Walled City Music Festival Programme 2022 by derrychoirfest

23 – 26 June 2022 Walled City Music Festival 2022

Artistic Directors: Cathal Breslin & Sabrina Hu

Brodsky Quartet Sandbox Percussion Ulster Orchestra Acoustronic Mill Ave Chamber Players walledcitymusic.com

WELCOME! We are delighted to welcome you to the 13th Walled City Music Festival in 2022, we are excited to be back live and in-person for the first time since 2020! The last two years have reminded us all about the importance of music to bring people together in challenging times. It has reminded us of the impact that we can make in our community, with engaging and uplifting concerts and outreach activity from the world’s greatest international and local musicians, securing Derry’s place on the world map for cultural experiences. We begin our Festival this year with a performance from the Brodsky Quartet, who are celebrating their 50th Anniversary this year, a remarkable achievement for any quartet. In Christchurch, they will be performing the hair-raising Shostakovich string quartet No.9, and they will be joined by us as the Artistic Directors, performing the beautiful Mozart Flute Quartet in G major, and the powerful Romantic masterpiece, Dvorak Piano Quintet No.2. Before this concert, Derry-born member of the Brodsky Quartet, Paul Cassidy, will speak with Leona O’Neill to present his new book “Got Beethoven.” On Friday night, we have the Ulster Orchestra joined by Acoustronic, a Derry-based ensemble of young musicians with disabilities, in a unique collaboration for the world premiere performance of NI composer Frank Lyons’ new work, “Zoom Time.” This is an exciting culmination of years of collaboration between Acoustronic and the WCM Festival. In the same concert, Belfast-born conductor Matthew Quinn will direct the Ulster Orchestra in a programme with Stravinsky’s Game of Cards, Rossini’s Barber of Seville, and ending with Beethoven’s monumental and dramatic Piano Concerto No.3. The concert will represent a triumphant return to live orchestral concerts in the Millennium Forum. On Saturday night, we are delighted to present the ground-breaking percussion quartet, Sandbox Percussion, who create captivating 2

Walled City Music Festival 2022

concerts that are visually and aurally stunning. They have been described as “exhilarating” by the New York Times, and “utterly mesmerizing” by the Guardian, and they were nominated for two GRAMMY® awards in 2022 for “Seven Pillars,” a new multimedia experiential work by composer Andy Akiho. Their performance of Seven Pillars at the Walled City Music Festival will be one of the most exciting experiences that have ever come to Derry, a concert notto-be-missed in Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin. Three young Irish composers will also have a chance to workshop with their own compositions with Sandbox and composer Andy Akiho, in compositional workshops during Festival week. On Sunday afternoon, we will have a public performance by the Mill Ave Chamber Players, a professional chamber music ensemble based in Phoenix, Arizona. Throughout the Festival week, they will be performing school outreach work in 8 local primary schools in Derry, with a new original work “Aesop’s Fables” by Thomas Breadon Jr. for woodwind quintet and narrator. This project is in collaboration with Northern Ireland Opera and soprano Jolene O’Hara. Sunday at 12pm will be the only performance open to the public, as the perfect familyfriendly event to end the Festival week! We would not have been able to bring together such an exciting festival programme without the kind financial support of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Derry City and Strabane District Council, Ulster University, and KPMG. A special thank you to our Executive Director, Matthew Greenall, our Festival Manager, Fiona Crosbie, our wonderful Board, and our Festival Team for making the 13th Festival one that is not to be missed! Cathal Breslin and Sabrina Hu Artistic Directors

Schedule of Events THURSDAY 23 JUNE Brodsky Quartet and Friends Christ Church, 7.30pm

FRIDAY 24 JUNE Composer Workshop with Sandbox Percussion and Andy Akiho Cultúrlann, 2pm – 5pm Acoustronic and Ulster Orchestra Millennium Forum, 7.30pm

SATURDAY 25 JUNE Sandbox Percussion Cultúrlann, 7.30pm

SUNDAY 26 JUNE Mill Ave Chamber Players St. Augustine’s Church, 12pm

Walled City Music Festival 2022

Opening Gala Concert

The Brodsky Quartet and Friends THURSDAY 23 JUNE CHRIST CHURCH, 7.30PM Krysia Osostowicz (violin) Ian Belton (violin) Paul Cassidy (viola) Jacqueline Thomas (cello) The Brodsky Quartet is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2022 and we are thrilled to welcome them back to the Walled City Music Festival for our Opening Concert in the beautiful surroundings of Christ Church. Since forming in 1972, the award-winning Brodsky Quartet have performed over 3,000 concerts on the major stages of the world and have released more than 60 recordings. To open the 13th Walled City Music Festival, the quartet will be joined by Co-Artistic Directors of the Festival, Cathal Breslin (piano) and Sabrina Hu (flute).

PROGRAMME Mozart: Flute Quartet in G major, K285a I. Andante II. Tempo di menuetto Shostakovich: String Quartet No.9 in E flat major, Op.117 I. Moderato con moto II. Adagio III. Allegretto IV. Adagio V. Allegro Interval Dvorak: Piano Quintet No.2 in A major, Op.81a, B. 155 I. Allegro, ma non tanto II. Dumka: Andante con moto III. Scherzo (Furiant): Molto vivace IV. Finale: Allegro

TICKETS £20/£12 (plus booking fee) available via TicketSource.co.uk/ walled-city-music 4

Walled City Music Festival 2022

Composer Workshop with Sandbox Percussion and Andy Akiho FRIDAY 24 JUNE CULTÚRLANN, 2PM – 5PM Three young composers from Ireland have created brand new works for percussion quartet. The new music will be workshopped by the Sandbox Percussion quartet with guest facilitator Andy Akiho (composer/steel pan), one of the USA’s leading percussionists.

TICKETS Free public admission

Kevin Free: Study on Canaries Trudy Maguire: Phosphenes Cathy Purcell: sNAP!cRACKLE!pOP!

Walled City Music Festival 2022

Acoustronic and Ulster Orchestra FRIDAY 24 JUNE MILLENNIUM FORUM, 7.30PM Walled City Music Festival 2022 presents a unique collaboration between the Ulster Orchestra, conducted by Matthew Quinn, and the award- winning, Derry-based ensemble of young musicians with disabilities, Acoustronic. Founded in 2015, Acoustronic is a collective of gifted performers, improvisers and composers whose work has toured across Ireland as well as to Scotland, London and Lisbon. This concert presents their new commission, Zoom Time, composed for the ensemble and orchestra by Acoustronic and NI composer Frank Lyons. The Festival is also delighted to present Beethoven’s magnificent Piano Concerto No. 3, performed by Derry-born pianist and Co-Artistic Director of the Festival Cathal Breslin, along with other orchestral favourites.

PROGRAMME Acoustronic/Lyons: Zoom Time (world premiere) Stravinsky: Jeu de Cartes Interval Rossini: Overture ‘The Barber of Seville’ Beethoven: Piano Concerto no.3 I.

Allegro con brio

II. Largo III. Rondo – Allegro

TICKETS £20/£12 (plus booking fee) available via Millennium Forum

Sandbox Percussion SATURDAY 25 JUNE CULTÚRLANN, 7.30PM Described as “exhilarating” by The New York Times, and “utterly mesmerizing” by The Guardian, GRAMMY®-nominated ensemble Sandbox Percussion has established themselves as a leading proponent of contemporary percussion chamber music. Brought together by the simple joy of playing together, Sandbox Percussion captivates audiences with performances that are both visually and aurally stunning. Through compelling collaborations with composers and performers, Jonathan Allen, Victor Caccese, Ian Rosenbaum, and Terry Sweeney seek to engage a wider audience for classical music. Sandbox Percussion’s 2021 album Seven Pillars was nominated for two GRAMMY® awards – Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance and Best Contemporary Classical Composition. This evening-length work by Andy Akiho with stage direction and lighting design by Michael Joseph McQuilken is Sandbox’s largest commission to date. The commission of Seven Pillars has been made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Chamber Music America Endowment Fund, and also by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University.

COMPOSED BY ANDY AKIHO

PROGRAMME GRAMMY®-nominated ‘Seven Pillars’

PERFORMED BY SANDBOX PERCUSSION

I A N R O S E N B A U M , J O N N Y A L L E N , T E R R Y S W E E N E Y, V I C T O R C A C C E S E

S TA G E D I R E C T I O N A N D L I G H T I N G D E S I G N B Y MICHAEL JOSEPH McQUILKEN

Music by Andy Akiho Performed by Sandbox Percussion Stage Direction and Lighting Design by Michael Joseph McQuilken

TICKETS £15/£10 (plus booking fee) available via TicketSource. co.uk/walled-city-music

WARNING: This performance features strobe lights, and could potentially trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy.

Image designed by AllHisBark Studio | Maggie Royce

Walled City Music Festival 2022

Mill Ave Chamber Players SUNDAY 26 JUNE ST AUGUSTINE’S CHURCH, 12PM Sabrina Hu (flute) Nikolaus Flickinger (oboe) Thomas Breadon, Jr. (bassoon) Rose French (french horn) Katherine Palmer (clarinet) Jolene O’Hara (narrator)

TICKETS Free entry, family-friendly

The Mill Ave Chamber Players is a professional chamber music ensemble based in Phoenix, Arizona. They have performed throughout the United States, their work has been recognised with several major awards, and they have recorded three albums. Aesop’s Fables, composed by bassoonist and member of the ensemble Thomas Breadon Jr., is a collection of seven short original compositions for woodwind quintet and narrator which explore and expand on the beloved and well-known tales of the Aesopica from ancient Greece. This family-friendly performance will include The Tortoise and The Hare and The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, as well as some lesser-known stories, like The Oak and The Reeds and The North Wind and The Sun. In addition to this lunchtime concert, the Mill Ave Chamber Players will perform Aesop’s Fables in eight local primary schools throughout festival week. Walled City Music Festival is delighted to partner with NI Opera’s Jolene O’Hara as narrator for this project. 12

Walled City Music Festival 2022

BIOGRAPHIES CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTORS CATHAL BRESLIN (PIANO) Cathal Breslin has been praised worldwide as one of the most exciting pianists of his generation with critical acclaim such as “superb intensity and passion” (Cleveland Plain Dealer), “energizing” (Belfast Telegraph), and “a deep connection to the music” (Tampa Oracle), and “noble poetry” (The Independent, London). Born in Derry, Northern Ireland, a growing international career has taken him to concert halls throughout Europe, U.S.A. and Asia. As a chamber musician, Cathal performs as a member of Trio Festivale, and in duo recitals with leading international artists including flutist Sir James Galway, violinists Augustin Dumay and Dmitry Sitkovetsky, flutists Sabrina Hu and Richard Sherman, and cellists Jan Vogler and Raphael Wallfisch. He is currently Assistant Professor of Piano at Arizona State University, School of Music, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.

SABRINA HU (FLUTE) Sabrina has enjoyed an exciting international performing career in many prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall in New York City, the National Concert Hall in Ireland, Beijing University in China, and Seoul, Korea. Sabrina’s performances have been broadcast live on BBC radio and TV, and have been described as “warm, sensitively balanced and flexible” with “emotional engagement...expressive depth” by the Irish Times. Originally from Houston, Texas, Sabrina’s early studies were at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston. She then attended the Mannes College of Music in New York City, Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England, and in 2008, Sabrina completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Michigan State University. 14

GUEST ARTISTS BRODSKY QUARTET Since its formation in 1972 the Brodsky Quartet has performed over 3000 concerts on the major stages of the world and released more than 60 recordings. A natural curiosity and insatiable desire to explore has propelled the group in many artistic directions and continues to ensure them not only a place at the very forefront of the international chamber music scene but also a rich and varied musical existence. Their energy and craftsmanship have attracted numerous awards and accolades worldwide, while ongoing educational work provides a vehicle for passing on experience and staying in touch with the next generation.

SANDBOX PERCUSSION Sandbox Percussion has performed throughout the United States and made their United Kingdom debut in 2019 at the Vale of Glamorgan Festival in Cardiff where they premiered a work by Benjamin Wallace for percussion quartet and fairground organ. In addition to maintaining a busy concert schedule, Sandbox was appointed ensemble-in-residence and percussion faculty at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2021, where they have created a curriculum with entrepreneurship and chamber music at its core. Sandbox has led masterclasses and coachings all around the United States, at institutions such as the Peabody Conservatory, the Juilliard School and Cornell University. In 2016, Sandbox Percussion founded the annual NYU Sandbox Percussion Seminar – a week-long seminar that invites percussion students from across the globe to rehearse and perform some of today’s leading percussion chamber music repertoire at the iconic National Sawdust venue in Brooklyn. 15

Walled City Music Festival 2022

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. 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, be it regular concert performances, learning and community engagement programmes, or creative collaborations across the arts. The Ulster Orchestra gives around 40 evening and lunchtime concerts each season in its home, the Ulster Hall, and in 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.

ANDY AKIHO Andy Akiho is a “trailblazing” (Los Angeles Times) GRAMMY-nominated composer whose bold works unravel intricate and unexpected patterns while surpassing preconceived boundaries of classical music. Known as “an increasingly in-demand composer” (The New York Times), Akiho has earned international acclaim for his large-scale works that emphasize the natural theatricality of live performance. An active steel pannist, the physicality of playing that Akiho experiences is an embedded aspect of his musical practice and naturally extends itself into his compositional output. Music making is inextricably linked to shared human experience for Akiho from inception to performance. Akiho’s compositional trajectory has been an untraditional one, he spent most of his 20s playing steel pan by ear in Trinidad and began composing at 28, and these social roots laid the foundation for his current practice. He can frequently be found composing into the wee hours of the morning at coffee shops, nightclubs, bars and restaurants, taking breaks to get to know those around him. Similarly, Akiho develops relationships with his collaborators as he writes for people, not instruments.

ACOUSTRONIC Acoustronic is a Derry-based ensemble comprised of musicians with and without disabilities who use cutting edge technology, alongside traditional musical instruments, to compose and perform original music. Created by composer and Professor of Music at Ulster University, Frank Lyons, the ensemble has grown out of a ground-breaking concept entitled Inclusive Creativity, which aims to level the playing field in performance and composition for disabled musicians by developing new technologies and methodologies for their use. Acoustronic was formed in 2015 and, over the past few years, the group have performed their original compositions in high profile venues in Lisbon, London, Dublin and, here, in Derry.

Walled City Music Festival 2022

MILL AVE CHAMBER PLAYERS Mill Ave Chamber Players (MACP) is a professional chamber music ensemble based in Phoenix, Arizona. Formed in 2007, MACP has received national recognition in the USA and made several recordings including the recording and publishing of the transcriptions that have become a staple of their repertoire – works by Bach, Gabrieli, Hindemith, Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, and Tchaikovsky. The Mill Ave Chamber Players are dedicated to bringing engaging concerts into the community. They are featured in a permanent exhibit at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, are currently ensemble in residence at Phoenix College and hold an annual summer chamber music camp. Mill Ave Chamber Players have recorded three albums: Impressions (2018) with commissions by John Steinmetz, Kerry Turner, Thomas Breadon, Jessica Meyer and Robert Springer; What the Birds Said (2016) with the music of John Steinmetz; and Mill Ave Chamber Players (2014).

THANK YOU! FUNDERS

PARTNERS

Arts Council of Northern Ireland

Ulster Orchestra NI Opera Ulster University

SPONSOR KPMG

FESTIVAL TEAM Cathal Breslin, Artistic Director Sabrina Hu, Artistic Director

JOLENE O’HARA, NI OPERA Jolene is an actor/singer born in Belfast who has appeared in numerous theatre productions including Dear Ireland – Wiper at Work, (The Abbey Theatre, Dublin), Polly in Good Vibrations (Lyric Theatre, Belfast), Pumpgirl in Pumpgirl (Decadent Theatre Company) and Logainne in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (The Mac). She has worked with Northern Ireland Opera on several of their most recent productions including providing the vocal for ‘White Ribbon’ commissioned by NI Opera and The Ulster Orchestra written by Ruth McGinley and Duke Special for Women’s Aid. Jolene has appeared on screen in Eat the Rich (RTÉ Storyland), My Mother and Other Strangers (BBC), Marú (RTÉ), Scúp (RTÉ) and Cracking Crime (RTÉ). Jolene has also been a main vocalist in Lush! Classical at The SSE Arena, Belfast with The Ulster Orchestra every year since 2016 and is one half of singing duo ‘O’Hara’ with her sister Philippa. 18

Matthew Greenall, Executive Director Fiona Crosbie, General Manager Johanne Jefferson, Social Media Coordinator

SPECIAL THANKS TO Pól Sheerin, PS Audio Aligned, Graphic Design Peter Meenagh, Web Design Anne Bergin, Education Authority Music Service Ronan McKee, Percussion Hire

Tickets are available via TicketSource or Millennium Forum TicketSource.co.uk/walled-city-music Brodsky Quartet and Friends Thursday 23 June, Christ Church, 7.30pm (£20/£12) Sandbox Percussion Saturday 25 June, Cultúrlann, 7.30pm (£15/£10) Millennium Forum Acoustronic and Ulster Orchestra Friday 24 June, Millennium Forum, 7.30pm (£20/£12)