A special afternoon of Irish song coming to Offaly

A SPECIAL evening of Irish song will be coming to Birr in the near future.
A Century of Irish Song will be performed on Sunday 5 October at 3pm in St Brendan’s Church of Ireland, Oxmantown Mall.
Presented by Birr Festival of Music it promises to be an excellent afternoon for all those who love our country's musical culture.
Concert goers will join mezzo-soprano Clare Dixon and pianist Sophie Ward for a lyrical journey through a hundred years of Irish song, weaving together traditional melodies, art-song and piano solos that trace the evolution of Ireland’s musical heritage from the early 19th to the mid-20th century. Featuring works by John Field, Thomas Moore, Herbert Hughes, Ina Boyle, Benjamin Britten and timeless traditional airs.
Sophie Ward is a pianist, accompanist, and music teacher who recently returned to her native Birr after several years based in Lyon, France. She studied piano with Thérèse Fahy at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and holds a BA in Music from Trinity College Dublin. She also completed two postgraduate diplomas at the Kodály Institute of the Liszt Academy in Hungary, specialising in piano accompaniment and piano pedagogy. As a student, she won two solo piano competitions at the Dublin Feis Ceoil and has since performed as both soloist and collaborative pianist in recitals across Ireland, the UK, France, and Hungary. Sophie is the co-founder of Sing It!, a community choir based in Birr, and also works with the Birr Young Voices children's choir. She is passionate about music education and musical collaborations.
Newry-born mezzo-soprano Clare Dixon is a graduate of Queen’s University Belfast, where she completed her BMus and MA, followed by advanced studies in Voice and Pedagogy at the Kodály Institute and Balassi Institute, Hungary. She later earned a Masters in Performance at TU Dublin and is currently pursuing a PhD at UCD. Clare has appeared widely as a recitalist and soloist, with highlights including Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass, Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël, Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G Minor, and Patrick Cassidy’s The Children of Lir. Operatic roles include performances with NI Opera and North Dublin Opera, featuring works by Mozart, Gluck, and Viardot. Alongside performing, Clare works as a Music Examiner with the Royal Irish Academy of Music, directs Dunshaughlin Choral Society and the Dublin Male Voice Choir, and sings with the award-winning chamber choir Cuore.
This concert is supported by the JVM Trench Will Trust.
For more details: birrfestivalofmusic.com.

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