Booking opens for 2023 West Cork Chamber Music Festival

The programme for this summer’s West Cork Chamber Music Festival has been announced.

Violinists, quartets, and composers from around the globe will be in attendance at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, which runs in Bantry from June 23 to July 2,

Headlined by four outstanding violinists, Alina Ibragimova, Viviane Hagner, Nurit Stark and Mairéad Hickey, the festival welcomes four international string quartets: Pacifica Quartet, from the US, Armida Quartet, from France, Ardeo Quartet, from Germany, and Ragazze Quartet, from the Netherlands. 

The Baroque and early music ensembles feature two violinists, Ariadne Daskalakis and Johannes Pramsohler.

The talented line-up includes four great violinists, four international quartets, and stories told by composers from Ireland, Australia, the US and the Netherlands. 50 concerts will be held over 10 days and nights, with Baroque coffee concerts, midday experiments, afternoon recitals, evening concerts and candle-lit late nights.

Much-loved repertoire features from morning to night and includes works by Bach, Schumann, Beethoven, and Mozart. The audience can immerse themselves in contemporary music, including world, European and Irish premieres, special festival commissions and a rare performance of George Crumb’s ‘Black Angels’, which dates to the Vietnam war.

Some of the highlights will include Pacifica Quartet playing Beethoven’s unmatched ‘Song of Thanksgiving’ for recovery from illness; Brett Dean’s ‘Madame, ma bonne Soeur’ and letters written by Mary Queen of Scots to her cousin Elizabeth of England.

This year’s line-up will also include Cédric Tiberghien, Jérémie Moreau, Ensemble Diderot, Cédric Pescia, Anna Devin, and Lotte Betts-Dean.

Free family friendly Fringe concerts bring the music to the wider West Cork area and there will be pop-up performances in Bantry town.

The full programme can be found on www.westcorkmusic.ie.