Saturday 12 March 1.30pm: St Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny

“Lough Derg 1 & 2”—Watershed by Ailís Ní Ríain & Hermit Songs by Samuel Barber
Julie Comparini, contralto
Yonit Kosovske, piano

Watershed is a new song cycle for voice and piano inspired by the natural bodies of water and land in Ireland’s mid-west region and along the Atlantic coast. With music by renowned Irish composer Ailís Ní Ríain and text by Killaloe resident and poet Jessica Brown, it is a song cycle inextricably rooted in place and in nature. Central to the song-texts—which are taken from Jessica’s superb collection, And Say (Revival Press, Limerick 2019)—are themes informed by the writer’s personal interaction with water and the surrounding landscapes in counties Clare and Tipperary. Musicians Julie Comparini and Yonit Kosovske will perform this new work in several venues throughout Ireland in early March 2022.