Venue & Date: Myross Church, Union Hall, P81 T384, Saturday 6 June 2026, 8pm

Tickets €20
Online (booking fee), at the door, at Thornhill Electrical Skibbereen or text/call 086 226 4797

At the door only: children under 13 free, students under 19 half price

BOOK ONLINE

The Irish Guitar Quartet is comprised of Ireland’s most talented and versatile classical guitarists and is one of Ireland’s premier instrumental ensembles.

Hear Jerry Creedon, David Keating , Colin McLean, and Redmond O’Toole (on the 8 string Brahms guitar) in a great programme of music for 4 guitars. They have garnered international acclaim as soloists. Each member contributes towards the creation of exciting, dynamic and engaging musical performances.

Their programme of Latin, Far East, Folk and American Classics transports listeners around the world in a single concert experience.

 

PROGRAMME suggestions

1. Carmen Suite arr. William Kanengiser  Georges Bizet (1838 - 1875)
   Aragonaise -  Habanera -  Seguidilla – Toreadors - Entr’acte – Gypsy Dance
   
   2. Stairs (1998)    David Pritchard (b. 1949)3.. Asturias arr. Gabriel Bianco    Isaac Albeniz (1864 – 1909)
   from Suite Espagnole for piano, op. 47

   4. Well, You Needn’t. arr. Bryan Johanson    Theolonius Monk (1917 - 1982)
   
   INTERVAL

   1. Cuban Landscape with Rumba    Leo Brouwer (b. 1939)

   2. Opals (1993)    Phillip Houghton (1954-2017)
   Black Opal -  Water Opal – White Opal
   
   3. Comme un Tango (1993)    Patrick Roux (b. 1962)

   PROGRAMME NOTES
   Carmen SuiteWilliam Kanengiser's arrangement of a suite from Parisian George Bizet's opera Carmen, proves yet again that no one can capture the essence of Spanish culture quite like a complete foreigner. The six-movement suite from Bizet's score is a perennial audience favourite.

   Stairs
   Stairs by L.A.-based musician David Pritchard, is a deceptive piece in that it bears a minimal, new-age sensibility on its surface, yet is underscored by a subtle yet unmistakable rhythmic complexity. David Pritchard (b. 1949) started his career as a member of Gary Burton’s quartet during its European tour in 1969. Following his return, he formed his own jazz rock group, Contraband, and went on to record numerous albums. Stairs was composed much later, when he was drawn more to classically structured styles; however, the jazz influence is still obvious. Sometimes deliberately ambiguous in its rhythms, Stairs is meant to take the listener on an emotional musical journey, one step at a time.
   
   Asturias (Leyenda).
   Isaac Albeniz (1860- 1909) was born in Catalonia and was famed as a virtuoso pianist and as an interpreter of his own compositions for piano which drew great inspiration from Andalusian folk music. Taking the guitar as his instrumental model, Albeniz achieved a stylization of the Spanish traditional idiom which gives the impression of spontaneous improvisation, the basic emotional ingredient of Flamenco music. Asturias (Leyenda) is a part of a Suite Espagnole for piano.

   Well, You Needn’t
   Well You Needn’t” is a tune written by Thelonius Monk in 1944. It was written for one of Monk’s students, a singer named Charlie Beamon. Monk wrote the tune and told Beamon he was going to name it after him, to which he replied “Well You Needn’t.”his transcription of Monk’s Well, You Needn’t by Bryan Johanson is a major addition to the guitar repertoire The piece sounds made for plucked strings!

   Cuban Landscape with Rumba
   Leo Brouwer has written a series of Cuban Landscape works, all of which make use of minimalist techniques to help tell the stories of Cuba, his native homeland. Cuban Landscape with Rumba"(1985) uses Steve Reich’s popular technique of block additive process.

   Opals
   In Opals, written in 1993 and revised in 2014, the Australian composer Phillip Houghton aims to depict the kaleidoscope of colours found in the different types of opal stone. In the first movement, ‘Black Opal’, Houghton states, the group should sound like a ‘big Kalimba’ (thumb piano). The second movement, ‘Water Opal’, establishes a transparent, water-like texture, slow rolled chords offset by rhythmic interjections. Finally, ‘White Opal’ uses    cross-rhythms and sudden modulations to create an aural translation of the flashes and splinters found in this stone.  His music brilliantly suggests the beauty and harshness of the Australian landscape

   Comme un Tango
   Patrick Roux was born in France and moved to Canada in 1967. Today, he is a professor of guitar at the Conservatoire de Québec. He co-founded the Canadian Guitar Quartet. Published by Les Productions d’Oz, his works include a series dedicated to tango. Comme un Tango has some beautiful melodies as well as energetic romps into tango and flamenco.

   Notes by Jerry Creedon
   www.irishguitarquartet.com

BIOGRAPHIES

JERRY CREEDON
The lrish guitarist JERRY CREEDON was born in Cork and has studied guitar from a young age. After graduating from University College, Cork, he studied with the famed German guitarist Siegfried Behrend in Germany; a Spanish Government Scholarship enabled him to study at the Andres Segovia Summer School in Santiago de Compostela; the Irish Arts Council grant-aided him to attend master classes given by world-famous virtuoso John Williams in Cordoba. Jerry Creedon is a Lecturer of Classical Guitar and founder of the Classical Guitar Studies Programme (since 1998) at the state-of-the-art CIT Cork School of Music. He has attracted some of the World’s most famous guitarists to perform and teach at the CIT Cork School of Music including John Williams, The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Xue Fei Yang, Roland Dyens, Fabio Zanon, Craig Ogden, David Leisner, Christoph Jaggin, Jacob Lindberg and William Carter. Jerry is an experienced musician and has performed in Ireland, Germany and Spain, both as a soloist and a chamber musician. He has appeared with numerous orchestras and chamber ensembles and has his own Jazz Ensemble with which he performs at the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival. He has performed at the National Concert Hall, Universities, and numerous Festivals. Jerry has recorded CDs of music by Sanz, Pujol and Villa-Lobos and has recently formed the highly acclaimed Irish Guitar Quartet. He recently performed on the film score to Paul Mercier’s “Pursuit”.

DAVID KEATING
David Keating is a classical guitarist who’s eclectic and generous performances have captivated audiences across Tasmania, Ireland and the UK. David first started playing guitar aged five and hasn’t stopped since. David’s repertoire comes from a love of music itself. His work is a unique and intimate mix of traditional classical guitar music juxtaposed equally with contemporary music genres such as folk, jazz and blues. He possesses a deep love for improvisation and electric guitar techniques, and this passion informs his flexible and conversational performance style.
David is a graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, where he studied with the acclaimed Australian guitarist Craig Ogden, and was awarded a First Class Honours MMus Degree in classical guitar performance. He also has a First Class Honours Bmus Degree from the Cork School of Music where he studied with Jerry Creedon. Since 2012, he has been a classical guitar lecturer as the Munster Technology University in Cork, Ireland.
David is a founding member of the Tasmanian based Celtic Muse folk music ensemble with Australian based fiddle player Charlie McCarthy, and also plays regularly in Ireland with Finbar Wright, Fandango Duo, and the Irish Guitar Quartet.
David plays a 2018 Greg Smallman guitar, and gratefully acknowledges support from Music Network Ireland.

COLIN MCLEAN
Colin McLean has been performing throughout Ireland for the past 20 years, playing in many different  venues, including the National Concert Hall, Dublin, Cork Opera House and the Concert Hall Limerick. He has toured with many different groups encompassing various genres and has played concertos with orchestras and given solo, duo, trio and quartet recitals both at home and abroad.  He regularly tours with Fandango Duo and the Colin McLean Latin Trio and was one of the founding members of the Irish Guitar Quartet.

REDMOND O'TOOLE
Redmond O’Toole has been described by the Irish Times as ‘Ireland’s most distinctive guitarist’, he has toured the world as a soloist, as guitarist for ‘The Chieftains and as a former member of Dublin Guitar Quartet. He has per- formed as orchestral soloist with RTE Concert Orchestra, Irish Baroque Orchestra and BBC Ulster. He was a teacher at the Royal Irish Academy for a decade and is now a lecturer at MTU (Cork School of Music). He has been an artist in residence in the National Concert Hall and the National Opera House and has collaborated with countless artists including Raphael Wallfisch and the Esposito Quartet. Redmond performs exclusively on the Brahms guitar, a special 8 string guitar played in the cello position. He was a student of the late Oscar Ghiglia and holds a doctorate in music performance from RIAM/Trinity College.