May 2005
Pipeworks Festival 2005	Show Menu

16—24 June 2005

"The expectation of a specialised music festival is that it will open audiences to musical experiences not normally available to them. That’s certainly what the Dublin International Organ and Choral Festival did on its opening days" Michael Dervan, The Irish Times, 25th June 2002

Pipeworks Festival offers a daring and delightful introduction to the diverse worlds of organ and choral music. Putting Ireland on the international musical map with the Dublin International Organ Competition at its core, the festival introduces artists and Ireland in a musical event as distinguished as any in the country, with leading musicians from the UK, Europe, and the US.

The festival’s reputation for innovative programming is in evidence with this year’s artists ranging from the Swingle Singers to the Mannheim Hochschule Kammerchor, in performance with our own premier ensembles, including the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, National Chamber Choir, RTÉ Philharmonic Choir and the three cathedral choirs of Dublin. Events will range from a performance of Janácek’s Glagolitic Mass, one of the great choral works of the 20th century, to master-classes by the stellar line up of competition jurors; from the Swingle Singers’ renditions of everything from Bach to the Beatles, to an improvised organ concert-come-coffee morning.

Events are hosted in some of the most intriguing, gorgeous and surprising venues of Dublin and its environs — from St Audoen’s Church to a train carriage bound for Dundalk! The festival fully exploits the wonderful range of instruments to be found in Dublin, which likewise boast a diversity of appeal and interest, and have their own stories to tell, from Clara Schumann’s piano to the venerated Henry Willis organ in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dundalk.

The Festival’s opening concert on 16 June will take place at the National Gallery of Ireland, with a performance of Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle that recreates the chamber sonorities intended by the composer. A small virtuoso choir will be accompanied by two grand pianos dating from the 1840s and a rare French harmonium that matches exactly Rossini’s requirements in the score.

The fact that Dublin boasts, not one or two, but three cathedrals, will be showcased at an event the following night at St Patrick’s Cathedral Dublin, with a concert by the choirs of all three institutions. Audiences at the Coffee Concert in Christ Church Cathedral on the Saturday morning will have the chance to challenge Jos van der Kooy to improvise before their eyes and ears on themes of their own devising.

Also at Christ Church that evening will be a performance by winners of the Fleischmann International Trophy at the 2003 Cork Inter-national Choral Festival, Mannheim Hochschule Kammerchor, offering the chance to hear German Romantic music at its finest. The winner of the 2002 Dublin Inter-national Organ Competition, Balint Karosi, will be returning to Dublin for a performance in St Michael’s Church, Dún Laoghaire, on the evening of 19 June.

There will be a rare opportunity to hear five-time Grammy Award winning group the Swingle Sisters. They will be performing a repertoire that runs from Bach to the Beatles, via Chopin, Sondheim and Miles Davis, at the National Concert Hall on Monday 20 June.

On Tuesday 21 June the finals of the International Organ Competition will take place in the grandeur of Christ Church. The ever-growing prestige of the competition is demonstrated by this year’s award being competed for by the biggest number of entrants yet. Those performing in the finals will have been selected from sixteen semi-finalists — young virtuosi from every corner of the globe, including two Irish residents, hosted by Dublin families and who will have been practising in churches throughout the city for the duration of the festival. While the stellar line up of international adjudicators deliberate, audiences will be hosted at a reception in the crypt, before the winner is announced.

Luigi Tagliavini, the world’s leading expert on Italian keyboard music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, will be making his first visit to Ireland, and performing Italian organ music of the Baroque period in Christ Church on Wednesday 22 June. For baroque fans — a concert not to be missed. The next day audiences will be transported to Dundalk courtesy of Iarnrod Éireann and the Belgian Embassy, as they enjoy a Belgian beer reception en route to a concert of two halves. Joris Verdin will be travelling the smaller distance of the length of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dundalk, starting at the rear of the building on the mighty Father Willis organ, and then moving up to a classic French harmonium placed in the sanctuary. His programme "Musique d’église et musique de salon à Paris et Bruxelles autour de 1860" will draw us from the musical splendours of the great nineteenth century Belgian churches into the intimacy of the salon.

Friday 24 June will see the Festival draw to a spectacular close in the NCH, with a bold and multi-layered programme designed to represent Pipeworks and its aspirations. The RTE National Symphony Orchestra, celebrated British organist Nicolas Kynaston and the RTE Philharmonic Choir join forces under the NSO chief conductor Gerhard Markson. Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor will be performed by an orchestra of a size undreamed of during the composer’s life. Jongen’s Symphonie Concertante Op.81 will form a bridge between the worlds of organ and orchestral music, followed by Janácek’s Glagolitic Mass, one of the great choral works of the 20th century. This rarely-heard work will be performed for the first time in Ireland in its original language — a final challenge for Pipeworks and fitting close to its 2005 festival.

For further information:
Tel/Fax: 633 7392
Website: www.pipeworksfestival.com
E-mail: administrator@pipeworksfestival.com

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Organists’ Hints & Tips 4 - Keeping in touch

David McConnell, Organist and Choir Director, Zion Church, Rathgar

It is so important to keep members of your choir informed of dates and times, if the team is to be maintained. For many years I relied on letter post, four or five times a year (and of course always charged the postage to the parish!). I now have moved to email and SMS, which are quicker, cheaper and more effective. Most of my singers have email addresses, which are in a ‘group’ on my Outlook Express. They all have cell phones and I keep the numbers together on my mobile by pre-fixing each name with a ‘z’ (for Zion). A quick text on a Saturday afternoon can ensure they are all there the following morning, especially if I have convened the dreaded (though sometimes necessary) pre-liturgy rehearsal. On one occasion, I arranged an extra rehearsal while sitting in a café in Sicily. The only downside to 24/7 availability is those choir members who enjoy texting me during the week – but hey, life ain’t perfect!

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