SHARON CARTY, one of Ireland's leading opera singers, will be among the highlights of this year's Galway Early Music Festival which returns from Friday May 24 to Sunday 26.
The theme for this year is 'A Song and a Dance’, with the festival concentrating on mediaeval, Renaissance, and baroque dance and dance music, along with concerts, talks, workshops and exhibitions.
Mezzo-soprano Sharon Carty will present, in conjunction with Music For Galway, Suitcase Arias, looking at the songs of travelling musicians in the 17th and 18th centuries. It takes place in St Nicholas' Collegiate Church on May 24 at 8pm.
Other highlights included Obsidienne et Compagnie, exploring Mediaeval French dancing songs; The York Waits performing on shawms, curtals, sackbuts, recorders, and pipes; The Gregory Walkers and dancer Kelsey Schuhle performing baroque and traditional music and dance from Ireland, England, France, and Spain; along with Yonit Kosovske, Lyric FM's Vlad Smishkewych, guitarist Redmond O’Toole, and dancer Yovanna Torres Blanco with baroque Spanish and Portuguese song and dance.
There will be dance workshops with live music: one for mediaeval and Renaissance dancing (Lise Carrel and Jacopo Bisagni ), and another for British and Irish country dances (Felicity Maxwell with The York Waits ); the Early Irish Harp Discovery Day, including a talk by Simon Chadwick, a recital by Siobhán Armstrong and Eibhlís Ní Riordáin, and a workshop with Sylvia Crawford.There will also be exhibitions on mediaeval Irish instruments and instrument making, while the Galway Medieval Experience will hold a day of mediaeval heritage events on May 25, organised by the Civic Trust and part of the Galway 2020 Small Towns Big Ideas initiative.
For the full programme and booking see www.galwayearlymusic.com
