Ardee Baroque prepare to celebrate 15th year

THE Ardee Baroque festival is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary this year, bringing an enticing programme of music to the mid-Louth town from Friday November 16 to Sunday November 18 with a weekend of music and events.

Ardee Baroque was formed in 2004 by Louth County Council Arts Office and the Irish Baroque Orchestra and the orchestra remains at the heart of the Festival. They return this year with a programme of Italian cantatas, the cornerstone of the baroque era, led by their Artistic Director Peter Whelan with soloists Aisling Kenny and Francesco Giusti. Other events in the weekend include Wintersong by the acclaimed Tonos, featuring Eamon Sweeney and Roisín Ó’Grady, poetry reading by the Meath/Cavan group Lit Lab, workshops in the community and closing with a show stopper concert which features all the best-known and loved baroque music, including the most famous of all, the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah.

Programme director, Pauline Ashwood said: ‘We’re delighted to have reached this milestone anniversary and thrilled that the founding ensemble, the Irish Baroque Orchestra is still anchoring the festival ensuring the quality of music and performance remains as high as possible. One of the many strengths of Ardee Baroque is that while it remains one of the few specialist early music festivals in the country, it also features events that will appeal to those new to the era, such as the closing concert on Sunday afternoon.’

Over the years, Ardee has been host to many special musical events and seen some of the greatest performers of baroque music visit the County Louth town. As the cold and darker evenings draw in, the town gears itself up for an influx of musicians and people to support this great festival.

Opening the Festival on Friday 16 November at 7pm, WinterSong is a concert of Christmas music from the 16–18th centuries for Voice, Lute, Renaissance and Baroque Guitars. Part of a nationwide tour which includes the launch of their new CD, Tonos will also work with two schools in Ardee as part of Music Generation Louth’s impressive education scheme.

Also on Friday evening, in the intimate surrounds of Hatch’s Castle, Lit Lab, a group of published and prize-winning writers from Meath and Cavan whose focus is writing poetry and prose, return to Hatch’s Castle at 8:30pm to read and recite from their latest anthologies.

The Irish Baroque Orchestra remains the headline act for the Festival on Saturday November 17 in St Mary’s Abbey at 7.30pm. Under the direction of Artistic Director Peter Whelan, the orchestra will be joined by singers Aisling Kenny and Francesco Giusti in a concert of baroque duets by Handel and Monteverdi. Described by The Irish Times, Peter Whelan is ‘ as exciting a live wire as Ireland has produced in the world of period performance’. Audiences will remember the flare and dynamism Peter showed when he last directed the orchestra in Ardee for Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

There’s a chance to hear some of the best known and loved Baroque works performed by the musicians of Musici Ireland and Melisma choral group on the Sunday afternoon at 3pm. With works from Vivaldi’s Gloria, Handel’s Water Music, they will also perform the most famous baroque chorus of all time, Handel’s wonderful Hallelujah from the Messiah. This is the perfect closing concert for Ardee Baroque 2018 and is sure to send the audience home singing.

Throughout the course of the weekend, there will be outreach events and community engagements for the people of Ardee.

Full details on the Festival are available on www.ardeebaroque.com Tickets are on sale through An Táin Arts Centre, or www.antain.ie