New music ensemble Concorde is joined by Garth Knox (viola and viola d’amore) for a concert in the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris on May 17.

Concorde’s programme – all music composed specially for the group -- features sextets by Irish composer Ed Bennett and Mexican composer Alejandro Castanos, who is currently studying at IRCAM in Paris.

Garth Knox will be joined by members of Concorde in a performance of his own trio, La Valse de la Vineuse, and the viola d’amore is also featured in a duo with grand piano by Concorde’s director, Jane O’Leary. These new works were premiered at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin last October, where the audience was fascinated by the extraordinary sound world of the viola d’amore, the variety of the compositions, and the skill of the players.

Resident in Paris, Knox pursues a busy international career as viola soloist, chamber musician and teacher. A former member of the legendary Arditti Quartet and Pierre Boulez’s Ensemble InterContemporain, he has created an extraordinary repertoire of new works for the viola d’amore. The viola d’amore preceded today’s instrument and has two sets of seven strings which resonate sympathetically.

This programme takes place in the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris on Tuesday May 17 at 7.30 pm and appropriately brings together musicians and composers from Paris and Ireland. All four composers featured will be attending the concert.

Prior to the Paris concert, Concorde performs in Venice. On May 14, the group will be joined by members of the Richard O’Donnell Percussion Ensemble to participate in a concert of music by George Crumb presented at the Auditorium Santa Margherita in the University in Venice.

The programme includes Crumb’s Idyll for the Misbegotten and Vox Balanae (Voice of the Whale) as well as a sample of his earliest compositions, Three Early Songs from 1947.

Posted: 12 May 2005