Early Music Day Weekend: 20-21 March, 2021

The Treaty City’s own Early Music Festival is finally here! Although a pandemic year has put the dampers on live performances for the better part of 2020 and into 2021, H.I.P.S.T.E.R. and Now and Then Media, Ltd. bring early music from the banks of the Shannon River to a global audience with the inaugural edition of the Limerick Early Music Festival.

Every year on the 21st of March is Early Music Day, celebrated on Bach’s birthday. Limerick Early Music Festival (LEMF) also happens this weekend in the medieval city of Limerick. This year, all events are held online over two days from 20-21 March and are in conjunction with the Europe-wide European Early Music Network, REMA, and the newly-formed Irish Early Music Network.

Limerick Early Music Festival is produced by Now and Then Media Ltd. and H.I.P.S.T.E.R., which promotes performance, teaching and research through historically informed concerts, courses and media in order to increase early music study and audience reception in Ireland, particularly in the Limerick area. The festival is supported by funding from Arts Council Ireland and the Limerick City & County Council Arts Office.

FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

SATURDAY 20 MARCH
12pm Opening message from LEMF directors Yonit Kosovske and Vlad Smishkewych

12:15 Official welcome from LEMF ambassador & Limerick native Caoimhe de Paor

12:30 Performance of Palisander Recorder Quartet

1pm Lunchtime concert with Rachel Factor, harpsichord, performing works by J.S. Bach and Jacques Duphly

2pm Instrument exhibit video with Andrew Lawrence-King: Regal Organ

2:30pm Instrument exhibit video with Andrew Lawrence-King: Medieval Bells

3pm Hidden Soundscapes Documentary: Alive Again
The Repair and Restoration of a Harpsichord in Limerick
Featuring interviews and performances by:
Restorers Aiden Scanlon and Michael Laffan
Limerick School of Music faculty Maria O’Brien, Cecilia Madden, and Peter Barley
LEMF co-director and harpsichordist Yonit Kosovske

SUNDAY 21 MARCH

12pm Instrument exhibit video with Benjamin Bagby, Medieval 6-string Harp

12:30pm Instrument exhibit video with Andrew Lawrence-King, Conductors & Conducting

1pm Performance video: Maria dolce by Francesca Caccini, with Aisling Kenny, soprano & Yonit Kosovske, harpsichord

2pm Educational historical dance workshop and performance video with Mary Collins & Steve Player

3pm WAVE~LINKS video: Lines and Bridges with Nina Falk, baroque violinist & glass artist

3:30pm Shades, Shapes, and Shadows: J.S. Bach’s “Allemande” in Monochrome
Flautist and photographer Teddie Hwang will premiere a new slideshow featuring monochromatic photography and the “Allemande” from J.S. Bach’s Partita in A Minor for solo flute, played on the baroque transverse flute (flauto traverso). Following the premiere, she will share her thoughts about music and photography, as well as her process in putting the work together.

6:15pm Pre-concert Lecture Antonio Cascelli, NUI Maynooth
“I baci, The Kisses: Music & Text in Sacred and Secular Music of 17th Century Italy”

7pm Mainstage concert (Ticketed: tickets available through Eventbrite)
I baci: The Kisses
Sacred and Secular Music in 17th century Italy
Works by: Strozzi, Monteverdi, Merula, Frescobaldi, and Corbetta

Vocalists:
Rhiannon Giddens, Laura Howes, Cecilia Madden, Mícheál P Ó Súilleabháin, Vlad Smishkewych, Eve Stafford, and Zoë Stedje
Instrumentalists: Peter Barley, Yonit Kosovske, and Eamon Sweeney