Irish Baroque Orchestra & Late Night Lute Recital
Prodigies and Premieres
The Irish Baroque Orchestra, with mezzo-soprano Sharon Carty and director Claire Duff, performs 17th and 18th Century Italian Arie di Baule (‘suitcase arias’), including works never previously performed or recorded in Ireland. The main concert is followed by a late night recital as Thomas Dunford plays solo lute music by John Dowland and J.S. Bach.
Irish Baroque Orchestra | “Prodigies and Premieres” N. Porpora: In braccio a Mille furie from “Semiramis riconosciuta” G. Kapsberger: Toccata no.1 for solo lute G.F. Handel: Mi lusinga il dolce affetto from the opera “Alcina” F.M. Veracini: Fugo, o Capriccio con Quattro soggetti for strings and continuo N. Porpora: Parto , ti lascio from the opera “Germanico in Germanio” A. Vivaldi: Trio sonata in d minor, RV 63 “La Follia” A. Vivaldi: Sonata a 4 ‘al Santo Sepolcro’ RV 130 A. Vivaldi: Sovvente il sole from “Andromeda Liberata” G. Kapsberger: Toccata no.6 for solo lute J.A. Dalza: Calata ala spagnola for solo lute R. Broschi: Qual guerriero in campo armato from the opera “Idaspe” Thomas Dunford | “Late-night Lute: From Dowland to Bach” [Thomas Dunford] John Dowland Fortune A fancy Semper Dowland Semper Dolens Miss’s Winter’s Jump A dream King of Denmark’s Galliard Melancholy Galliard La mia Barbara Lachrimae Frog Galliard J.S. Bach Suite in G minor, BMV 995 The Irish Baroque Orchestra is like no other group performing in Ireland today. Driven by the belief that the best things in life stand the test of time, the orchestra allows Irish audiences to experience the beauty of baroque music as it was intended to be heard. Under the inspirational artistic direction of Monica Huggett, each member of the orchestra continuously seeks to explore the playing techniques and performance styles of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and performs only on baroque instruments or modern replicas. The result is as vivid as a freshly restored oil painting: the colour, simmering tension, and highly charged emotion of this incredible music bursts to the surface, carrying the listener back 300 years to the fascinating sights and sounds of 18th Century Europe. Although the IBO has its roots in the past, it is a dynamic and constantly evolving organisation with its sights firmly set on the future. Today, its exceptional musicians perform regularly throughout Ireland and abroad, and continue to receive widespread critical acclaim.
The IBO Chamber Soloists (IBOCS) is a formidable smaller ensemble comprising core players, and this permits further possibilities for vibrant and memorable performances of smaller projects. The IBO seeks to keep the tradition of baroque music alive for future generations, and so education and recording initiatives are a vital aspect of its work.
From 2008 – 2013 the orchestra was ensemble in residence at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama. In March 2013 the IBO became resident at the National Concert Hall Dublin where it works regularly with national and international students on baroque repertoire and playing techniques. ‘Flights of Fantasy’, a recording of early Italian chamber music was released in 2010 on the Avie label, and received a glowing international response. The disk was subsequently listed in the New Yorker’s most memorable moments in music for 2010: top recording of the year. The Irish Baroque Orchestra is generously funded by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon. It also receives financial support from Dublin City Council. The orchestra has its own collection of period instruments, purchased some years back with the assistance of an Arts Council capital grant and the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.
Thomas Dunford (lute) [IBO Thomas Dunford 2]
Born in Paris in 1988, Thomas Dunford discovered the lute at the age of nine, thanks to his first teacher Claire Antonini. He completed his studies in 2006 at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris (CNR), when he obtained a unanimous First Prize with honours in the class of Charles-Édouard Fantin. Thomas continued his studies at the Schola Cantorum in Basel with Hopkinson Smith, and was awarded his Bachelor’s degree in 2009.
IBO Thomas Dunford 2
From September 2003 through to January 2005, Thomas gave his first performances playing the role of the lutenist in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night on stage at the Comédie Française. Since then, Thomas has played recitals in New York’s Carnegie Hall and London’s Wigmore Hall, and made numerous solo or ensemble appearances in the most prestigious European festivals, including Ambronay, Arc La Bataille, Bozar, La Chaise-Dieu, Nantes, Saintes and Utrecht, and has also performed further afield in the United States, Israel, China, Japan and India. Thomas has recorded extensively with leading ensembles including Cappella Mediterranea, Ensemble Clematis, La Serenissima, À Deux Violes Esgales, Capriccio Stravagante, Pygmalion and Arcangelo. He is attracted to a wide variety of music including jazz, and has collaborated in chamber music projects with conductors and soloists including Paul Agnew, Leonardo García Alarcón, Nicola Benedetti, Alain Buet, William Christie, Jonathan Cohen, Christophe Coin, Iestyn Davies, Bobby McFerrin, Monica Huggett, Alexis Kossenko, François Lazarevitch, Anne Sofie von Otter, Hugo Reyne, Skip Sempé and Jean Tubéry.
