Music for Galway’s thirty-first annual season of concerts presenting renowned Irish and international musicians has been announced, with a wide line-up of contemporary and classical music events, alongside a number of weekend festivals and specialist concerts, featuring.

The season opens on 11 October with a performance of Shostakovich and Mozart quartets by the RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet, with Andreea Banciu and Adrian Mantu of ConTempo Quartet joining the Vanbrughs for Brahms’ String Quartet No. 1, Op. 18. Concerts featuring Nicola Benedetti, Alexej Gorlatch, Vox Merus, the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra with Barry Douglas, the National Chamber Choir, Black Pencil and ConTempo Quartet follow throughout the season.

Three festivals feature in the season. The Bach Weekend Festival showcases Malcolm Proud performing all six partitas for harpsichord on Friday 17 and Saturday 18 November. The Mid-Winter Festival with ConTempo and Amstel quartets takes place in late-January and features music from Sibelius, Janá?ek, Mozart, Glass, Tüür and Torke, amongst others. The Mozart Festival will run from 23—25 February, and features Marianne Thorsen, Viv McLean and Alice Neary performing a selection of Mozart’s chamber music.

Two concerts celebrating Claude Debussy’s 150th birthday are included in the season, with Rolf Hind performing a solo recital entitled ‘Debussy and beyond…’ on 7 February, and soprano Lenneke Ruiten featuring in a selection of songs by Debussy and Chausson with ConTempo Quartet and pianist Thom Jannsen on 13 March .

Many of the Music for Galway concerts feature a ‘Meet the Musicians’ event, where artists will discuss their work and/or meet with younger musicians.

www.musicforgalway.ie