Two Mayo choirs will be a part of collectively this Sunday night, November 19, in Ballintubber Abbey, to carry out the ‘Requiem’ by Gabriel Fauré. Louisburgh Voices and Cór Mhaigh Eo’s particular efficiency will elevate funds for the Ballintubber Abbey Trust and for the Daisy Lodge, Cong, which is being set as much as present help to youngsters being handled for most cancers and their households.
Both choirs will probably be performed by Dr Brian Lennon (conductor of Cór Mhaigh Eo) and will probably be accompanied by the ConTempo String Quartet and Michael Quinn on the organ. The soloists are soprano Nan Fee and baritone Owen Gilhooly-Miles.
Along with Fauré’s lovely ‘Requiem’, the programme may also embrace Fauré’s ‘Cantique de Jean Racine’, Saint-Saëns’ ‘Prière’ for cello and organ, with Adrian Mantu (of the ConTempo Quartet) and Massenet’s poignant ‘Méditation’ with violinist Bogdan Sofei (ConTempo Quartet).
Established in 1994, Cór Mhaigh Eo often participate in International Choral Festivals and has carried out in Scotland, Latvia, Italy, Spain and Monaco. They had been additionally a part of the 120-strong Peace Choir within the Concert for Peace, Knock Basilica 2016; the Armed Man efficiency on the National Concert Hall in February 2017 with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra; and each stay performances of Handel’s Messiah in Knock Basilica in 2017 and 2018, directed by Proinnsías Ó Duinn. They had been additionally chosen by Sing Ireland for ‘An Island Sings’, a brand new work by Elaine Agnew, which was premiered within the National Concert Hall, Dublin, in March 2019.
Louisburgh Voices is a mixed-voice grownup choir, established by Pauline Graham and Michael Quinn, which incorporates singers from the Louisburgh, Killeen, Lecanvey, and Westport areas. The choir carried out Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas in Louisburgh in 2019, and beforehand collaborated with Cór Mhaigh Eo for a efficiency of Fauré’s Requiem. They have additionally sung on the Mayo International Choral Festival, and for a Burns Night occasion at Glen Keen Farm, which raised funds for Mayo Roscommon Hospice.
Quinn and Graham additionally co-founded the Louisburgh Music School. An established organist, Quinn has collaborated with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, and carried out Poulenc’s Organ Concerto with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. He has given organ recitals in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral and St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, and has accompanied many choirs, together with Cór Mhaigh Eo, Ballina’s St Muredach’s Cathedral Choir and Dublin’s Lassus Scholars.
The ConTempo Quartet is a significant worldwide presence on this planet of chamber music, with performances at main live performance venues in London, Paris and Berlin to their credit score, in addition to a number of worldwide awards. Established in Bucharest in 1995, the 4 members of the quartet are Bogdan Sofei (violin I), Ingrid Nicola (violin II), Andreea Banciu (viola) and Adrian Mantu (cello). They had been chosen because the Galway Music Residency’s ensemble in residence in 2003 and RTÉ Quartet in Residence in 2013. In 2016, the members of the quartet had been awarded Honorary Doctorates in Music from the University of Galway for his or her service to Galway within the areas of music efficiency and training.
The night’s solo singers are of wonderful inventory too. Soprano Nan Fee has carried out all through Ireland and overseas, in repertoire starting from choral to in style genres. Growing up in a musical household in Tyrone, she sang with the Ulster Youth Choir and later with the Hallé Choir, Manchester, and the Oriana Choir, London. She has carried out in Edinburgh and all through Scotland, together with the Celtic Connections Festival, Glasgow, and her musical homage to Kate Bush has led to sold-out performances on the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, and at Westival, Westport’s annual artwork and music pageant.
Owen Gilhooly-Miles is a longtime operatic soloist, having carried out at Covent Garden and the BBC Proms in London, along with common appearances with Scottish Opera, Opera North, Irish National Opera, and Wexford Festival Opera, in repertoire starting from Mozart and Rossini to Verdi and Puccini. In live performance, he has carried out Fauré’s Requiem with the Ulster Orchestra, Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Carmina Burana with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and Handel’s Messiah with the Irish Baroque Orchestra.

• The live performance will happen in Ballintubber Abbey on Sunday, November 19, at 5pm. For tickets (€25 every), contact the Clew Bay Hotel, Westport, on 098 28088; Parsons’ Shoes, Castlebar, on 094 9021064; Tuffy’s Gala, Louisburgh, on 098 66394. The live performance is supported by Mayo County Council Arts Office.