The 2025 Galway Early Music Festival will celebrate the 500th anniversary of a giant of Renaissance music.
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was an eminent composer from Italy who sought to assimilate the techniques of French and Flemish compositions, leading the way in musical aspects of the Catholic church’s Counter Reformation.
From this Saturday, May 31, the festival – now in its 29th year - will be centred on Galway’s historic St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church, but will spill out onto the streets of the medieval city that surround it, with six events delivered by 88 creative practitioners and producers over three days.
On May 31, at an 11am coffee concert, the vocal ensemble Resurgam will be joined by Galway-based chamber choir Collegium at St Nick’s. Malcolm Proud (organ ) and Kristiina Watt (theorbo ) will present works by Mazzocchi and Carissimi, demonstrating the evolution of the oratorio: the secular and sacred historical drama which emerged in seventeenth century Rome.
During the day, the Galeon Ensemble will play on the streets nearby, and the 6pm evening concert, The Eternal City, features Resurgam alongside the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, with Proud and Watt performing music by Palestrina composed for the great Roman basilicas in which his music was first heard.
On Sunday, June 1, GEMF will host a Renaissance dance workshop at 2pm, with dance instructor Felicity Maxwell, facilitator Eleanor Leadbetter, and conductor Mark Duley - no prior experience required. The 6pm concert is Stylus Phantasticus, a programme of chamber music for violin and keyboard presented by Cork-based early music specialists Caitriona O’Mahony and James Taylor. This music, informed by popular, period dances, is presented alongside examples of the seventeenth century improvisatory 'stylus phantasticus'.
On Monday, June 2, the 11am coffee concert will be The Palestrina Circle, with Resurgam musicians Aisling Kenny (soprano ), Conor Hastings (cornett ) and Malcolm Proud (organ ) presenting works by Palestrina’s contemporaries, pupils and teachers, including Monteverdi, Frescobaldi, Caccini and Bovicelli.
Tickets from www.resurgam.ie or on the door.
