Forthcoming Concert Performances
Handel – Coronation Anthems and Haydn – ‘Nelson’ Mass
Saturday 13th May, 7:30 p.m.
Armagh City Choir present
The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba & Coronation Anthems by Handel With Haydn’s Mass No. 11 in D minor – “Nelson Mass”
Conductor – Michael Harris
Orchestra – Leader Philip Walton
Soloists – Rebekah Coffey (Soprano),
Sinéad O’Kelly (Alto),
Ross Scanlon (Tenor) &
Ben McAteer (Bass)
Rebekah is excited to perform with the Armagh City Choir this weekend as Soprano soloist in Haydn’s Nelson Mass.
It will be a pleasure to return to perform with the choir as earlier in the year Rebekah in collaboration with Ulster Touring Opera worked with the choir for to prepare an operatic chorus from Rossini’s The Barber of Seville.
It will be a joy to share the stage with the choir in St Patrick’s Cathedral Armagh.
Bach B Minor MassSaturday 10th June 7:45 p.m.
For his first concert as the new Chorus Director of Belfast Philharmonic Choir, conductor James Grossmith leads the choir in a performance of Bach’s epic B Minor Mass alongside the Ulster Orchestra and a team of soloists from across the island of Ireland.
The B Minor Mass has been described as ‘the most remarkable musical allegory of human existence’, and its completion marked the composer’s final major musical undertaking before his death. It was probably not performed in its entirety during his lifetime and appears rather to have been written as a vast testament to the musical styles and influences Bach had encountered and absorbed throughout his life. The Mass uses a vast array of techniques to create a work which is both intimate and monumental, exploiting the full range of the voices. The musical lines of the orchestra are interwoven with the often intricate counterpoint of the singers, notable in the joyous music for the trumpets and the lively violin obbligato in the beautiful aria ‘Laudamus te’.
Bach B Minor Mass
Belfast Philharmonic Choir
Ulster Orchestra
James Grossmith conductor
Rebekah Coffey Soprano I
Sarah Richmond Soprano II
Carolyn Dobbin Alto
Daryl Simpson Tenor
Ben McAteer Bass
Event Details
Doors Open at 7:15PM
Starts at 7:45PM
Location
Glenmachan Church of God, Belfast, BT4 2NL
Click here to purchase tickets
It has been my privilege and honour to represent the Ulster Youth Choir on the judging panel of SCOTY 2019. It is so exciting to hear the talent of the school choirs who have entered the competition from all over Northern Ireland.
I am always impressed and astonished by the high level of Choral singing in our schools and I am amazed that our very busy music teachers can achieve so much when I know they are always working to very short timescales. Sometimes it is a quick rehearsal before school starts or a snatched lunch break. I speak for professional singers and musicians when I say … we would not have succeeded in this profession without the wonderful inspiration of a music teacher. A music teacher who inspired , supported and pushed us to realise our potential. We are so lucky to have such great teaching and musical resources in our schools in Northern Ireland.
We have already recorded all the heats from school venues all over Northern Ireland and the each heat is broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster,Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. You can also catch the show on BBC Sounds if you have missed it:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p070c5vd/p070fwjj
Tomorrow we will travel to Regent House, the winners of the title in 2017, to record our semi- final and I know it is going to be a great day of music making. Good luck to all the conductors, accompanists, and singers – I just can’t wait to hear your performances.
20 creatives from Northern Ireland scoop Arts Council ACES awards
Monday 27th November 2017 at 2pm 0 Comments Literature , Music & Opera , Visual Arts , Community Arts , Drama , Dance.
Pictured (L-R) are ACES artists, Myra Zepf, Kelly Creighton, Rebekah Coffey, Jane Talbot, Mary Murphy, Rhiann Jeffrey, Emily McFarland, Jennifer Goddard, James Conor Patterson, Ayesha Mailey, Koichi Samuels, Davy Watson and Andrea Spencer.
20 artists from Northern Ireland have been announced as the latest recipients of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s ACES awards 2017/18, a National Lottery supported funding grant bestowed upon Northern Ireland’s most talented emerging artists to allow them to develop their professional, artistic careers and create new work.
Awards under the Artists Career Enhancement Scheme (ACES) are made annually to professional artists working in music, visual arts, drama, dance, literature and participatory arts and are among the most prestigious awards bestowed by the Arts Council. The artists include three drama awardees, six visual artists, five musicians, five literature awardees and one community artist.
In addition to receiving a bursary of up to £5,000 each, many of the 20 artists have been partnered with a professional organisation or leading artists, at home or abroad, to help each of them to deliver new creative work. Some of these include; Prime Cut Productions, Queen’s University, Ulster Orchestra, Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, Moving On Music, An tSnáthaid Mhór, Tinderbox Theatre Company, Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University, composer Garth McConaghie and leading soprano, Nathalie Paulin, University of Toronto.
Roisin McDonough, Chief Executive of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, commented:
“These 20 artists are already established and highly regarded in each of their fields. The ACES awards are given in recognition of their work to date and to provide them with support to take their careers to that vital next level. The ACES programme has been running successfully now for eight years and addresses the need for on-going training and skills development within the arts sector.”