Watch this page for news and updates as we get our 25th Hopkins Festival in shape. This is going to be a unique celebration of poet Gerard Manley Hopkins and his interest in all the Arts.
Venue: Newbridge College Theatre Saturday July 23rd at 8 pm Tickets €30 Buy Concert Tickets here
Programme Highlights
Anthony Byrne (on Steinway Grand) includes Beethoven Apassionata Sonata and music by Debusy and Liszt's beatiful Liebestraum and Hungarian Rhapsody .
Mairéad Buicke's programme includes songs for every taste from Gershwin to Strauss to Puccini to Richard Rogers.
Pianist Anthony Byrne has given many recitals and broadcasts both RTE and the BBC including his Dublin debut, National Concert Hall 1985, London debut, Purcell Room 1986 and Wigmore Hall 1989. He has performed extensively with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and RTE Concert Orchestra including the Irish première of Leroy Anderson's Piano Concerto in 1997. He has also performed in the USA, Canada and Japan. As a Chamber musician, he has worked with many of Ireland's leading musicians and singers. Anthony Byrne is an Associate of the Royal College of Music, London and in 1993 was honnoured in Japan with the Ishibashi Zogoro Memorial Scholarship for his work in Contemporary Irish Music. He has also been listed in the Encyclopedia of Ireland 2003 and Who's Who in Ireland 2006.
Mairead Buicke has performed in Concerts, recitals and opera in such venues as the National Art Gallery of Ireland, the National Concert Hall Dublin, Farmleigh House Dublin, University Concert Hall Limerick and also in Italy, Scotland and the USA.
Mairead sang as a young associate artist with Opera Theatre Company in 2004 and also joined the young artist programme at the Aix en Provence Festival in 2005. Operatic engagements have included Maøenka The Bartered Bride for Mid Wales Opera and concert performances as Mimi La Bohème and Fiordiligi with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra, title role in Wallace's Maritana with the RTE Concert Orchestra and Amor L'Egisto with the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
Mairéad joined the young singers programme at English National Opera for the 2007/2008 season, and roles there have included Pamina and 1st Lady Die Zauberflöte , Sylviane The Merry Widow , Paquette Candide , Karolka Jenufa and 2nd Niece Peter Grimes . Further engagements have included Gretel Hänsel und Gretel (concert performance) with the RTE National Symphony. Symphony No. 8 and Symphony No. 4 with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra, Ravel Shéhérazade with the RTE Concert Orchestra, Verdi Requiem (National Concert Hall, Dublin) and Messiah with the Orchestra of St Cecilia and her debut in a series of Viennese Concerts for English Northern Philharmonia in 2006. Mairéad is also a keen recitalist and as such has appeared at the Wexford Festival, Music for Galway Festival, the Boyle Arts Festival, Bantry Chamber Music Festival and at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. She has also appeared in recital with the Aix en Provence Academy Festival, The Metropolitan Club, New York, the House of Lords, London and at Leighton House. Mairéad also recently completed a series of recitals in Ireland promoted by the Irish Music Network.
Recent engagements include Governess (cover) The Turn of the Screw and Elettra (cover) Idomeneo for ENO and Barber's Knoxville Summer of 1915 for the RTE National Symphony Orchestra on tour in Ireland. Engagements in 2010/2011 include Musetta La Bohème for ENO and title role Tosca for Grange Park Opera at Nevill Holt. Mairéad is the recipient of ENO's Audrey Gunn Award.
