Music
EVENING SERENADE - An evening of music & spoken word
Klaas Jan de Vries (organ), Oisin Walsh-Peelo (harp), Linsey Dempsey (soprano) and Emer Barry (soprano). With Nell Regan, poet.
Date: Friday 28th May
Time: 8pm (Doors open at 7pm)
Where: Chapel, Dominican Convent, Wicklow Town. (Bring a cushion!)
Admission: €12 / €10 concession ( includes refreshment before concert )
Programme :
Danny Boy
My Lagan Love
Lord Inchquin
- Poetry -
An Coitin Dearg
- Poetry -
Apres un reve
Nacht und Traume
Sure on this shining night
- Poetry -
Tornami
Work for Organ by Donnacha Dennehy (1992 rev. 1998)
Humperdink Duet
The Lake Isle of Inisfree
The Bold Unbiddable Child
Klaas Jan de Vries was born in the Netherlands and came to Ireland in 1996. He lives in Wicklow where he runs a music and coaching practice. He studied organ with Hans van Nieuwkoop at the Sweelinck Conservatory Amsterdam, and with Una Russell at DIT Conservatory of Music. Engaged in performing, arranging, conducting, and teaching music, his special interest lies in the areas of contemporary music, improvised music and composing.
Soprano Linsey Dempsey holds a Bachelor of music performance degree from the D.I.T Conservatory of Music and Drama where she studied with Toni Walsh and Mary Brennan. She has performed in operas and concerts around the country and abroad. Operatic roles include Marcellina in The Marriage of Figaro, Mercedes in Carmen, Martha in Faust and most recently she performed with Anna Livia opera festival as Giovanna in Rigoletto. Linsey has been involved with Opera Ireland for many years, a prize-winner at many music competitions and has performed for President McAleese. She is currently continuing her studies in London.
The musical journey of seventeen year-old Oisín Walsh-Peelo began at six years old when he started learning the piano. He is currently a student of Mirette Dowling 
in Wicklow and recently won the John Swan Diamond Studio Award at the Arklow Music Festival.
At twelve, he pursued his dream of playing the Harp and began lessons with Áine Ní Dhubhghaill at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin. He took to the instrument very quickly and in March of this year won the O’Farrell Cup for Irish harp at the Feis Ceoil in Dublin.
Oisín has also excelled in singing as a boy treble winning numerous prizes at festivals including the prestigious Feis Ceoil Boys Solo at the age of eleven. In 2005 he made his operatic debut with Opera Ireland as the First Boy in Mozart’s Magic Flute. Most recently his young baritone voice won him first prize in the Senior Boys Solo at Kilcoole Music Festival Nov. 2008, he studies singing with his mother, soprano Toni Walsh in Ashford.
Oisín is passionate about music, he is a keen guitarist and plays frequent concerts with his brother Tadhg in their band “Mo Hat Mo Gheansaí”.
Emer Barry has an honours degree in Music and Italian from UCD and holds a Masters in Music Performance from the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama.
She has performed extensively throughout Ireland as a soloist on both the concert platform and as guest soprano with choral societies and orchestras. She is a regular soloist at the National Concert Hall and has performed as guest soprano with leading Irish composer and singer Liam Lawton. Recent operatic roles include Fulvia in Rossini’s La Pietra del Paragone , Nedda in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart. Most recently she played the female lead role of Serpina in La Serva Padrona which toured the north of Italy in July 2009.
Bursaries and prizes include the John Mc Cormack and Oliver O’Brien bursaries from the John Mc Cormack Society of Ireland, the Stevenson award for overall vocal championship at Ballymena Music Festival and the RTE Lyric fm bursary for most promising singer at the Feis Ceoil, Sligo, 2007. Currently she is studying with Kathleen Tynan at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
Nell Regan's debut collection Preparing for Spring (Arlen House) was shortlisted for the 2007 Glen Dimplex New Writing Awards, the 2008 Strong Awards and the Vincent Buckley Award. She is also the recipient of the 2007 Dublin City Literature Bursary. Her non fiction work includes the first biography of Helena Molony in Female Activists, Irish Women and Change (Woodfield Press) and Volume 4 of the Field Day Anthology. She has just returned from a reading tour in San Francisco and Los Angeles supported by Culture Ireland. She lives and teaches in Dublin and is currently working on her second collection.
Poetry Reading funded by Poetry Ireland
WICKLOW ROCKS
Battle of the Bands
Date : Saturday 29th May
Time : 5pm
Where : Wicklow GAA Hall, Dunbur Road.
Admission : €5 on door This is a strictly non-alcohol event
It's the gig not to be missed! See Wicklow's hottest acts battle it out for the top prize of studio recording time and professional photo shoot. Teenage singer/songwriters and bands will find details of how to enter on this page.
Congratulations to Darragh and Elaine Cullen who won first prize and Tin Soldier who won 2nd prize!
Sponsored by Hideout Records
BOCS SOCIAL- Live @ the Leitrim
Bocs Social are a seven-piece band based in the seaside town of Wicklow, Ireland, playing their unique blend of ska/pop/funk.
Date : Saturday 29th May
Time : 9.30pm
Where : The Leitrim Lounge, the Murrough
Admission : FREE
The band initially formed in 2001 as "Well Known Socialites" but after a 4 year break have reformed and are now stronger than ever. Their collective musical influences have since swept the band towards more of a Ska/Funk sound. Their aim was to make music to dance to. Within the first few months of Bocs Social's creation the band had already played in highly regarded venues such as Eamonn Doran’s, Whelan’s and The Think Tank, as well as several appearances in their home town. They have since went on to win Dublin's infamous 'King Kong Club' competition, hold a residency in Pravda, Dublin and also released 2 self funded E.P's to great reviews (Hot Press, Red Track Music, Phantom FM.. and more!)
Their bouncy brand of ska/funk music never fails to exhilarate the crowd, and their motto of making music to dance to can be seen on the dance floor at any of their gigs. Their influences range from The Specials to Sublime to Ben Harper to Stevie Wonder to Jurassic 5 to Supergrass to Blur to even Orbital .. which is clearly reflected in their music.
Check out Bocs Social on myspace
QUARANTINE HILL
Date : Saturday 29th May
Time : 9.30pm
Where : The Old Forge, Abbey Street.
Admission : FREE
Wicklow's own acoustic rock specialists, Quarantine Hill, are a band that have been gigging and recording since 2003 having started out under the name Radiowaves. Comprising of lead vocalist and original band member Mickey Lacey with Rob Rowden, Ian Tolan, Derek Treacy and Luke Lacey, Quarantine Hill are currently working on their latest album "Quicksand", due out this summer.
Check out Quarantine Hill here or see them perform live on youtube
OLTREMARA - A family friendly celebration of Italian culture, music, dance & food
Date: Sunday 30th May
Time: From 5pm
Where: Casapepe, Main St., Wicklow town.
Enjoy an Italian style meal to the music and dance of folk fusion band Oltremara. Check out restaurant menu here, phone Casapepe on (0404) 62050 to book a table.
Oltre...the Italian for beyond or over, Mara.....the Irish for the sea.
Oltremara's vision is to introduce the Mediterranean's musical and folk heritage to a new audience and to create a cultural fusion of the traditional music, song and dance of Southern Italy and Ireland.
The 5 band members met in Ireland by chance and all of them come from different musical and dance backgrounds. Inspired by traditional dance and ancient folk tales, all of the band's songs reflect their cultural heritage while experimenting with new sounds to bring a fresh and exciting experience to their audience.
Music Network presents
MAIRÉAD BUICKE AND DEGANI ENSEMBLE
Alan Smale (violin), John Lynch (viola), David James (cello), Ruby Ashley (oboe) and Mairéad Buicke (soprano)
Date: Sunday 30th May
Time: 8pm (Doors open at 7pm)
Where: Church of Ireland, Church Hill. (Bring a cushion!)
Admission: €16 / €14 concession
Programme:
Mozart- Oboe Quartet in F
Schubert- String Trio Movement in B flat
Gounod- Aubade, Serenade
Ravel- Deux Melodies Hebraiques
Bellini- Vaga Luna Che Inargenti
Britten- Phantasy Quartet
Morison- Island Moon
She Moves Through the Fair
Salley Gardens Arr. David Munro
Moeran- Fantasy Quartet
Mairéad Buicke was born in Limerick and studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music with Dr. Veronica Dunne. The winner of several prizes in Ireland, Mairéad was a semi finalist as well as a special prizewinner at the 2004 Belvedere International Singing Competition in Vienna. Mairéad is a graduate of the National Opera Studio, London and is also a Bank of Ireland Millennium Scholar and a Young Associate Artist with Opera Theatre Company, Dublin.
Past engagements include, Beethoven’s Music from Egmont with RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and Gerhard Markson, Ravel’s Sheherezade with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra at the National Concert Hall, a Gala Concert with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and Laurent Wagner and an operatic concert with the Ulster Chamber Orchestra conducted by Stephen Barlow. Mairéad has taken part in recitals at the Music for Galway Festival, Leighton House in London, Bantry Chamber Music Festival, Music for Wexford Festival and The Aix en Provence Academy Festival as well as lunchtime recitals for the National Opera Studio, London.
Engagements in 2009 to 2010 include Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra; the Governess (understudy) in Benjamin Britten’s Turn of the Screw and Elettra (understudy) from Mozart’s Idomeneo for English National Opera. Mairéad is the recipient of English National Opera’s Audrey Gunn Award.
The Degani Ensemble was first formed in the mid 1980s by a group of young musicians keen to explore a wide variety of chamber music for wind and strings. Based around oboe and string trio, the ensemble made the inaugural tour of Music Network in 1986, as well as numerous Dublin concerts and media broadcasts. Having diversified into larger scale chamber music in the 1990s, the group was re-formed four years ago by founder members Ruby Ashley (oboe), Alan Smale (violin) and David James (cello). John Lynch (viola) was subsequently added, bringing a wealth of chamber music experience to the chosen repertoire.
See Mairead Buicke on youtube here.
Floral arrangements sponsored by Austen Flowers & Events
