Helen Hancock (Soprano), Annalisa Monticelli (Piano), and Christopher Moriarty (clarinet) have just announced a music concert at Castletown House, on Saturday 30th September at 20:00.  Tickets are now available via EventBrite HERE. 

From racism to childhood innocence and magic, from isolation to idealism to a longing for a different world, this program explores a child’s ruminations from many perspectives. It also includes several pieces for soprano, clarinet, and piano including Schubert’s famous Der Hirt auf dem Felsen (Shepherd on a Rock) and Songs of Innocence by Arnold Cooke. Songs for voice and piano by Schubert, Lili Boulanger, and Irish composer Frederick May also feature, as does Fauré’s famous Elegy No. 24 for clarinet and piano, and a solo piece for clarinet, Draíocht, composed by Christopher Moriarty.

The concert will also feature the world premiere of Christopher Moriarty’s ‘Phosphorescence’ for soprano, clarinet, and piano. Christopher composed both poetry and music for the original work. He addressed his experience of growing up as a queer artist in Celbridge near Castletown House. Delving into poetic metaphors about queerness’s intangibility and what that has meant for his artistic life. In the Canon of Irish Art and Music (specifically notated music), there is little to no music that aims at explicitly presenting queer people’s lived experiences in Irish society.

The music program will include the following and will be approx. an hour long including the premiere of Phospherence.

Auf dem Strom – F.Schubert
Elegy – G.Faure,arr.C.Moriarty
Clairières dans la ciel (No.1 & 2) – L.Boulanger
Draíocht – C.Moriarty
Der Hirt auf dem Felsen – F.Schubert
Phosphorescence- C.Moriarty
The Little Black Boy – Frederick May
Three Songs of Innocence – A.Cooke

From the onset, the artists wish to acknowledge our gratitude to the Arts Council for the Agility Award for supporting this concert.

More info on the concert cast:

Annalisa Monticelli is a highly sought-after musician (pianist), performing internationally as a soloist, with ensembles and various orchestras. She studied classical and jazz piano, voice, conducting, chamber music, and music education in Italy, Argentina, and the USA. Since her arrival in Ireland, she has appeared in all major Irish venues and released several CDs. In recent years she has performed in Warsaw, Zurich, Vilnius, Glasgow, Paris, Johor Bahru (Malaysia), Madrid, and toured the USA. She is an eclectic musician, that loves performing classical music alongside Tango, Jazz, and Latin- American Music; both as a pianist and a singer.

Helen Hancock is a freelance soprano whose passions include art, song, chamber music, and baroque music. Helen most recently performed a section of Baroque songs and arias at the closing concert of The Galway Early Music Festival 2023 – Crossroads – with Mark Keane harpsichord and Vox Orbis Choir. Helen delivered an evening recital of opera and art song at Farmleigh House, Dublin in April with pianist Órán Halligan with whom she also did a recent recital at St. Anns, Dawson St, Dublin. “The Lark in the Clear air” was performed at the Mick Lally Theatre, Galway in March with pianist Annalisa Monticelli and clarinetist Berginald Rash. The program included chamber music works ‘Der Hirt auf dem Felsen’ and ‘Songs of Innocence by Arnold Cooke’.

Clarinetist and composer Christopher Moriarty is one of his generation’s most accomplished artists. Described by the New York Epoch Times as a “…virtuoso clarinetist…” with “…élan and virtuoso flair” for his debut performance as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, New York with the New York Sinfonietta his duel career as performer and composer of art music has gone from strength to strength. As a clarinetist, he won the Irish Freemasons Young Musician of the Year and the Jago Award at the RDS Bursary Awards. He has been invited to perform as a soloist with both the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and the RTE Concert Orchestra in the works of Nielsen, Copland, and Mozart.