The Irish Chamber Orchestra blazes a trail from Boston to Arkansas…

FAIRFIELD, Conn.—The Irish Chamber Orchestra will perform at Sacred Heart University for one night only on Friday, April 11, at 8:00 p.m. in the Edgerton Center for the Performing Arts.

Tickets may be purchased online at http://edgertoncenter.org/ or by calling 203-371-7908. A limited number of V.I.P. ticket packages are available which include a 6:30 p.m. talk by John Kelly, executive director of the Orchestra, a pre-concert reception and premium concert seating. For V.I.P. tickets call 203-371-7908.

The event, which is presented by the Center for Irish Cultural Studies at SHU, is their only public performance in the Metro New York area on this U.S. tour. This stop follows a performance at the The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum in Boston.

The Irish Chamber Orchestra is a fresh and vibrant force on the Irish and international music scene. Under the dynamic and charismatic leadership of artistic director Anthony Marwood, the Orchestra is recognized as one of Ireland’s world-class cultural assets.

This orchestra based in Limerick, Ireland, has built a reputation for the highest level of musical excellence.  Having consolidated it reputation as not just Ireland’s premier ensemble, but one of the finest of its kind in the world, word is fast spreading globally. Recent tours include concerts throughout the expanded EU, Australia and a ground-breaking tour of South Korea and China. Last year the orchestra received critical acclaim for their début at the Konzerthaus in Berlin. Maxim Vengerov, Nigel Kennedy, Steven Isserlis and Sinéad O’Connor are just some of the celebrity artists who have welcomed an invitation to work with the Irish Chamber Orchestra in the last couple of years. 

Now America has an opportunity to experience this Irish phenomenon.  

Virtuoso violinist Anthony Marwood introduces a program of excitement, invention and audacity, traversing four centuries for this US tour. Marwood’s attitude to music is exploratory, contemporary and diverse. He presents the amazing Violin Concerto in D minor from the 13-year old genius Mendelssohn. This beautiful concerto for violin and strings, like many of his youthful works, is breathtaking in its freshness and melodic inventiveness. The Quartet in D Minor, Voces Intimae, was described by Sibelius “as the sort of thing that will make one smile.” Bach’s late definitive exploration of the art of fugal counterpoint is perhaps the greatest of all fugues. The title of Gerald Barry’s La Jalousie Taciturne is borrowed from the 17th century French composer Francois Couperin.

The Irish Chamber Orchestra is funded by The Arts Council of Ireland. The Orchestra hosts an international music festival which has attracted musicians of the highest calibre from the US. The orchestra has already established special links with American soloists as the first two recipients of the Ardán Award, given annually by Artistic Director Anthony Marwood to a young emerging international soloist, have both hailed from the US.

Philadelphia-born cellist Bartholomew LaFollette and gifted clarinettist Johnny Teyssier from Shoreview, Minnesota won the award in 1996 and 1997 respectively. The Ardán Award offers a young emerging international soloist a platform at the Irish Chamber Orchestra’s international music festival in Limerick, Ireland and subsequent concert appearances with the Irish Chamber Orchestra.

This current tour by the Irish Chamber Orchestra has been made possible thanks to Culture Ireland, Tourism Ireland, Ireland-U.S Council, M&T Bank, Continental Airlines and CRH.

This event is also supported by WSHU National Public Radio.

APRIL                     Anthony Marwood director/violin

J.S.Bach                 from  The Art of Fugue
Gerald Barry           Le Jalousie Taciturne
Mendelssohn           Concerto in D Minor for Violin and Strings
Sibelius                   String Quartet in D minor (Intimate Voices)

Charlotte Eglington, ICO Press Office, Irish Chamber Orchestra,
Foundation Building, University of Limerick, Castletroy, Limerick
T: 353 -61-202583 F: 353-61-202 6217  E: charlotte.eglington@ul.ie

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About Sacred Heart University
Sacred Heart University, the second-largest Catholic university in New England, offers more than 40 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs on its main campus in Fairfield, Connecticut, and satellites in Connecticut, Luxembourg and Ireland. Approximately 5,800 students attend the University’s four colleges: Arts & Sciences; Education & Health Professions; University College; and the AACSB-accredited John F. (Jack) Welch College of Business. The Princeton Review includes SHU in its “Best 366 Colleges: 2008,” U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges 2008” ranks SHU among the best master’s universities in the North, and Intel rates it #11 among the nation’s most “unwired” campuses. SHU fields 32 division I athletic teams, and has an award-winning program of community service. www.sacredheart.edu

For additional Sacred Heart University news, please visit http://www.sacredheart.edu/pressroom.cfm.

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