Thank you to all of our wonderful audience who joined us for our uplifting evening of choral music from around the world and across the ages at 7:30pm on Saturday 14th of December in the beautiful acoustic of St Mary’s Church, Haddington Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.
A beautiful venue, stunning new music, and festive favourites performed by an award-winning choir. The perfect way to start your Christmas!
Our Christmas journey around the world and across the ages began in Renaissance Venice with Gabrieli’s exciting Hodie Christus natus est for double choir. We moved to Mexico for a playful Baroque surprise and then to Romantic Austria to celebrate Bruckner’s 200th birthday with his jubilant Virga Jesse Floruit.
Staying in Europe but moving to 21st century Germany, we were excited to present the Irish premiere of the first and second movements from Georg Grün’s Maranatha suite, setting seasonal plainchant melodies against multi-layered jazzy harmonies. We contrasted these with Good-will to men, and peace on Earth by Bulgarian-born composer Dobrinka Tabakova, and beloved carols in fresh arrangements by Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo.
Closer to home, we completed our programme with contemporary compositions from Irish composers Rhona Clarke (Make we merry) and Colm Ó Foghlú, and popular carols from Ireland and the UK.
Here’s a sample of what our guests experienced:
You can read our concert programme below: