MFG Midwinter Festival 2022: Celebrating the Music of Sir Charles Villiers Stanford

Music For Galway Midwinter Festival 2022: Stanford

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was without doubt one of Ireland’s greatest composers and was hugely influential as a professor of composition in London in the early part of the 20th century. Five concerts, two talks and two documentary films will set Stanford in context by featuring his vocal, choral and chamber music and that of some of his composition students, as well as music by composers that heavily influenced his work. 

An Irish Cast

The cream of Irish musicians make up the cast of this year’s festival, with mezzo-soprano Sharon Carty and clarinettist John Finucane sharing top billing alongside pianist and festival programmer Finghin Collins and Galway’s own ConTempo Quartet, presented in association with Galway Music Residency. The programmes of the main concerts are rich and varied, juxtaposing intimate songs and chamber pieces with larger chamber works for string quartet, clarinet quintet and even a mixed nonet. The Saturday afternoon choral concert at St Nicholas' Collegiate Church will feature Collegium Choir conducted by Mark Duley and tenor soloist Christopher Bowen performing choral works by Stanford and a selection of his pupils, including a substantial extract from Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s cantata “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast”.

Talks

Stanford’s biographer and chairman of the Stanford Society Jeremy Dibble will give two online talks about Stanford and his legacy. 

Films

MfG's Midwinter Festival culminates in a feast of film as we present a double bill by Charles Kaufmann, the artistic director of the Longfellow Chorus in the USA. The first is the world theatre premiere of 'That's None of My Business', part of the official selection of VENEZIA SHORTS ITALY 2021, about an attempt to desegregate an all-white concert by the RPO in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963. This will be followed by our feature film 'Samuel Coleridge Taylor and His Music in America, 1900–1912' which explores the extensive American legacy of Anglo-African composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. 

Exhibition

As part of its 40th Anniversary Season celebrations, Music for Galway is presenting an exhibition 'Honouring Those Who Went Before Us' in the foyer of the Town Hall Theatre. Using archives from the special collection at NUI Galway’s Hardiman Library, it looks back at the achievements and highlights of the last four decades. This exhibition will be launched with the Midwinter Festival and continue until the end of February.  

Visit musicforgalway.ie for more details.

The Midwinter Festival sponsors are MJ Conroy and NUI Galway.
MfG gratefully acknowledges the support of the Arts Council and Galway City Council.
ConTempo Quartet is presented in association with the Galway Music Residency.