East Cork Early Music Festival: 16th – 19th Sept

Join us on a journey through the music of Saints, Singers, Sirens and Sinners, at Ireland’s prestigious East Cork Early Music Festival, running from September 16th-19th  next . Beautiful venues throughout Cork city and county will host nationally and internationally acclaimed musicians, writers, singers, and scholars.

The festival opens in the intimate setting of St. John’s Church in Midleton with the award-winning recorder quartet , The Flautadors, bringing audiences back to the life and times of Mary Queen of Scots, with dazzling sixteenth century music and poetry, designed to captivate  the senses and imagination.

This year the ECEM Festival is proud to present the Irish Premiere of Sacred Hearts, Secret Music- a fascinating and uplifting blend of theatre, music and word based on Sarah Dunant’s best- selling novel Sacred Hearts. This, our closing performance on Sunday at 4pm, is staged within the grandeur of St Colman’s Cathedral Cobh, and takes us into the hidden world and music of convent life in sixteenth century Italy. Directed by Deborah Roberts, narrated by the author herself and featuring the ethereal voices of Musica Secreta, the Celestial Sirens and the ECEM Festival Singers ,this is an event not to be missed.

Sarah Dunant will begin her visit to Cork with an open discussion at 1pm Friday 17th in the Glucksman Gallery, with Dr.  Laurie Stras of Musica Secreta, introduced by Professor James Knowles of UCC. Come and meet this brilliant author who makes history dance and sing within the pages of her prize winning novel. Friday evening finds us in the Curtis Auditorium at the CIT Cork School of Music, where the wonderful acoustics will resound with the critically acclaimed Irish Baroque Orchestra. Conducted by Christian Curnyn, performing Ireland 1750, the Orchestra will take us on a journey through 18th century life in Ireland with music by Boyce, Purcell, and Handel.
The elegance of Fota House and Gardens is the perfect setting for the subtle and breathtaking playing of Susanne Heinrich, who will perform a virtuoso programme of solo works for viola da gamba at 1pm on Saturday, 18th. Following this magnificent concert, the graceful surroundings of Fota House will be filled with music and mayhem in an afternoon of  fun for all the family- with a Farmer’s Market, jugglers, face painters, games and music. The perfect end to a fun-filled day at Fota House is to hear the exciting newly formed Stylus Phantasticus (Iwona Muszynska, violin, Susanne Heinrich, viol, William Carter, lute, and Andrzej Zawisza,harpsichord)  make the CIT Cork School of Music stage their own with a scintillating performance, aptly named Angels and Devils, which will feature the daring and dazzling music of Biber, Marin Marais, Corelli and the infamous Devil’s Trill by Tartini.

On Sunday 19th, the historical island and harbour of Cobh is the place to be, beginning again at 1pm in the beautiful Christ Church in Rushbrooke with a programme of Elegance and Endurance by the extremely talented, Cork-based group, Smaointe Taitneamhach which features Aoife O’Donovan on baroque flute. Between concerts why not discover the secret jewel of the Bible Gardens set within secluded walls at St. Benedict’s Priory (near St. Colman’s Cathedral). Enjoy the serene surroundings of  the Garden of the Song and the Pool of Solomon with their fragrant spices, brilliant flowers and exotic fruits to whet your appetite for the unique Sacred Hearts, Secret Music, at 4pm, which will close the Festival at the Cathedral, on a truly magnificent note.

In keeping with ECEM’s tradition of promoting music for young people there are also family concerts, educational events and master classes, which this year will feature Baroque guitar, Theorbo, Recorders and Harpsichord.

Please contact the Festival Office at 021 4823950,
info@eastcorkearlymusic.ie, for further information about programmes,
tickets, master classes.  Full details at <http://www.eastcorkearlymusic.ie/> www.eastcorkearlymusic.ie

Tickets on sale at;  Everyman Palace Theatre, MacCurtain
St, Cork. Tel +353 21 4501673. www.everymanpalace.com

” The East Cork Early Music Festival gratefully  acknowledges the financial support of the Arts Council and Failte Ireland, Cork County Council and SECAD in making this Festival possible”.

We would also like to acknowledge the Glucksman Gallery at U.C.C, Fota House, the CIT Cork School of Music and The Midleton Park Hotel