The Limerick Early Music Festival takes place this week from 18 to 23 March, presenting a six-day programme of concerts, workshops, and talks under the theme Scéalta – Stories. Now in its fifth year, the festival will feature Galician piper Carlos Núñez, Duo Galleon from Ukraine, new music by Australian violist Brook Green and Xenia Pestova Bennett, and a choral concert at St Mary’s Cathedral.

The programme will open on 18 March with a lunchtime concert at St Mary’s Cathedral featuring soprano Leila Clarke-Carr and harpsichordist Yonit Lea Kosovske, followed by the festival launch event at Dance Limerick. The launch events, in collaboration with Mary Immaculate College’s Irish Centre for Transnational Studies (curated by Dr Sabine Egger and Dr Ailbhe Kenny), will include a performance of Ukrainian music by Duo Galleon (Vsevolod Sadovyi and Snezhana Rybal’ska), who have come to Ireland in recent years, and a screening of Intercepted, a documentary by Oksana Karpovych. This feature-length film contrasts the everyday life of Ukrainians since the invasion with intercepted phone conversations between Russian soldiers and their families.

Events on 19 and 20 March will take place at the University of Limerick’s Irish World Academy of Music and Dance. These include a seminar and performance on contemporary music for harpsichord, as well as a free lunchtime concert by students from the MA Classical String Performance programme, in collaboration with Course Director André Swanepoel and Aoife Nic Athlaoich. Australian viol player and composer Brooke Green will also perform.

The festival’s annual Bach and choral music concert will take place on 21 March at St Mary’s Cathedral. The concert, titled Stories of Consolation and Confidence, will feature Ancór, St Mary’s Cathedral Choir, Sagittarius Hiberniensis, the LEMF orchestra, and vocal soloists performing works by Giovanni Gabrieli, Isabella Leonarda, and Dieterich Buxtehude, as well as two Bach cantatas. The event will also introduce the festival’s new Emerging Artist Award, named in honour of the late arts supporter and educator Bertha McCullagh-Ó Briain. The inaugural recipient, violinist Kevin Meehan, will perform a trio sonata by Buxtehude.

The festival will continue on 22 March with a series of public events, beginning with strolling musicians at the Milk Market and a Medieval and Renaissance puppet-making workshop for children at the Belltable Hub with puppeteer Rose Minnema. The Belltable will also host an interactive Baroque concert by Classicalkids.ie.

At 4pm, there will be a talk by Dr Eoin Callery on acoustics and architecture, and that evening at the Belltable there will be a concert titled Slovo: The Tale of Igor. Taking place at 8pm, with a pre-concert talk at 7pm, this is a musical retelling of the failed campaign of Prince Igor Sviatoslavich performed by Wolodymyr Smishkewych (voice and lyre), Vsevolod Sadovyi (early percussion and winds), and Snezhana Rybal’ska (early bowed strings and winds).

Finally, on Sunday 23 March, the festival will present Still, She Rises! at 2pm at the Belltable, a concert of contemporary chamber works for historical instruments, including music by viol player Brooke Green and the world premiere of Baile by Xenia Pestova Bennett. The festival will conclude at 8pm with Celtic Stories of the Cantigas, a performance of medieval pieces by renowned Galician piper Carlos Núñez at St John’s Cathedral.

Speaking about the festival’s fifth edition, co-directors Yonit Kosovske and Vlad Smishkewych said: ‘We have strived, since our very beginnings, to be a place where old and new meet and play shoulder to shoulder. Ancient traditions, contemporary approaches, and music from many cultures all live side by side on our stages, attesting to how we strive to listen back, live in the present, and look forward to the future.’

For more information and tickets, visit www.limerickearlymusic.com.

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