The Tetra Guitar Quartet

The ninth annual Guitar Festival of Ireland is taking place from 25 to 28 April in venues across Dublin. With a mix of Baroque, classical, European traditional and contemporary music, and featuring both solo performers and ensembles, the festival is diverse and open.

Irish performer John Feeley opens the festival with a concert on 26 April in the National Concert Hall, playing his own new arrangements of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cello Suites. The duo of soprano Deirdre Moynihan and guitarist Alec O’Leary follow on the 27 April at Farmleigh House, with a programme that also features Bach, alongside Leo Brouwer, as well as a collection of traditional Spanish songs compiled by poet Federico Garcia Lorca. As well as Irish artists, the festival will feature two Irish debuts: the first by the Tetra Guitar Quartet at the Chester Beatty Library, and the festival’s finale at the National Concert Hall by Italian guitarist Elena Zucchini, a performer known for her performances of contemporary Italian guitar music.

The festival will also host two seminars. To mark the composers’ 25th anniversary, Graham Wade will explore the music of Segovia, and its impact on contemporary guitar music at ‘Remembering Segovia’. In association with the Contemporary Music Centre, composer Stephen Goss will also be conducting a seminar, called ‘Holy Grail of Merry Dance: the delusion of ‘urtext’ in collaborations between guitarists and composers.’ This seminar is a free event, as is the Moynihan/O’Leary duo concert.

For booking and further information click here.

gfi.ie