Gala Concert: Masters of Irish Music
Saturday, 8 July 2023, 8.00pm
THE PARADE TOWER, KILKENNY CASTLE
This concert—in the setting of the 1000-year-old tower of Kilkenny Castle—is a rare gathering of some of the world’s leading performers on early Irish harp and pipes, together with prize-winning sean-nós [‘old style’] singers, in a programme of evocative and lively instrumental music, solo singing, and harp songs, some of which have only recently been unearthed, and reconstructed, after several hundred years of being lost to the living tradition.
Artists:
Eibhlís Ní Ríordáin, early Irish harp and voice; Jimmy O'Brien-Moran, uilleann pipes; James Ruff, early Irish harp; Máire Ní Chéileachair, sean-nós song; Siobhán Armstrong, early Irish harp
More info & tickets: https://festival.irishharp.org/concerts
€18 / €12 (€28 both festival concerts)
The King's Harper: The Irish Harp at the 17th-century English Court
Tuesday, 11 July 2023, 8.00pm
THE PARADE TOWER, KILKENNY CASTLE
In 1605, King James I of England employed the first ‘royal’ Irish harper to work at the court in London: Cormac MacDermott. This gave rise to an extraordinary ensemble in which the melting sound of his early Irish harp’s brass-wire strings was woven together with the lute, Renaissance viols, and the human voice to produce an exquisite music for the king’s pleasure.
Artists:
The Irish Consort: Róisín O'Grady, soprano; Siobhán Armstrong, early Irish harp; Ryosuke Sakamoto, Renaissance lute; Sarah Groser, Reiko Ichise, Malachy Robinson, viols
More info & tickets: https://festival.irishharp.org/concerts
€18 / €12 (€28 both festival concerts)