All systems go for Offaly music festival!

The programme for Birr Festival of Music 2021 has been announced. After the Festival was postponed last year due to COVID-19 restrictions, this year’s event will now host a diverse range of classical music events across the town from Friday 20 to Sunday 22 August.

Internationally acclaimed baritone Bruno Caproni and pianist Julian Evans, old friends of the festival, return to perform at Birr Theatre & Arts Centre with a programme including the music of Verdi, Wagner, Bernstein, Liszt and Rachmaninov.

The Far Flung Trio made up of Kathrine Hunka (violin), Dermot Dunne (accordion) and Malachy Robinson (double bass) will feature for the very first time while percussionist Alex Petcu also makes his festival debut with a performance and special percussion workshop.

Dame Nellie Melba will be remembered in a pop-up performance in Emmet Square and the Offaly Drama Project will also host a unique event, The Meadow Project, at Birr Workhouse Burial Ground.

Vox Amicum Brass will also bring the festival to life with jazz and classical sounds in the streets and parks of Birr on Friday afternoon of the Festival.

Birr Festival of Music Director is Maureen de Forge, “Birr Festival of Music is delighted to present a wonderful range of top class musicians and singers again this year, with both outdoor and indoor performances. By postponing the Festival from May to late August we anticipated that the LIVE experience could be back, albeit with reduced audience numbers. Many of the live events will be facilitated outdoors under the shelter of the new Festival GeoDomes, in various green spaces in town.

“During the past 18 months we have particularly missed the children singing with Birr Young Voices, and look forward to hearing them again, with many new voices, in the Singing in the Air project, in collaboration with Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival.”

The six musician’s for this year’s Trench Award Final which takes place on the Saturday night during the Festival have also been chosen.

They are:
Laura Joy Copeland, mezzo-soprano, Kilkenny
David Kennedy, baritone, Galway
Aoibhin Keogh Daly, cello, Limerick
Lily Kettle, violin, Laois
Maria Matthews, soprano, Longford
David Vesey, piano, Laois

All pursuing careers in the classical field, they will each perform a 15-minute programme at Birr Theatre & Arts Centre. The recipients of the Trench Award, Birr Lions Club Bursary, the Canto Al Serchio Prize and Audrey Chisholm Award will all be selected by an international panel. They will also be accompanied by one of Ireland’s most accomplished pianists, Dearbhla Collins. More information about each of the finalists can be found here.

Birr Festival of Music is kindly funded by The Trench Trust, The Arts Council of Ireland, Offaly Arts Office, The Audrey Chisholm Project and supported by Birr Lions Club and Birr Credit Union.

Tickets go on general sale on Friday 30 July. Visit www.birrfestivalofmusic.com or call the Box Office on (057) 91 22911 between 1.30pm and 5.30pm. All events must be pre-booked in accordance with COVID-19 restrictions.

Bruno Caproni has appeared in many of the major opera houses including the Royal Opera Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, and La Scala Milan. He began his vocal studies privately in Belfast with lessons from James Shaw, a well known and respected local singer and teacher. After taking first prize in many regional competitions as well as best male vocalist in the 1983 national Golden Voice of Ireland Competition he decided to pursue singing full time.

Manchester born pianist Julian Evans received early tuition from the renowned pianist, accompanist and music transcriber John Wilson with whom he continued to study at the Junior School of the Royal Northern College of Music (“RNCM”) in Manchester. His solo London debut was in 1985 at the Wigmore Hall where Malcolm Hayes of the London Times hailed him as “a remarkable and intensely musical talent.”

Dame Nellie Melba once appeared at an upstairs window of Dooly's Hotel and sang to the assembled crowds below, maybe an early example of a free open air concert! The hotel's nightclub was named after her.

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