1. On Thursday 30 June 2016 at 7.30 pm the Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra will give a concert.
The orchestra is based in Annapolis, Maryland, USA and provides young musicians, aged eight to eighteen years, with comprehensive musical and orchestral training. Under the leadership of professional conductors, the orchestra develops excellent performers through weekly rehearsals,
coaching, workshops, competitions, and national and international tours. Thousands of young people have participated in its programmes, and many have gone on to have successful careers as musicians, while others have cultivated a life-long love of music. Their programme will include works by Schubert, Dvorak, and a world premiere by Irish composer Finola Merivale.
2. On Friday 1 July 2016 at 1.00pm a lunch time concert of sacred music will be given, by the Schola Cantorum of Santa Fe, from the American Southwest.
The programme, lasting sixty minutes, will include the music of the American Midwest, the rural American Rocky Mountains and of Mexico, interspersed with medieval chants. As part of Schola’s twenty-fifth anniversary celebrations, concerts will be held in Dublin, Armagh and Galway. Schola's Director, Dr Billy Turney, is particularly pleased to direct the concert in Armagh, as his family originally came from the County. Donations from this concert will support the 2016 Charles Wood Festival of Music and Summer School.
3. On Sunday 3 July 2016 at 4.15pm an organ recital will be given by two organists from America, Ms Nicole Keller and Professor Timothy Olsen.
Nicole Keller is a solo and chamber music recitalist, performing regularly on the organ, piano and harpsichord. She is a faculty member of the Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music in Berea, and serves as the Director of Music at the Community of Saint John in Hudson, both in Ohio.
Having competed in several national and international competitions, Nicole won first prize in 2011 in the North American round of the Michael Tariverdiev International Organ Competition, and earned a place in the second round in Kaliningrad, Russia. She was also awarded the Special Shabyt Prize from the Kazakh National University of Arts in Astana, Kazakhstan for ‘the most promising organist for inspiration and luck’.
Professor Olsen teaches high school, undergraduate and graduate organ courses as the Kenan Professor of Organ at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and Associate Professor of Organ at Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he also serves as Cantor in Augsburg Lutheran Church. He enjoys an accomplished career in organ tuition, performance, and sacred music. He is an enthusiast for twentieth and twenty-first century music, having premiered compositions for organ and for organ/trumpet duo. He also enjoys performing baroque music on period instruments - both as a solo organist and as a continuo player.
The recital programme, given individually and jointly by Nicole and Timothy, will include pieces by Buxtehude, Mozart, Cesar Franck, Frank Ferko and Kenneth Leighton. As with all the recitals in this series, admission is free, with a retiring collection towards the further endowment of the Cathedral choir through the Archbishop’s Choir Fund.
The Very Revd Gregory Dunstan, Dean of Armagh, said, “In the run up to the Fourth of July, circumstances have combined to bring American musicians to the Cathedral on three occasions. From different backgrounds, from across the continent, they will give very different programmes, with something for everyone. As summer holidays begin, we look forward to a festival of music from America.”
For further information, please contact:
St Patrick’s Church of Ireland Cathedral: Tel. 028 37523142