Kilkenny Arts Festival Programme 2024

Kilkenny Arts Festival announces its main summer programme today with a plethora of new projects & commissions, exquisite performances, new collaborations, intriguing installations and much, much more.

Speaking of the announcement today (19th June 2024), Festival Director, Olga Barry said: “We’re delighted to announce the 51st Edition of Kilkenny Arts Festival. ‘For over half a century, August in the Marble City has been synonymous with extraordinary artists and performers bringing their work to our beautiful city and fantastic audiences. New ideas in ancient spaces is the hallmark of Kilkenny in the late summer, and this year is packed with new work, intriguing collaborations, intimate experiences and epic spectacle - we invite everyone to come and join us to experience this special kinship between artists and audiences.’’

Just some highlights of this year's Programme include:

Irish National Opera with the European Premiere of two operas from composer Emma O’Halloran – Trade /Mary Motorhead with librettist Mark O’Halloran. The Irish Premiere performance of DRONE MASS by Jóhann Jóhannsson; presented with Chamber Choir Ireland and Crash Ensemble.

Light Up The Castle - a new commissioned spectacle for Kilkenny Castle by Fictions Picture Company, directed by Jack Phelan; presented in association with OPW.

A chamber and orchestral series that includes:

The Irish Premiere of Errollyn Wallen – Dances for Orchestra, commissioned by Orchestra in residence, Irish Chamber Orchestra in a programme that includes Mozart’s Symphony No 40, with Vaughan Williams’ hauntingly beautiful Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.

A programme of contemporary classical music in the hands of international superstar Mari Samuelsen in solo recital and in the company of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in programmes that range from Arvo Pärt’s heartbreaking Spiegel im Spiegel through Nils Frahm, Bryce Dessner, Philip Glass, to the closing of the festival with Max Richter’s utterly engrossing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Recomposed.

Philip Glass’ music appears throughout, featuring in programmes from Festival Favourites, the Carducci String Quartet, alongside popular quartets from Mozart, Shostakovich, Fanny Mendelssohn and Beethoven; and in a very special late night at the Set Theatre alongside Steve Reich’s groundbreaking work from 1988, Different Trains; Rising star Irish pianist Máire Carroll performs a performance of ten of Glass’ trance-like Études for solo piano; Dutch/Korean harpist Lavinia Meijer is also a Glass specialist and interprets a range of Glass works alongside some of her own compositions; while the mighty Crash Ensemble treat us to a stonking performance of Glassworks.

Piano recitals feature heavily also, in the stunning acoustic of St. John’s Priory – Finghin Collins in a popular Romantic programme of Chopin and Schumann; and he joins forces with Máire Carroll to perform for the first time together in its entirety, the New Ross Piano Festival’s commissions of 15 works from contemporary Irish composers in response to the Ros Tapestries, currently on display at Kilkenny Castle.

Pavel Kolesnikov & Samson Tsoy take over the Priory for three recitals, beginning with a morning performance (for Four Hands) of Stravinsky’s immense work, The Rite of Spring; Kolesnikov takes on Bach’s Golberg Variations and Tsoy finishes off the day with Beethoven’s seminal three last Sonatas.

The Marble City Sessions features Artist in Residence Martin Hayes with a thrilling line up including Cormac Begley, Kate Ellis, Cleek Schrey’s Appalachian Trio, Aoife Ní Bhriain, Liam Byrne, Liz Knowles, Niall Vallely, Niwel Tsumbu, Mick McAuley and John Doyle. As ever, audiences can expect some intriguing guest appearance and new collaborations within the series – kicking off with a concert featuring fiddlers and hardanger/viola d’amore players Aoife Ní Bhriain, Liz Knowles and Cleek Schrey with cellist Kate Ellis and viola da gamba player Liam Byrne in a special once-off gathering at St Canice’s Cathedral.

There are headline concerts with Lisa O’Neil, Mick Flannery, Kate Stable’s This is the Kit, Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba and Richard Dawson, and the premiere performance of a new work from Caimin Gilmore featuring himself with Kate Ellis and Lavinia Meijer. Our partnership with Rollercoaster Records features headline concerts from Rozi Plain, David Murphy’s extraordinary project of Irish music for steel guitar, folk/contemporary sensation Niamh Regan and Kilkenny singer/songwriter Gary O’Neill.

In a development year we welcome our theatre partners Rough Magic to showcase their work with Peter Hanly on his new project which takes a very personal look at the debilitating nature of stage fright in What are you Afraid Of? And Martin ‘Beanz’ Warde presents his darkly comic piece The Dead House - part storytelling, it’s a monologue piece where Patrick, a member of the Traveller community, returns home for his grandfather’s burial following his self-exile from his community.

Niall Vallely presents his unique project 78 Revolutions - a concept grown out of his fascination with some of the earliest recordings of Irish traditional music. Composer and performer Vallely has assembled a stellar cast of musicians, Liz Knowles, Ryan Molloy, Mick McAuley, Kate Ellis and Mick O’Brien along with dancer Sibéal Davitt in a multimedia event directed by Tom Creed.

Those that witnessed 2023’s Migration Sonata, which culminated in a dance work devised within a group of new residents to Ireland who had spent eight months in workshops building trust and a common story about migration, won’t want to miss the follow up project, Migration Sonatina. With John Scott and Irish Modern Dance Theatre returning for an intimate event which will be part conversation, part performance at the Parade Tower.

Installations feature heavily at Kilkenny this summer, with A Mother’s Voice in residence with music from Linda and Irene Buckley and performances from Musici Ireland. This project devised by Beth McNinch deploys the voices of women from the Mother and Baby Homes.

In Literature and discussions we present Martina Evans as poet in residence to discuss and read from her work, and Paul Muldoon returns to Kilkenny Arts Festival to launch his new libretto, for a work to be premiered at KAF 2025 Custom of the Coast as well as readings from his new collection Joy in Service on Rue Tagore. The Annual Hubert Butler Lecture is delivered this year by Fintan O’Toole - Culture Wars: Art and Politics in the Age of Trump; Olivia O’Leary will this year present the Hubert Butler Essay Prize to essayists responding to the question of misinformation and reconciliation and Catherine Marshall from Na Cailleacha gives a lecture on the School of Hibernia project – a re-enactment of Raphael’s famous School of Athens at Trinity College earlier this year.

Butler Gallery together with Kilkenny Arts Festival presents the German-born, London-based artist Liane Lang in an exhibition – Deep Time Dip - of mixed media that explores time and memory through monuments and historic landscape. Lang’s fragmented storytelling allows us to contemplate our actions in the landscape and how things are made and done as we prepare for cataclysmic changes globally.

Helen Comerford’s solo exhibition The Nineteen was a highlight of the festival in 2021, and following her unexpected death in Spring this year, A Legacy - an exhibition of some of her sketches, drawings and studio notes - offers a first glimpse of the intimate practice of this wonderful artist at work.

The Festival Gallery this year relocated to the Parade, with an exhibition of the photography of iconic Kilkenny photographer Ros Costigan; and we partner again with KCAT Studio in Callan where Re-Connection will feature artists from eight international peer organisations in a group show including KCAT itself.

Barnstorm Theatre together with the Festival presents a series of theatre and storytelling works for children including Branar’s You’ll See a hit production of Ulysses for children!


Booking open now online or by phone +353 56 775 2175

From 17th July book in person at the Festival Box Office 76 John Street, Kilkenny

Kilkenny Arts Festival is grateful for the continued support from funders, particularly its principal funder, the Arts Council; Kilkenny County Council and Fáilte Ireland.

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