best loved chamber works ever written, together with four spectacular arrangements for eight cellos, presented by no less than nineteen of Cork’s finest string players. This concert marks sixty years since the first performance of the RTE String Quartet Residency in summer 1959.

The versatile Irish Guitar Quartet is one of Ireland’s premier instrumental ensembles. Jerry Creedon, David Keating, Fiona Falvey and Aengus Kirakowski have garnered international acclaim as soloists and each member contributes towards the creation of exciting, dynamic and engaging musical performances.

Click for details.