New Music Dublin: National Symphony Orchestra with the National Symphony Chorus featuring music by Bodley, Feery & Cleare

21 April 2023 19:30

Featuring: National Symphony Orchestra; National Symphony Chorus: Frauke Aulbert, soprano; Michelle O’Rourke, mezzo-soprano; Eoghan Desmond, baritone; Dermot Dunne, accordion; David Brophy, conductor; David Young, chorus master.

MIDHE: Justine Cooper, visual direction; Annemarie Ní Churreáin, poetry; Michelle O’Rourke and David Young, vocal development & collaborators.

Presenting visions of Ireland and taking time to reflect, this performance from the National Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Chorus features two major Irish world premieres by CMC Composers Ann Cleare and Amanda Feery, alongside music by Seóirse Bodley.

The programme opens with Seóirse Bodley’s kaleidoscopic A Small White Cloud Drifts Over Ireland, celebrating the composer’s 90th birthday. Amanda Feery’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation, completed in 2022 as the pandemic began to recede, sits at the centre of the evening’s programme, which culminates with MIDHE: a major new commission from Ann Cleare. Performed by solo voices, accordion, choir and orchestra, MIDHE invokes the Midlands of Ireland and – through the movement of sound and bodies throughout the entire concert hall space – reanimates a lost centre, offering fascinating new perspectives on what power and collectivity might mean.

Programme

Seóirse Bodley - A Small White Cloud Drifts Over Ireland (1975)
Amanda Feery - My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2022) [World Premiere]
Ann Cleare - MIDHE (2023) [World Premiere]