Upcoming Events
Waterford International Organ Festival
8th–11th June 2023
The third annual Waterford International Organ Festival presents diverse, creative classical music concerts featuring the pipe organ, choral and instrumental forces. This year’s festival will be extended to four evening concerts and a special children’s morning concert.
The festival in 2023 will open with an evening of chamber music with Kilkenny–based organist Malcolm Proud (chamber organ), Dublin–based Mexican curtal player Mariana Paras and Cork–based Finnish baroque violinist Marja Gaynor. They will present a programme in honour of the four–hundredth anniversary of William Byrd’s death and will also include baroque sonatas from around Europe for this colourful combination of instruments.
The second evening will bring virtuoso Swiss organist, Vincent Thévenaz to Waterford. Thévenaz is professor of organ and improvisation at the Haute Ecole de Musique in Geneva and titular organist and carilloneur of Saint–Pierre Cathedral. Renowned for his dynamic and eclectic programmes, Thévenaz will present the facsinating sound–world of avant–garde composer György Ligeti, celebrating this composer’s centenary.
The weekend programme of events will begin with a children’s concert and workshop led by Cathedral organist Simon Harden and an arrangement of Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’ by Heinrich Grimm.
At the Saturday evening concert, we will welcome Sestina, a Belfast–based chamber choir directed by Mark Chambers. Sestina is highly regarded for historically informed performance and a freshness in their delivery of early music.
The final day of the festival will see Simon Harden in musical dialogue with leading Irish Trumpeters Colm Bryne and Eamonn Nolan and a tour de force of “organ–plus” repertoire.
The Very Revd Bruce Hayes
Dean of Waterford
Thursday 8th June
8pm
‘A Renaissance and Baroque feast; 400 years since William Byrd’
An evening of chamber music from England, Spain, Italy and Germany:
- Malcolm Proud (chamber organ)
- Mariana Paras (curtal (baroque bassoon)
- Marja Gaynor (baroque violin)
Entrance: €15 con. €12
Children under 18 accompanied by parents go free
Friday 9th June
8pm
‘Pushing the boundaries’
In celebration of the centenary of György Ligeti and his unique sound world:
Vincent Thévenaz (Professor of organ and improvisation at the Haute Ecole de Musique in Geneva and titular organist and carilloneur of Saint–Pierre Cathedral) plays an eclectic programme including avant–garde and improvisation
Entrance: €12 con. €10
Children under 18 accompanied by parents go fre.
Saturday 10th June
11am
‘Peter and the Wolf’
Children’s concert with an arrangement for organ of Prokofiev’s classic.
Simon Harden (organ)
Entrance free, pre–registration on Eventbrite required
Children must be accompanied by an adult.
8pm
‘Songs of Sundrie Natures’
Celebrating some of the hidden gems by William Byrd A Choral Concert with Sestina and Mark Chambers
Entrance: €20 con. €15
Children under 18 accompanied by parents go free.
Sunday 11th June
6pm
‘The Trumpets Shall Sound’
An upbeat final concert of the festival for two trumpets and organ:
- Colm Byrne (trumpet – Royal Irish Academy of Music)
- Eamonn Nolan (trumpet – RTE Concert Orchestra)
- Simon Harden (organ)
Entrance: €15 con. €12
Children under 18 accompanied by parents go free.
For further information please contact:
Diocesan Communications Officer, Cashel, Ferns & Ossory
085 812 0650
Mr Shane Reynolds
cfodco2023@gmail.com