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He
succeeded the late Professor Aloys Fleischmann as Director
of the Cork International Choral Festival in 1987 and during
the succeeding six festivals was responsible for establishing
both the International Trophy Competition and the tradition
of the Festival opening with performances of major works
from the repertory for choir and orchestra. Through his
work as Chairman of Cumann Náisiúnta na gCór
[The Association of Irish Choirs] - of which he was a co-founder
in 1980 – he has done much to promote the cause of
choral singing in Ireland.
Whilst lecturing in the Music Department of University College,
Cork (1976-92), he founded the UCC Choir and UCC Orchestra
in 1976-77, conducted the UCC Choral Society from 1978 to
1987, and - with Aiveen Kearney - established the Irish
Youth Choir in 1982. Shortly after he was appointed Director
of the Cork School of Music in 1992 he founded the Fleischmann
Choir and, more recently, the Chamber Choir Canticum Novum,
and all these ensembles have achieved recognition throughout
Ireland and abroad for their concerts, broadcasts and competitive
festival appearances.
He
has appeared regularly as a guest conductor with the [New]
Irish Chamber Orchestra and RTÉ’s National
Symphony Orchestra, Concert Orchestra, Chorus and Chamber
Choir - giving over 120 performances with these ensembles
during the last twenty-four years, most of which were broadcast.
He also conducted the Chamber Choir Madrigal ’75 for
twelve years (including some memorable performances and
broadcasts with the RTÉ Vanbrugh String Quartet),
and for nearly a decade he conducted the performances of
large-scale choral and orchestral works given by the Galway
Baroque Singers & Orchestra.
He
has also worked as a guest conductor in Europe and the United
States of America.
For
the last decade he has worked on a regular basis with the
Orchestra of St Cecilia – a chamber orchestra consisting
of members of RTÉ’s National Symphony Orchestra
of Ireland and some of Dublin’s finest freelance players.
Apart from annual performances of Cantatas by J. S. Bach
and regular summer concerts, perhaps the highlight of this
partnership was the series of concerts given annually from
1996 to 1998 presenting the complete Piano Concertos of
Mozart with the internationally renowned Irish pianist,
Hugh Tinney.
Throughout
the month of July 2000 he conducted a series of concerts
devoted to the music of J. S. Bach in St Ann’s Church,
Dawson Street, Dublin, and the National Concert Hall. The
programmes included many of the Brandenburg Concertos, Orchestral
Suites and solo concertos featuring leading Irish soloists
– including Catherine Leonard & Elaine Clarke
(violin), Matthew Manning (oboe & oboe d’amore),
William Dowdall, Madeleine Staunton & Catriona Ryan
(flute), Mark O’Keeffe (trumpet), and Gillian Smith
(harpsichord) - with the Orchestra of St Cecilia. The series
culminated with a concert in the National Concert Hall on
28 July 2000 – the 250th anniversary of the day on
which Bach died in 1750.
For
the Millennium celebrations 350 members of the Irish Youth
Choir, Fleischmann Choir and Cork School of Music Symphony
Orchestra, with Robert Craig (Tenor) performed Berlioz’s
monumental Grande messe des morts under his direction in
Wales and Ireland to great critical acclaim. When the Cork
School of Music celebrated its 125th Anniversary the combined
forces of the Fleischmann Choir, Irish Youth Choir, Canticum
Novum, CSM Senior & Youth Choirs, and CSM Symphony Orchestra
with soloists Mary Hegarty (Soprano), Breffni Horgan (Tenor)
and Martin Higgins (Baritone) performed Orff’s spectacular
Carmina Burana to capacity houses in both Limerick and Cork
– for which they received the Irish Association of
Youth Orchestra’s 2003 Artistic Achievement Award.
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