Louth Contemporary Music Society is to present first performances of sacred music by Baltic composers alongside a new work by Deirdre McKay.

The Deer’s Cry, a new work by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt setting the text of St Patrick’s Breastplate, is to receive its world premiere in St Peter’s Church of Ireland, Drogheda on 13 February, 2008 in a programme that will also include first performances of fellow Latvian Georgs Pelecis’s I See His Blood Upon the Rose (a poem by Joseph Mary Plunkett) and Deirdre McKay’s choral setting of the final words of Oliver Plunkett’s Comendo Spiritum Meum.

All three works were commissioned by Louth Contemporary Music Society with funding from a coalition of Irish and Latvian organisations including the Arts Council, Louth County, Drogheda and Dundalk Arts Offices, and the Embassy of Latvia. The Drogheda performances feature the State Choir of Latvia conducted by Fergus Sheil and will be repeated on 14 February in St Patrick’s Cathedral. Dundalk. A recording of the concerts will also be broadcast on RTÉ lyric fm’s Nova programme.

For further details, please see our calendar or visit www.louthcms.org.

Posted: 20 November 2007