Ensemble Revelare, formed in 2018, brings together four musicians with a passion for baroque music and expertise in historical performance. The ensemble presents works by seventeenth and eighteenth-century composers, both familiar and lesser-known, many of whom have a connection to Ireland. Repertoire includes vocal and instrumental music, exploring various tonal colours of the group, all with a keen awareness of historically informed performance on period instruments. The ensemble recently performed at The Irish Georgian Society in Dublin; forthcoming engagements include Kaleidoscope Night and @TheDrawingRoom Series in Dublin.

Programme:

Antonio Maria Bononcini (1677–1726) – Idol mio bel tesoro, Cantata 38

Johann Christoph Pepusch (1667-1752) – When Loves soft passion (pub. London 1720) From Six English Cantatas

Henry Purcell (1659–1695) – ‘The Plaint’ from The Fairy Queen, Z. 629

Francesco Saverio Geminiani – Variations on Scottish airs from ‘A Treatise in Good Taste in the Art of Musick’  (pub. London 1749)

Francesco Mancini (1672–1737) – Sonata I in d minor (pub. London 1724)

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678–1741) – All’ombra di Sospetto RV 678

Aisling Kenny – Soprano

Galway soprano, Aisling Kenny, is a soloist and ensemble singer specialising in early music and art song. She performs regularly at home and across Europe. She studied music at Maynooth University, and vocal performance at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Basel, with Evelyn Tubb. She has participated in master classes with Paul Farrington, Margreet Honig, Emma Kirkby and Andreas Scholl. Aisling sings regularly as a soloist in oratorio: recent performances include Handel’s Messiah in Cork with Resurgam and the Irish Baroque Orchestra, dir. Monica Huggett and Bach’s Mass in B minor with the Dublin Bach Singers, dir. Blanaid Murphy. An active recitalist of Lieder and lute song, she has presented recitals in Basel, Oxford and in Ireland, most recently in the Hugh Lane Gallery and Music for Galway recital series. Aisling has performed as a soloist in several festivals including the Galway Early Music Festival and Kilkenny Arts Festival. Spring 2018 sees solo engagements in Bach’s St Matthew Passion (Eastbourne) and Messiah (Halle). An experienced ensemble singer, Aisling is a member of Resurgam and Chamber Choir Ireland, and has sung with Ensemble Marsyas, Crux Vocal Ensemble, Atalante, and The Cardinall’s Musick.

Theresa Burton – Recorder

Theresa is a recorder player and choral singer based in Dublin, Ireland. Theresa gained her bachelor’s degree in music at Dartington College of Arts, and went on to study Recorder for the Masters music performance degree at Utrecht Conservatorium,The Netherlands with Leo Meilink, Baldrick Deerenburg, and Heiko ter Schegget. She was subsequently awarded the Nuffic scholarship in 1998 and 1999 for her Recorder studies. Theresa has participated in recorder masterclasses, Early and Contemporary chamber music courses with Sebastien Marc, Renemarie Verhagen, Peter van Heijghen, Walter Van Hauwe, Marion Verbruggen, Peter Holtslag, Philip Thorby, and Wilbert Hazelzet and Harry Spaarnaay. Theresa plays regularly in diverse ensembles in Oxford, London, Edinburgh, Israel and the Netherlands. She has given performances in diverse clubs and festivals including Utrecht Early Music Festival fringe, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Vredenburg Lunch concert series, Concert series at St Michael the Northgate, Oxford, Engelsekerk Amsterdam, and the Dartington Music Festival. In 2017 she made a tour of Israel with a Jewish baroque programme, and workshops for schools with Israeli Recorder Player Adi Silberberg. New works for recorder have been written for Theresa and her ensembles by composers Nuno Corte Real, Dimitris Andrikopoulos and Jaap Visser. Theresa improvised the soundtrack to Channel 4 film ‘Laws of Nature’ (Tony Hill,1997). Theresa particularly enjoys playing 17th and 18th century vocal chamber music with singers and recently played with Marlborough Baroque orchestra and Dublin Bach Singers. Highlights this summer and beyond include a programme of cantatas by Handel and his contemporaries at the Irish Georgian Society in Dublin with soprano Aisling Kenny, and with Ensemble Chant21, and tenor Jacek Wislocki for a 17th century programme of unpublished Polish and Italian works directed by Jurek Zak.

Rachel Factor – Harpsichord

Rachel is a graduate of The Royal Irish Academy of Music and NUI Maynooth. She has performed with many of Ireland’s leading ensembles including The Irish Chamber Orchestra, Crash Ensemble, The Orchestra of St. Cecilia amongst others. Rachel has also held solo engagements in London most recently at Handel House. Rachel is harpsichord professor at DIT Conservatory of Music and holds the position of local centre examiner at The Royal Irish Academy of Music. In 2010 Rachel was the recipient of The Arts Council Music Network Capital Scheme award. This afforded her the opportunity to commission a harpsichord. She now plays a single manual ‘petit ravelmant’ Flemish harpsichord crafted by Andrew Wooderson after Ioannes Ruckers 1628. Rachel is also recipient of The Arts Council 2017 Artist Bursary. She gratefully acknowledges the support of both Music Network and The Irish Arts Council.

Margaret Doris- Cello

Margaret Doris is a cellist with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and an assistant lecturer in cello at DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama. She is a graduate of The Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester and Indiana University, Jacob’s School of Music, where she studied the cello with Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and baroque cello with Stanley Ritchie. Margaret has a keen interest in music research and completed a PhD in early British cello treatise studies and its link to provincial cello playing at DIT Conservatory of Music of Drama, Dublin.

• Mozart Divertimento in D (K136)
• Finegan ‘..Against Adding a Single Note’
• Janacek Suite for Strings
• Grieg Holberg Suite Op.40.

The World Doctors’ Orchestra was founded in 2008. Since their first concert in the Berlin Philharmonie, they have played 57 concerts in some of the greatest halls across the globe, to over 50,000 people. They have had the pleasure of accompanying world class soloists, and providing musical and medical outreach to those in need. Whilst bringing together like-minded professionals from every corner of the world, the WDO aims to use quality music making to raise as much money as possible for good causes.

Out of this is born a new ensemble, focusing on the joy of string repertoire. The WDO Strings are excited to explore this genre together whilst taking the WDO to new horizons.

‘Lights, Camera, Affiniti’ celebrates the best loved music from the movies. From ‘Love Actually’s’ Portuguese Love Theme to Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffanys, and the many guises of Gabriel’s Oboe, the show spans all eras and styles, delivered in Affinití’s unique classical crossover style.

Affinití is made up of Emer Barry (Soprano), Aisling Ennis (Harp) and Mary Mc Cague (Violin). All three are classically trained and Masters of their instruments but it is their unique combination of Classical, Celtic and Chart music and their genuine ‘affinity’ with one another that makes them truly special. In 2014, The Boston Globe described them as “full of soul, sass and sophistication, as well as exquisite technique”

Affiniti has become popular on the Irish Corporate and Concert Market with their haunting sound and their commitment to providing showstopping performances. They have been backed by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in concert at Mooney Tunes in the Bord Gais Energy Theatre and the FILMharmonic orchestra Prague for their charity single O Holy Night which reached Number 1 in the Irish download charts at Christmas 2014 and has garnered over a million hits on YouTube.

Affiniti made their American debut in 2014 taking in Texas, Washington State, New York, Oregon, Chicago and Boston. This kickstarted an ‘affinity’ with the American audience and they have since returned to tour the States in December 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 to sold out shows in the North West and New York.

Mia Cooper, Nicola Sweeney (Violin)
Simon Aspell, David Kenny (Viola)
Brian O’Kane, Aoife Burke (Cello)

Programme:
Strauss – String Sextet from Capriccio
Sam Perkin – Duet for Two Violas
Brahms – Sextet No. 1 in B-flat Major, Op. 18

Both of Brahms’ sextets for strings are early works; the first, B flat Major Sextet was composed when Brahms was only twenty-seven years old. Clara Schumann wrote of the piece: “It was even more beautiful than I had anticipated, and my expectations were already high.” Sam Perkin’s Duet for Two Violas will follow, and the programme will conclude with the lovely string sextet that serves as the introduction to Capriccio, Richard Strauss’ final operatic venture.

Eminent Baroque musicians Claire Duff, Marja Gaynor and Malcolm Proud are joined by actor Sharon McArdle for a musical exploration of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.

Gulliver Suite (for two violins) – Georg Philipp Telemann

Intrada (spirituous)

Chaconne of the Lilliputians

Gigue of the Brobdingnagians

Daydreams of The Laputans and their attendant flappers

Loure of the well-mannered Houyhyhnms and wild dance of the untamed Yahoos

Trio Sonata – George Fredric Handel

Claire Duff

Claire Duff is an eminent baroque violinist whose ‘stylish solo violin playing’ (Vickers, Gramophone) has been described as having ‘all the excitement of a high-wire act’, (M Dervan, The Irish Times). Claire has recently been elected Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, London (ARAM), which is awarded to former students who have made a notable contribution to the music profession.

Claire is leader of the Irish Baroque Orchestra with which she regularly performs as soloist to critical acclaim. She has led Florilegium, I Fagiolini, English Touring Opera, The Kings Consort, and Camerata Kilkenny. She has co-led the Academy of Ancient Music and played principal second with The English Concert. Claire has an extensive discography, including a highly acclaimed CD of Bach’s Double Violin Concerto with Monica Huggett and IBO and more recently, a recording of Telemann’s concerto for two violins and bassoon. Claire is passionate about music education and is teacher of baroque violin at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.

Marja Gaynor

Marja Gaynor was born in Finland but has been based in Cork since 2005. She was awarded a 1st class honours MA at Cork School of Music, and continued her Baroque violin studies at The Royal Conservatoire of The Hague with Pavlo Beznosiuk.

Marja is a member of the Irish Baroque Orchestra and Camerata Kilkenny. Both ensembles have released much-acclaimed recordings and toured nationally and internationally. Marja is also a founder member of Giordani Quartet, Ireland’s only chamber group specialising in early Classical repertoire using period instruments.

Outside Ireland Marja works with the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and other leading European period orchestras, and is increasingly in demand as a leader, soloist and workshop facilitator. She was the Artistic Director of East Cork Early Music Festival 2013-2015, and has also been invited to act as guest curator for the Kaleidoscope Night concert series.

With her various areas of interest and expertise (Baroque, traditional music, and improvisation) Marja is much sought after as an arranger, studio musician and collaborator in all genres. Her proudest project to date was her critically acclaimed arrangement of Purcell’s ‘Dido and Aeneas’ (Cork Opera House), and she also arranged and played the strings of ‘Falling Slowly’ for the movie ‘Once’, Oscar winner for best song in 2008.

Malcolm Proud
Malcolm Proud won first prize at the Edinburgh International Harpsichord Competition in 1982. He has performed at all the major Irish festivals and has toured Finland, Denmark, Holland, U.K., Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy, U.S.A., Japan, Canada, Estonia, Latvia, Belgium, Austria and Portugal. In 2016 he gave harpsichord recitals at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, at Fenton House in London playing the Queen’s 1612 Ruckers, at the Cobbe Collection of Historical Keyboard Instruments in Hatchlands, Surrey, and at Handel House in London.

Organist of St. Canice’s Cathedral in Kilkenny, his CD of Bach’s Clavierübung III recorded on the Metzler Organ at Stein am Rhein in Switzerland was released in 2008 on the Maya Recordings label.

In 2010 Malcolm Proud played all six of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos with Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s English Baroque Soloists at the London Proms and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany. He is co-founder with Swiss violinist Maya Homburger of Camerata Kilkenny and has performed concertos with the Academy of Ancient Music and the European Union Baroque Orchestra.

He has recorded Bach’s 5th Brandenburg Concerto with both the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the English Baroque Soloists. His most recent recording – J.S. Bach’s Six Partitas for Harpsichord on the Maya Recordings Label – has been critically acclaimed. http://www.malcolmproud. ie

Malcolm Proud is supported by Music Network’s Music Capital Scheme, funded by The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Music Network is funded by the Arts Council.

Sharon McArdle
Sharon McArdle, a professional actor, who now lectures in Drama Education at DCU