Tonight, Friday November 29 in Ballintubber Abbey, two Mayo choirs – Cór Mhaigh Eo and Louisburgh Voices – will join together to perform the Requiem by Gabriel Fauré, in a concert which will benefit the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association and Ballintubber Abbey Trust.
The choirs will be conducted by Dr Brian Lennon (conductor of Cór Mhaigh Eo ) accompanied by Michael Quinn (organ ) and the Westport String Ensemble. The soloists are Pauline Graham (soprano ) and John Magee (baritone ).
The programme will also include Fauré’s ‘Cantique de Jean Racine’, Saint-Saëns’ ‘Prière’ for cello and organ, with Patrick Dexter, and Massenet’s ‘Meditation’ with violinist Patrick Early.
Cór Mhaigh Eo was established in 1994, and has performed as part of the Messiah performances at Knock, directed by Pronsias Ó Duinn. The choir participates at International Choral Festivals with great success and also enjoys travelling and performing abroad, having visited Scotland, Latvia, Italy, Spain and Monaco. The choir was part of the 120-strong Peace Choir in the Concert for Peace, Knock Basilica 2016, part of The Armed Man performance at the National Concert Hall in February 2017 with the RTE Concert Orchestra and both performances of Messiah in Knock in 2017 and 2018.
Cór Mhaigh Eo also travelled to Pesaro, the home of Rossini in Italy, in May 2018, where they gave a joint concert with local choir “Coro San Carlo”. Cór Mhaigh Eo was the Connaught choir chosen by Sing Ireland for “An Island Sings” - which was premiered in the National Concert Hall, Dublin, March 2019.
Soprano Pauline Graham has sung at many venues across Ireland, including the National Concert Hall, Dublin, and for festivals such as the Galway Early Music Festival and Sligo Baroque Festival. She has also performed at many venues and festivals across Europe, including those in Utrecht (The Netherlands ) and Cremona (Italy ). Recent performances include a Haydn programme with Niall Kinsella at Castletown House, Kildare, which Pauline will be performing at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, in January. Pauline Graham and Michael Quinn run Louisburgh Music School in Louisburgh, and co-founded Louisburgh Voices in September 2018.
Fauré Requiem at Ballintubber AbbeyLouisburgh Voices is a mixed-voice adult choir, which includes singers from Louisburgh, Killeen, Lecanvey, and Westport areas. The choir performed Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas in Louisburgh last June, and has sung at the Mayo International Choral Festival, and for a Burns Night event at Glen Keen Farm, which raised funds for the Mayo Roscommon Hospice.
Baritone John Magee is an experienced soloist, particularly in oratorio, having appeared as a soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Fauré’s Requiem, Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël and many other sacred works, at venues such as the National Concert Hall, Dublin and St Paul’s Church, Arran Quay, Dublin. He is a member of the Palestrina Choir at St Mary’s Pro-Catheral, Dublin, and has sung with the choir in London (Westminster Cathedral ), New York (St Patrick’s Cathedral ), Chicago and Rome.
Tickets for the concert are €20 and available from: The Clew Bay Hotel, Westport, Tel: 098 28088; Durkan’s Gala, Louisburgh, Tel: 098 66394or at Visit Castlebar, Linenhall Street, Castlebar.
