World Premiere

Last week’s lunchtime concert, the penultimate in the series organised by the Music Department, featured the world premiere of 'Six Yeats Songs' by Colman Pearce along with other compositions. Introduced by Dr John Buckley, the concert was given by Virginia Kerr (soprano) accompanied by Colman Pearce. The programme was as follows:

There's a Bower of Roses (the Veiled Prophet) - C.V Stanford.

I Have a Bonnet - arr. H. Hughes

She is Far From the Land - F. Lambert

The Leprechaun - arr. H.Hughes

Six Yeats Songs (World Premiere) - Pearce

VIRGINIA KERR is one of the most distinguished Irish sopranos of her generation, equally well known on the operatic stage, concert and oratorio platform and as a recitalist. She has sung with many of the worlds leading orchestras including the London Philharmonic, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Halle and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Her operatic and concert performances have taken her as far afield as the Far East, Russia and North and South America. Nearer home she has sung with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Scottish Opera, Opera North, Opera Ireland, Opera Theatre Company, Leipzig Opera, Opera de Nantes and Glyndebourne Festival Opera – also appearing with that company at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. Virginia is a fine exponent of 20th century music and has given numerous world premieres including LeFanu’s The Wildman (Aldeburgh Festival) and Victory’s Ultima Rerum (N.C.H. Dublin), a work that was subsequently recorded on the Naxos label. She gave the Irish premiere of Schoenberg’s monodrama Erwartung with the National Symphony Orchestra and followed this with a highly acclaimed performance of Pierrot Lunaire at the National Gallery. Virginia appears regularly on the concert platform as featured soloist with both the National Symphony and the R.T.E. Concert Orchestras and has been a guest presenter for Lyric FM. She is a trustee of Christchurch Cathedral Choir and was appointed chairperson of the Board of Opera Theatre Company in 2004. Virginia recently became a professor of singing at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.

Dublin-born COLMAN PEARCE took an Honours Music degree at UCD and won many awards as a pianist before studying conducting in Hilversum and Vienna. He was Principal Conductor of the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra during the years 1981 – 1983. In the years 1984–1987, Maestro Pearce was Principal Guest Conductor of the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra in Spain. From 1987 to 1999 he was Principal Conductor and Music Director of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, and in his final year, was the recipient of the “Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts” in the State of Mississippi. He was also made a Freeman of the City of New Orleans. His guest appearances as conductor have brought him to many cities in three Continents, and won him golden opinions from press, public and orchestras. As a composer, his song cycle Summerfest was commissioned by RTÉ and given its première with the composer at the piano in 1993. His work Robinson the Cat was premiered in the USA with great success in 1998. Recent compositions, all premiered in the USA, include ‘Anagram’ (2000), ‘King Cormac at Tara’ (2001), ‘Alienado’, ‘Contemplations’, and ‘The Little Room’ (2003). For Naxos and Marco Polo labels, Maestro Pearce has recorded CDs of music by Stanford, Victory, Boydell, Buckley, Corcoran, Deane, Bodley and Wilson with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and Balada with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and for ROS Production (USA), The Memory is a Living Thing; a CD which includes some of his own original music. Colman Pearce is currently studying for a PhD in Music Composition at St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra.

 

Last Updated: Thursday September 21 2006