Chamber Choir Ireland perform new Irish works at the Cork Choral Festival and Dublin

Eoghan Desmond

As part of their residency at Cork International Choral Festival, Chamber Choir Ireland and their conductor Paul Hillier will premiere two new works by Irish composers on 1 May.

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Ian Wilson sets two of Yeats’ so-called ‘apocalyptic’ works in a two movement work for choir, marking the 150th birthday of W.B. Yeats.

The second work by Cork-born composer Eoghan Desmond, entitled Mother Goose’s Melodies, is the winner of this year’s Seán Ó Riada Composition Competition, announced earlier in March. Based in Dublin, Desmond is also active as a singer and conductor, and is a member of the Irish Composers Collective.

Both works will be subject of the 47th Seminar on New Choral Music earlier in the day at 2pm in the Stack Theatre of CIT Cork School of Music. The premiere performance of both pieces takes place in St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork at 7.30pm.

Following the premiere, both pieces will receive a second performance the next day, 2 May in Dublin’s University Church at 7.30pm, in a programme entitled Musicians wrestle everywhere.