World-class musicians for Bantry Music Festival

WEST Cork Music has unveiled the programme for the 21st West Cork Chamber Music Festival, which runs from July 1st-9th.

The festival is one of three which bring almost €2.5m in economic benefit to the town over the summer period.

During this summer’s festival, there will be concerts in Bantry House and St Brendan’s Church from morning to late night, as well as young musician masterclasses, artist interviews and Ireland’s only instrument exhibition.

Among the 85 world class musicians and singers announced will be Tamsin Waley-Cohen, Monika Leskovar,  the Vanbrugh Quartet, Concerto Copenhagen, Alina Ibragimova, Chiaroscuro Quartet, Kelemen Quartet, Borusan Quartet, Tamar Beraia, Lawrence Power, Eline Vähälä, Cédric Tiberghien, Pieter Wispelwey, Adrian Brendel, Nurit Stark, Maria Keohane, José Gallardo and many more.

This unique festival has helped to put Bantry on the map since its inception in 1996 and in the past two decades has grown to become one of the most respected events in the European chamber music calendar.

 West Cork Music’s three festivals (of which the West Cork Chamber Music Festival is the flagship event) have an economic impact of nearly €2.5m on Bantry and the surrounding area. 

Visitors from as far afield as the USA, Middle East and Australia come to Bantry for the West Cork Chamber Music Festival and in 2015, more than 7,800 tickets were sold.

A notable feature of this year’s festival is the rich selection of major song cycles featuring top international singers. 

Tenor Mark Padmore joins with the outstanding pianist Paul Lewis in Schubert’s great setting of Winterreise. Two nights later, he sings Janacek’s rarely performed Diary of One who Disappeared with pianist Julius Drake and French mezzo Anna Reinhold.

 A highlight for many will be a wide selection of magisterial works by Beethoven from his early string quintet to his final string quartet, culminating in a single concert featuring one of his most adventurous quartets, his last violin sonata and the great Archduke piano trio with an international cast of nine musicians from Russia, Georgia, France, Netherlands, Britain and Ireland.

 The complete Festival programme can be found at www.westcorkmusic.ie and general booking opens on March 22nd. 

The West Cork Chamber Music Festival is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, Failte Ireland, Crespo Foundation, RTE lyric fm and Cork County Council.

 For more details contact West Cork Music, 13 Glengarriff Road, Bantry, or ring 027 52788.