Choral music in Ireland: History and Evolution

Chamber Choir Ireland, in collaboration with the National Concert Hall Education, Community & Outreach Programme, will host a series of Tuesday lunchtime lectures in January and February 2017. Curated by Stuart Kinsella, the series will explore the Chamber Choir’s history and origin by looking at the tradition of choral music in Ireland, amateur and professional, both in Ireland and within a wider European context. Some of the talks will include musical illustrations by members of Chamber Choir Ireland.   Tuesday 17 January 2017 MEDIEVAL SACRED MUSIC (-1540) Frank Lawrence (University College Dublin) Dr Frank Lawrence, lecturer in early music studies at UCD will speak on the early church origins of choral music in Ireland and trace its development through innovations in sacred music.   Tuesday 24 January 2017 GEORGIAN GLEES, CATCHES & CLUBS (1700-1850) Tríona O'Hanlon (Queen's University Belfast) Dr Triona O'Hanlon, Marie Curie Research Fellow in the School of Arts, English and Languages at QUB will examine the traditions of choral singing, private and public, in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.   Tuesday 31 January 2017 SINGING AND SOCIETY (1540-1700) Raymond Gillespie (Maynooth University) Professor Raymond Gillespie of the Department of History in Maynooth will deliver a wide-ranging lecture on the role of choral music and singing in society in Ireland within the early modern period.   Tuesday 7 February 2017 IMPERIAL TO INDEPENDENT (1850-1930) Harry White (University College Dublin) Professor Harry White of the School of Music in UCD traces the cultural changes in Irish choral music from the imperial colony of the nineteenth century to the independent state of the twentieth.   Tuesday 14 February 2017 CHAMBER CHOIRS: THE EUROPEAN TRADITION (1990-2016) Leo Samama (TENSO network) Leo Samama, composer, musicologist and former managing director of the Nederlands Kammerchor, for his lecture will draw on his wide knowledge of Tenso: the European network for professional chamber choirs.   Tuesday 21 February 2017 BROADCASTING (1930-1990) Helen Gubbins (University of Sheffield) Helen Gubbins, a doctoral candidate at Sheffield will bring her knowledge of the history of Radio Éireann and RTÉ to examine the history and evolution of the professional broadcasting choir in Ireland.  

---

Chamber Choir Ireland, in collaboration with the National Concert Hall Education, Community & Outreach programme with the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union and TENSO Europe.