Chamber Choir Ireland to tour Renaissance masterpiece
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Chamber Choir Ireland has just announced details of a nationwide tour.
Servant of Servants, Patron of the Arts, will be led by the choir’s recently appointed artistic director, Gabriel Crouch, and will be part of Cork International Choral Festival on 1 May before touring to Limerick on 7 May, Belfast on 8 May, and Dublin on 12 June.
The programme opens with Missa Papae Marcelli, the Renaissance masterpiece composed by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina in 1552. Speaking ahead of the concert, Chamber Choir Ireland’s artistic director, Gabriel Crouch, encouraged audience members to come and be inspired:
“The two major works in this programme are as different as could be, but they’re joined together by an intriguing connection to the Papacy… Palestrina’s Mass in honour of Pope Marcellus in one of the most sublime compositions of the entire Renaissance—and some have credited it with saving polyphony in the Catholic liturgy. When it was composed in the sixteenth century, church authorities were attempting to purge liturgical music of the more florid qualities that made the words unintelligible; but legend has it that when they heard Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli, they relented! One thing is certain, this is music much too beautiful to ban; and 500 years after Palestrina was born, it’s still one of the great masterpieces ever created for the church.”
Also on the programme are contemporary gems, including Gavin Bryars' early major choral work, On Photography, and Ayanna Woods' The Golden Hour.
“Gavin Bryars is a British composer with a rich catalogue of choral works,” explains Crouch. “This breathtaking piece is based on the poem Ars Photographica or The Art of Photography, written in 1867 by the man who later became Pope Leo XIII. The Golden Hour is a beautiful modern choral piece written in 2023 by the American composer, Ayanna Woods. Both pieces are sublime, I would encourage audiences to come and be inspired.”
Servant of Servants, Patron of the Arts is part of Chamber Choir Ireland’s 30th Anniversary season. Founded in 1996 as Ireland's national chamber choir, the ensemble has led the way in increasing the appreciation of choral music in Ireland, receiving critical acclaim for its national and international tours.
The tour begins at Cork International Choral Festival, where the programme will also feature the winning piece in this year's Seán Ó Riada Composition Competition, Timothy Doyle's Points and Lines. The Dublin concert will feature alumni from the first two years of the CCI Studio, the organisation's training programme for emerging artists, performing side-by-side with the professional singers of Chamber Choir Ireland.
Servant of Servants, Patron of the Arts will take place as part of the Cork International Choral Festival on Friday, 1 May 2026; at St. Mary's Cathedral, Limerick, on Thursday, 7 May 2026; at Fisherwick Presbyterian Church, Belfast, on Friday, 8 May 2026; and at DCU All Hallows Chapel, Dublin, on Friday, 12 June 2026.
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