Foreword

WEDNESDAY 24 OCTOBER

SYMPOSIUM ON ‘SINGING, HEALTH & WELLBEING’

Ulster University, Magee FREE ENTRY, OPEN TO ALL

The symposium will focus on a research paper by Dr Hilary Moss, University of Limerick, entitled ‘Sing Yourself Better: The Effects of Singing in a Choir on Health and Wellbeing’, the largest international study of its kind to date. It will include contributions from experts in the field, a panel discussion and a Q&A session. There will also be a special performance by Melodies and Memories, a choir that welcomes older members of the community, especially those living with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

Panel: Professor Brian Irvine MBE, Ulster University, Composer, Conductor Sophie Lee, PhD Candidate, UL, MSc, BA(Mod), LRIAM Dermot O’Callaghan, Association of Irish Choirs Dr Neil Black, Assistant Clinical Director of Acute Services and Consultant Physician, Diabetes & Endocrinology, Western Trust

09.30: Registration 10.00: Welcome, followed by panel discussion 11.00: Performance by Melodies and Memories, directed by Fiona Logue 11.20: Q&A session 11.50: Closing comments CONDUCTING MASTERCLASS

FREE ENTRY, OPEN TO ALL

Guest choir: Ulster University Chamber Choir, directed by Dr. Shaun Ryan

The masterclass will be led by Josep Vila i Casañas, one of the most recognised choral conductors in Catalonia and Spain. Since 2005 he has been a Professor of Choral Conducting at the Music High School of Catalonia. In addition to teaching, he is regularly a guest professor at international masterclasses, and as a chorus master he has collaborated with some of the best conductors in the world, including Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle and Gustavo Dudamel.

This session will include discussions on choral training, conducting techniques, score preparation, repertoire selection and choir management.

12.45: Registration 13.00 – 15.00: Conducting Masterclass

Ulster University Chamber Choir

The Ulster University Chamber Choir has gained popular and critical acclaim for its distinctive performances. Dr. Shaun Ryan, Senior Lecturer in Music and Choral Director, has been instrumental in developing the choir’s reputation over the last 15 years. The choir regularly contributes to charity fundraising, and has been the focus of numerous TV and radio broadcasts.

WEDNESDAY 24 OCTOBER

ULSTER ORCHESTRA AND FESTIVAL CHORUS

Guildhall, 19.30 Presented by John Toal, BBC

Ulster Orchestra

Ragnar Rasmussen, Conductor Dónal Doherty, Chorus Master

PROGRAMME

Symphony No. 40 in G minor, Mozart I Molto Allegro II Andante III Menuettto III Allegro Assai

INTERVAL

Requiem Mass in D minor, Mozart Laura Sheerin, Soprano Doreen Curran, Alto Benito Rodriguez, Tenor Brian McAlea, Bass

I Introitus: Requiem aeternam II Kyrie III Sequenz: Dies Irae Tuba Mirum Rex Tremendae Recordare Confutatis Maledictis Lacrimosa IV Offertorium: Domine Jesu Hostias V Sanctus VI Benedictus VII Agnus Dei VIII Communio: Lux Aeterna The Ulster Orchestra is delighted to bring a programme of Mozart to the City of Derry International Choir Festival. The programme opens with his Symphony No. 40, the middle of a trilogy of symphonies composed in the same 10-week period in 1788. At the time, Mozart was beset by financial woes, the illness of his wife and the failure of the Viennese audience to warm to his latest opera, Don Giovanni. Despite this, he wrote the three symphonies with no commission and no apparent prospect of performance, and they turned out to be a great final trilogy of symphonic works. Symphony No. 40 is regarded as both one of the icons of musical classicism and an early sign of the romantic era on the horizon. It is a powerful work that always leaves a profound impact on listeners, with its dramatic modulations, rhythmic drive and fiery drama. The concert’s second half sees the Orchestra joined by the 2018 Festival Chorus and soloists to perform Mozart’s Requiem. The story behind the work is a total pageturner: from the odd commission, issued anonymously from Count von Walsegg (who intended to pass the work off as his own in memory of his late wife), to an already-ill Mozart, who believed he had been cursed to write his own requiem, through his first attempt to take on writing a Mass for the Dead and finding an extraordinary voice in which to do so, to his untimely death aged 35, leaving the work only two thirds completed. To add further intrigue, it was discovered in the 1950s that a section had been torn from the final page of the manuscript, meaning that, as Mozart worked on the Requiem on his deathbed, it’s highly likely that someone stole the last notes ever written by the composer. It’s no wonder Hollywood made a film about it. All drama aside though, Mozart’s writing in the Requiem fuses all his historical researches in counterpoint with his own advanced style into a piece that is extraordinarily powerful and uniquely heartbreaking. The Requiem looks death in the face in an attitude of profound sadness and loss throughout, though the sublime Recordare gives a glimpse of the serenity of Paradise. The heartwrenching beauty of the piece is a stunning and revolutionary final work from one of the world’s foremost musical geniuses.

WEDNESDAY 24 OCTOBER

ULSTER ORCHESTRA

Founded in 1966, the Ulster Orchestra has been at the forefront of musical life in Northern Ireland and the Orchestra’s full-time musicians form the region’s only professional symphony orchestra.

In 2014 the Ulster Orchestra appointed Rafael Payare as its Chief Conductor. Payare joins a distinguished line of past principal conductors including Bryden Thomson, Vernon Handley, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Dimitry Sitkovetsky,, Thierry Fischer and Kenneth Montgomery. The relationship between Rafael Payare and the Orchestra was further cemented in 2016 when the conductor was made Music Director of the Ulster Orchestra. 2014 also marked the year when Jac van Steen’s relationship with the Orchestra was recognised through his appointment as Principal Guest Conductor.

With a mission to enrich the lives of people living in Northern Ireland, those visiting, and those who encounter it through international touring and regular radio and TV broadcasts with both BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Radio 3, the Orchestra strives for excellence in all it undertakes.

The Ulster Orchestra gives around 40 evening and lunchtime concerts each season in its home, the Ulster Hall, and in the Belfast Waterfront. The Orchestra performs for the BBC Radio 3 invitational concert series at the Ulster Hall and in front of tens of thousands for the BBC’s Proms in the Park celebrations each year.

RAGNAR RASMUSSEN

Ragnar Rasmussen is Professor of Choir Conducting in the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Tromsø and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim. He is the artistic director /conductor of Kilden Vocal Ensemble (Norway), Utopia & Reality Chamber Choir (Europe) and the UArctic World Ensemble (Canada, Scotland, Russia and Norway). He was conductor of the Norwegian National Youth Choir from 2008 to 2010, the World Youth Choir in 2010 and the Catalan Youth Choir in 2014.

Ragnar works frequently as a guest conductor for professional choirs and orchestras, he gives masterclasses for choral conductors throughout Europe and other parts of the world, and he has served on adjudicating panels at international choir and conduction competitions. As a composer, he has written several a cappella works, vocal/instrumental works and an opera, and in 2012 he was recognised as a member of the Norwegian Society of Composers.

DÓNAL DOHERTY

Dónal’s passion for choral music was nurtured as a member of the Schola Cantorum in St. Finian’s College, Mullingar and later at University College Dublin.

He was Head of Music Services for the Western and Southern Regions of Northern Ireland during the period 1996-2016 and was Director of the Music Promise initiative in 2013, a key element of the inaugural UK City of Culture programme in Derry. Dónal fulfilled a long-held ambition in founding the City of Derry International Choir Festival the same year.

As Director of the internationally recognised chamber choir Codetta, he has worked with conductors Sakari Oramo, Vasily Petrenko and David Robertson, as part of the BBC Proms series in London.

Current initiatives include both the ground-breaking Harmony North project based in North Belfast and the Codetta Junior and Youth Choirs in Derry, which were launched in September 2017.