Classical Music at Kilkenny Arts Festival

About the Curator

Susan studied viola with Herbert Pöche at the College of Music and chamber music with John Beckett at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Further studies on viola da gamba were undertaken with Christian Noorde in Amsterdam. In the 1970s, Susan served on the board of the Dublin Arts Festival and, since moving to Kilkenny in the early 1980s, she has been a Board Member of Kilkenny Arts Festival and the Butler Gallery. As administrator of Music in Kilkenny, Susan organises concerts throughout the year in Kilkenny City and County. She has played baroque viola with the Irish Baroque Orchestra, the Chandos Baroque Players and Camerata Kilkenny.

Classical Music Programme

The opening weekend of the Kilkenny Arts Festival is a feast of Baroque music, with two appearances from the great French harpsichordist and conductor Christophe Rousset, who directs Resurgam and the Irish Baroque Orchestra in works by Mondonville and Handel on Saturday night, and performs a harpsichord solo on Sunday. Later that day the European Union Baroque Orchestra explores the Bach family tree with music by JS Bach and three of his sons.

Kodály (if memory serves) has never been heard before at the festival, but this year his work is performed by William Butt and young Irish musicians Heloise Geoghegan and Brian O’Kane. Another festival first is a screening of the silent classic The Cabinet of Dr Caligari in St Canice’s, with a live score from Eric Sweeney and 3epkano. Kaleidoscope, the salon evening which is such a huge success in Dublin, transfers to Kilkenny for two nights, while German soprano Anja Lipfert (of the Calmus Ensemble) joins Camerata Kilkenny for Bach’s amusing ‘Coffee Cantata’. Don’t miss the outstanding young Italian pianist Alessandro Taverna, who performs Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata’ alongside works by Chopin, Debussy, Stravinsky and Ligeti.

Last year’s inaugural Festival Choir and Orchestra was a tremendous success, and this year it’s even bigger and better. Fergus Sheil conducts Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez and Mozart’s Requiem with leading international soloists.

View the 2011 Classical Music Programme