Venue: St. Barrahane's Church, Castletowshend, P81 AH51
Tickets €20
Online with Eventbrite (booking fee applies), at the door, at Thornhill Electrical Skibbereen
A programme of baroque and classical music with flute, string orchestra and continuo.
Four soloists (all rising stars from County Cork) and SATB choir from West Cork area representing the broad diaspora of West Cork.
Programme to include:
W.A. Mozart - Vesperae solennes de Confessore KV339
J.S. Bach - Cantata BWV 82, Ich habe genug
F. Handel – HWV 57, Let the bright Seraphim
J.S. Bach/Ch. Gounod – Ave Maria
Peteris Vasks – The Fruit of Silence
Alto and tenor arias tbc.
Conductor - Susan Nares
Soprano - Orlaith Horan
Alto - Siobhán Oliver-O’Callaghan
Tenor - Peter Thomas O’Reilly
Bass - Gheorghe Palcu
Organ/harpsichord - Colin Nicholls
Violin - Nora Killeen, Justin Grounds, Caitriona O'Mahony, Tadhg Walsh-Peelo
Viola - Ciara Fahy
Cello - Joan Scanell
Double Bass - Aisling Creedon
The West Cork Choral Singers, a mixed choir of between 35 and 40 members under the musical directorship of Susan Nares, is based in West Cork, Ireland.
The choir usually holds its weekly practice every Monday night in St Matthew’s Hall, Church Cross, near Skibbereen, P81 TH29. Choir members come from a radius of 40 kilometres and, at last count, comprised eight nationalities. Diversity is the raison d’être of the choir.
Our repertoire is a broad one, with a leaning towards classical rather than popular works. We aim to learn and perform at least one larger work from the classical or contemporary classical repertoire each year. We also take part in collaborations both at home and abroad when the opportunity arises. More about the choir on https://www.westcorkchoral.ie/
Susan Nares is a graduate of Trinity College of Music, London. Her career moved from performance and teaching to music therapy in 2005 when she graduated as a music therapist from Bristol University. This achievement followed a long held conviction about the healing properties of music making and listening.
Her choral experience is broad ranging and her musical interests eclectic. Growing up she gained musical training, in part, through singing with church choirs. As a student she sang with the London Choral Society and the BBC choral society. Susan also regularly performed professionally with smaller chamber ensembles. Her vocal journey led her into singing with an overtone choir, performing music for film and leading the chamber choir, Careless Vespers.
Susan has worked with choirs in school and community settings and was actively involved in the ‘singing for the brain’ movement in collaboration with the Dorset NHS Speech and Language Therapy team. After arriving in West Cork Susan began leading a local church choir. She also founded the Project Choir and directed the world premier of a new oratorio by local composer Justin Grounds. She is hoping to continue Diana’s excellent work by promoting the West Cork Choral Singers in bringing great choral repertoire to West Cork.