The National String Quartet Foundation supports the Masterclass programme at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival and we would like to let you know about their upcoming Fundraising Gala Concert in Aula Maxima, UCC, Cork on Saturday 15 June at 7.30pm.

The concert  – Vanbrugh & Friends – will be introduced by Evelyn Grant and is presented by Cork Orchestral Society with the support of University College Cork.

Violinist Mairead Hickey heads a stellar line-up featuring nineteen of Cork’s finest string players. They include her co-founder of the Ortus Festival, Sinead O’Halloran, violinist Elizabeth Cooney, cellist Brian O’Kane and three former members of the celebrated Vanbrugh Quartet.

Mairead is one of just two Europeans to have reached the finals of the renowned Michael Hill violin competition in New Zealand, taking place in the first week of June.

The concert, introduced by Lyric FM’s Evelyn Grant, includes Dvorak’s sublimely lyrical string quintet and Tchaikovsky’s magnificent ‘Souvenir de Florence’, together with the extravagance of four spectacular arrangements for eight cellos

This concert marks sixty years since the first performance of the Cork based RTE String Quartet Residency in summer 1959 and celebrates the remarkable legacy of exceptional musicians that flowed from that initiative.

Aiveen Kearney, Head of School  at CIT Cork School of Music, writes: ‘The National String Quartet Foundation is, without doubt, a highly valued, and unique, addition to the musical landscape, offering priceless opportunities to both emerging and established musicians, and by doing so, bringing great music to audiences, not only in Cork, but throughout the country’

The programme

Dvorak: String Quintet in E flat major Op.97

Mairead Hickey, violin
David McElroy, violin
Ed Creedon, viola
Cian O’Duill, viola
Christopher Marwood, cello

Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No.6 (1st mmt)
Faure: Pavane
Schubert: Ständchen (from Schwanengesang)
Popper: Polonaise de Concert

Aoife Burke, cello
Eugene Lamy, cello
Yseult Stockdale Cooper, cello
Zoë Nagle, cello
Callum Owens, cello
Maria O’Connor, cello
Aoife nic Athlaoich, cello
Grace Coughlan, cello

Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence

Elizabeth Cooney, violin
Keith Pascoe, violin
Simon Aspell, viola
David Kenny, viola
Brian O’Kane, cello
Sinead O’Halloran, cello

Further information and tickets are available through www.nsqf.ie

The National String Quartet Foundation creates and supports projects which bring live chamber music to audiences throughout Ireland. Its upcoming Arts Council funded Autumn 2019 season will present ten string quartets, all Irish based or including Irish musicians, in thirty four concerts nationwide. The Foundation is also supported by University College Cork, Cork City Council and Cork County Council.

The Foundation’s annual fundraising campaign, based around the 15^th June concert, is needed to raise funds for its three current sponsorship projects:

• The masterclass programme at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, a rich source of inspiration for many of our emerging string players over the past twenty years
• The annual Chamber Music Gathering at the National Concert Hall, which brings around thirty top Irish musicians together in cross-generational collaborations and culminates in a remarkable day of three concerts on the first Saturday in January.
• The annual Ortús Chamber Music Festival brings together leading Irish and international musicians in a weekend of unique concerts in Cork City and County in early spring.

The National String Quartet Foundation is a registered charity. Donations are welcome and can be made via the Foundation’s website.

Further enquiries to:

Christopher Marwood
Artistic and Executive Director
The National String Quartet Foundation
christophermarwood@gmail.com