The Limerick Pipe Organ Festival 2016 will be launched this Saturday 14 May in the Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick, at 4.00pm. Following the launch, a free organ concert will be held in the nearby Sacred Heart Church. The concert will be performed by Daniel Battle, the resident organist in the Sacred Heart Church, who has previously performed in Saint Mark’s Basilica in Venice, Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin and Gloucester Cathedral in England.
The following pieces will be performed on the night:
• Fanfare (La Péri) – Paul Dukas
• Prelude and Fugue in G minor – Dietrich Buxtehude
• A Voluntary for the Trumpet stop – John Stanley
• Pièce d’Orgue (BWV 572) – J. S. Bach
• Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr (BWV 715 and BWV 711) – J. S. Bach
• Pièce Héroïque – César Franck
Later events in the festival include concerts by David Cassan, Organist in Notre Dame, Paris, which will take place on Tuesday 12 July in Sacred Heart Church, Limerick, and Martin Baker, Organist in Westminster Cathedral London, who will perform in Saint John’s Cathedral on Friday 30 September.
The Limerick Pipe Organ Festival was founded in 2014 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the organ in Saint John’s Cathedral. The organ, which was built by the esteemed organ building firm of William Hill & Son, was a gift to the cathedral from the 3rd Earl of Dunraven, Edwin Richard Wyndham-Quin of Adare, Co Limerick. It was inaugurated on 17 May 1864 by William Thomas Best, organist of St. George’s Hall, Liverpool, one of the outstanding organists of his time. It was a timely coincidence that this significant anniversary fell during the year of Limerick’s designation as City of Culture.
Details of all festival events are available on the Limerick Pipe Organ Festival website, http://lpof.ie.
ENDS
