Peter Barley is pleased to be returning to play the fine Hill organ in St John’s Cathedral for a special Limerick Pipe Organ Festival Culture Night concert on Friday 20th September from 7:00pm to 7:30pm. Peter is Organist and Choir Master in neighbouring St Mary’s Cathedral. Admission Free.

The concert programme, which is designed to suit the strengths of both the mighty organ and this beautiful cathedral with its splendidly reverberant acoustic, will feature music by J.S. Bach, Guilmant and Mozart. The Bach is a delightfully youthful Prelude and Fugue, whilst the music by Mozart ranges from a majestic Adagio and Fugue to a sprightly pair of Epistle Sonatas. The half-hour recital will conclude with Guilmant’s stirring and skilful March on a theme of Handel, which listeners will recognize as being the opening of the chorus ‘Lift up your heads’ from Handel’s Messiah. The concert will be preceded by a guided tour of the cathedral from 6:30pm to 7:00pm.

Image result for Culture night 2019

There will be two beautiful organ recitals taking place in Limerick this week. The first will be held in St Mary’s Cathedral tomorrow, Sunday 9th September, at 5PM, as part of a weekend of celebrations to mark the 850th anniversary of the Cathedral’s foundation. The title of the recital is “Those you have loved”. Music by Mendelssohn, J.S. Bach, Vivaldi, Elgar, and Widor will be performed by Peter Barley, LPOF committee member and St Mary’s resident organistAdmission FREE. 

 

The second recital will also be held in St Mary’s Cathedral on Wednesday, 12th September, at 1:15PM. Andrew Tessman will perform:

Andrew Tessman (born 1988)
Fugue in A minor – “Яблочко”
Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901)
(from 10 Trios, op. 49) Nr 2 – C Major, Nr 9 – G Major
Louis Vierne (1870-1937)
(from Pièces de Fantasie, op. 55) Cathédrales
Ralf Grössler (born 1958)
(from Organ Meditations on the Creation Story)
Nr 2 – Das Licht macht lebendig:
Genesis 1:3 “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light”
Ch. Hubert H. Parry (1848-1918)
Fantasie and Fugue in G Major

 

 

Andrew is American, and is currently studying the organ in Bavaria, Germany. Admission FREE.

Limerick Pipe Organ Festival was delighted to welcome Pádraig Wallace for a workshop at St. John’s Girls’ National School in May. Pádraig is an alumnus of the Schola Cantorum at St. Finian’s College Mullingar, and holds a BMus (UCC), MA (Performance; CSM), MA (Community Music; University of York) and PGDE (Mary Immaculate College Limerick). He is a seasoned choral singer and a highly accomplished organist and accompanist. He is currently Organist and Director of Music at St. Francis’ Church, Cork, as well as teaching in Bunscoil na Toirbhirte, Mitchelstown, Co. Cork. Pádraig’s account of the workshop is posted below. Many thanks to him for his wonderful workshop! Thanks also to Miriam O’Regan and the school principal, Aoibheann Ruane, for facilitating the event.

On Thursday May 24th I had the pleasure of facilitating a music workshop with the 5th Class girls of St. John’s GNS on behalf of the Limerick Pipe Organ Festival.

The workshop was very topical and current in nature as the music that we tackled on the day was based upon music for the Royals, coming only days after the Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. It was important that each of the strands of the Music Curriculum were referenced and by the end of the day, we had listened and responded to music, performed, and composed.

Our first exercise was a simple call and response body percussion piece of music, which elicited the fantastic amount of prior knowledge the girls had about music. Within minutes, the board was full of words such as tempo, dynamics, pitch, beat, pulse, volume, rhythm etc. Read More →

St Mary’s Cathedral is hosting some beautiful concerts as part of its 850th anniversary celebrations.

This evening at 7PM, the University of Tennessee Chamber Singers present a concert of American and Irish music, including some well-known favourites. It promises to be a wonderful and fun evening of music!

On Monday night, 16th July, the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, directed by Stephen Cleobury, will perform great choral music from the choir’s extensive repertoire. The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge is especially known to millions worldwide through its annual broadcast of a Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. The Choir’s international fame and reputation, enhanced by an extensive recording catalogue, has led to invitations to perform around the world.

The choir’s visit to Limerick is a wonderful occasion, and the highlight of the musical programme in this special anniversary year. The choir will perform music by Orlando Gibbons, Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Judith Weir. The event is now sold out.

 

 

 

Many thanks to Sebastian Heindl for his marvellous performance at Friday evening’s recital! It was a wonderful evening of beautiful music. Thanks also to everyone else who helped to make the recital a success, in particular, to our sponsors and supporters, to St John’s Cathedral for hosting the event, and to our audience members. Photos of the event will soon be posted in our gallery.