Sacred music for Good Friday

The Collegium Choir and Music for Galway will join forces again this year to present their annual ‘Music for Good Friday’ concert.

The event, which will take place next Friday, March 30, at 5pm in the city’s St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church, has been devised and directed by Mark Duley, Organist of the Collegiate Church.  Cellist Adrian Mantu of the RTÉ ConTempo Quartet will also take part in the concert, entitled Filius Meus.

The title – which echoes the cry of a bereaved parent – will include scripture readings from the Old and New Testament. Mary’s lament for the crucified Jesus is foreshadowed by David’s grief at the death in battle of his son Absalom, and Rachel’s weeping in Ramah for her lost children.

Renaissance composers Thomas Tomkins, Giaches deWert and George Kirbye responded to those biblical texts, demonstrating their prowess as renowned madrigalists.

Mark Duley, who devised this concert, is one of Ireland’s best-known choral specialists and has led workshops and masterclasses for choirs and conductors in Ireland, the UK, and across Europe.

A former artistic director of the Irish Baroque Orchestra, he has appeared with most of Ireland’s major ensembles as a conductor and organist, including with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, the National Chamber Choir, the Irish Baroque Orchestra, Opera Theatre Company, Orchestra of St Cecilia, and his own chamber choir Resurgam.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.