MUSIC FOR Galway, which has been bringing the very best classical music performers to the city since 1980, will celebrate its 30th birthday this year.
To mark this milestone, MFG is planning a special season of events from October to April and the celebrations begin with a Gala concert and reception in the Town Hall Theatre on October 16.
Performing on the night are the celebrated opera stars Rodion Pogossov, a leading baritone from the Metropolitan Opera line-up in New York, and soprano Evelina Dobraceva, who performs regularly with Cologne Opera.
The RTE Vanbrugh Quartet will present a weekend of Beethoven’s late quartets, a series of extraordinary pieces, composed when Beethoven was totally deaf.
Norway’s Engegard Quartet will make their Galway debut at the new MFG season. The quartet have been much praised for their explorations of Norwegian music and their programme for Galway will include work by the great Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg.
The Danish String Quartet, winners of the London International String Quartet Competition in 2009, along with Chinese pianist Jue Wang, will perform a joint concert as part of the new season.
Pianist Barry Douglas will be coming to Galway for a weekend festival which will see him playing both solo and with the ConTempo Quartet.
The January festival will be entitled Amongst Friends, and will feature chamber by composers who would also have been friends.
St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church will play host to two choral concerts - the Latvian State Choir performing music of Arvo Part in celebration of his 75th birthday and Ireland’s Resurgam choir, under the direction of Mark Duley, will perform settings of the ‘Magnificat’.
NUI, Galway’s Bailey Allen Hall will be the venue for the annual visit of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. The NSO will present a concert of Mozart’s piano concertos, directed from the piano by Finghin Collins.
The Irish Chamber Orchestra with special guest, Catalan soprano Nuria Rial, will bring the music of Baroque composers Bach, Handel, and Telemann to the same venue.
Music For Galway’s 30th International Concert Season programme will be launched in the Galway City Museum on Wednesday September 15 at 6pm. For more information contact 091 - 705962, [email protected], or www.musicforgalway.ie
