Schedule of events released for Tullamore International Summer Organ Series 2024

The Tullamore International Summer Organ Series will celebrate its Silver Jubilee this year and the series will run for four nights in July under the stewardship of Professor Gerard Gillen who has been Artistic Director from the outset.

Professor Gillen has announced his decision to step down as Artistic Director at the end of this year’s series. His replacement will be announced in due course. The event will take place in the Church of the Assumption, Tullamore and the organ will be the large and wonderful Frobenius instrument gifted to Tullamore Parish by the Lutheran Community of Copenhagen.

All the action in the Organ Gallery will be projected, as usual, on to a large screen for the audience to enjoy.

The schedule of events are listed below:

Night 1: Tuesday, July 2 at 8pm

Prof. Gerard Gillen (Organ) and the Tullamore Academy Chamber Choir

The Academy Chamber Choir was founded in September 2008 as part of a performing groups’ initiative undertaken by The Academy of Music in Tullamore. Under the leadership of Ciarán Brady, it has won numerous prizes and accolades in the intervening years. Ciarán Brady is founder and director of the choirs, and is an Honours graduate in Music from Maynooth University.

The Choir will perform the wonderful Missa Brevis by Dutch composer, Jacob de Haan. This is a major, modern sacred work but very much in the traditional style.

Gerard Gillen was Professor and Head of Music at Maynooth University from 1985 to 2007, and was Titular Organist of Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral from 1976 to 2018. He is widely regarded as one of Ireland's leading church and concert organists. Gerard will play organ works by some of the great composers like Bach, Sweelinck and Guilmant as well as pieces by modern composers such as Randall Stroope, Paula Mealor and Moses Hogan.

Night 2: Tuesday, July 9 at 8pm

Charles Marshall (Organ) and Bogdan Sofei (Violin)

Charles Marshall has been Organist and Director of Music at St Ann's Church, Dawson St in Dublin since 2009 and has given organ recitals on all the great organs in Ireland. He lived in Japan for 14 years from 1994 to 2008 studying satsumabiwa, and is regarded as a highly accomplished exponent of this challenging instrument.

Bogdan Sofei is the leader, violinist/founding member of ConTempo Quartet, a celebrated String Quartet that has been RTE's Quartet in Residence since 2014 and has been Galway's Ensemble in Residence since 2003. He is also the concertmaster of Luminosa, Galway’s first professional permanent orchestra, founded in 2018.

Their exciting programme includes music by: Gustav Jensen, Léon-Edgar Saint-Réquier, William Lloyd Webber, Johann Severin Svendsen and the outstanding Irish composer, Charles Villiers Stanford.

Night 3: Tuesday, July 16 at 8pm

Dónal McCann (Organ) and Maryam Wocial (Soprano)

Born in Belfast, Dónal McCann is the Assistant Organist at New College, Oxford. His musical education began as a chorister at St Peter’s Cathedral, Belfast, before taking up organ lessons with Professor Gerard Gillen at St Mary’s Pro Cathedral, Dublin. He achieved the prestigious diploma of Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists at the age of 17, and was awarded the Limpus Prize for the highest practical mark in the examination.

British soprano Maryam Wocial is a Poppy Holden Scholar at the Royal College of Music, where she is studying for a master’s degree with Dinah Harris. Maryam previously read Music at Lincoln College, Oxford University, where her studies were supported by the Henrey Bursary and the Lord Crewe Scholarship. She has performed as a solo recitalist at the Handel Hendrix House and as a soloist in several venues including the Royal Albert Hall and the Fairfield Halls.

Their programme is drawn from works by Georg Friedrich Handel, Louis Vierne and, once again, the wonderful C V Stanford.

Night 4: Tuesday, July 23 at 8pm

Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin (Organ)

Madame Cauchefer-Choplin studied organ from an early age at the École Nationale de Musique of Le Mans before entering the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris, in her teens where she studied organ with Rolande Falcinelli. She has had an extensive international career, giving recitals throughout Europe, Russia, Japan, Singapore, China, Iceland, The United States, Canada, and Australia.

Her programme will include J S Bach, Rachel Laurin, Gabriel Peirné, Dénis Bédard and Charles-Marie Widor. She will also include some improvisations at which she excels.

Tickets are available at the Esker Arts Centre Box Office online or at the door. After each concert, there is an opportunity to chat the artists in the Parish Centre over a glass of wine.