The Hugh Lane Concert series

The Hugh Lane Concert series – Ficino Ensemble with Mark Redmond

Near FM is pleased to present The Hugh Lane Concert series – Episode 40. In this programme Ficino Ensemble with special guest piper Mark Redmond present Jubal’s Air by Kevin Volans in an exciting programme which includes Felix Mendelssohn’s jubilant String Octet. The concert is interspresred with an engaging interview with Elaine Clark (violin), Mark Redmond (pipes) and Nathan Sherman (Viola). Kevin Volans – Jubal’s Air with Mark Redmond, Uilleann pipes Felix Mendelssohn –  The String Octet in E♭ major, Op. 20, MWV R 20  Jubal is probably best known in the words of ‘Oh, had I Jubal’s lyre!’ from Handel’s oratorio Joshua. Depending on the translation of Genesis, Jubal is credited as being the inventor of music, as ‘the father of all such as handle the harp and organ’ in the King James Version, and in the New International Version of the Bible, Jubal is given as the father of stringed instruments and pipes. Ficino Ensemble with special guest piper Mark Redmond present Jubal’s Air by Kevin Volans in an exciting programme which includes Felix Mendelssohn’s jubilant String Octet. nathanshermanmusic.com [http://nathanshermanmusic.com/] Credits – Concert recorded by Darby Carrol. Radio series produced and mixed by Paul Loughran. Interview and presentation by Cliodhna Ryan. Production team of Paul Loughran and Jaye Palmer. Made with the support of Coimisiún Na Mean with the Television License fee. Thanks to Mary Barnecutt and the Sunday at Noon concert series. Thanks to all in the Abbey Presbyterian Church, Parnell Square, and all in The Hugh Lane gallery. Recorded in the Abbey Presbyterian Church, May 10th 2026 and first broadcast on May 26th 2026.

The Hugh Lane Concert series – Danusha Waskiewicz and Naomi Berrill

Near FM presents episode 38 in The Hugh Lane Concert series with Dragonfly, Danusha Waskiewicz on viola and Naomi Berrill on cello, who create a richly layered soundscape, where each performer plays and sings simultaneously. Instruments and voices merge into a single gesture, where the physicality of sound becomes storytelling. The result is a polyphonic texture suspended between eras and cultures. Classical, baroque, and folk repertoires are reimagined through a visionary language. The concert, recorded in the Abbey Presbyterian church, is interspersed with a wide ranging interview between Naomi Berrill and host Cliodhna Ryan. Naomi discusses her formative years in Headford, Co. Galway coming from a family steeped in music, they also discuss her life in Italy and how moving countries impacts on your musical outlook and language. Dragonfly is a journey through a “sonic atlas” where music is freed from conventions. Each performance is an immersive and captivating experience, notable for its delicacy, precision, and originality. Music that moves as lightly as a dragonfly. Danusha Waskiewicz is one of the most acclaimed violists on the international scene. A student of Tabea Zimmermann, she has performed under Claudio Abbado with the Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchester, the Berliner Philharmoniker, and as Principal Viola of the Orchestra Mozart. With Abbado, she recorded Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante (with Giuliano Carmignola) for Deutsche Grammophon. Among her many recordings are the Brandenburg Concertos for EuroArts, Bartók’s Viola Concerto, and chamber music projects with Isabelle Faust for Harmonia Mundi. Chamber music is her creative core: she is a regular member of the Quartetto Prometeo, engaged in both the reinterpretation of classical works and the promotion of contemporary music. She collaborates closely with pianist Andrea Rebaudengo in the Waskiewicz–Rebaudengo duo, with a repertoire that ranges from classical to singer-songwriter music (Songs for Viola and Piano, Decca). With the ardeTrio, she explores the world of tango alongside Marcus Däunert and Omar Massa. Since 2021, with Dragonfly, she has opened a new artistic chapter where the viola merges with voice and cello in an intense performative experience. She regularly teaches masterclasses and advanced courses and is a faculty member of the Avos Project in Rome and the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole. Originally from Ireland, now based in Florence, Italy, Naomi Berrill is one of the most eclectic voices in today’s music scene. After her classical training, she developed a unique language using the cello as an accompanying instrument to her voice, while exploring new harmonic possibilities of the cello . Her work extends to theatre, contemporary dance, and design and she has collaborated with artists such as Arvo Pärt, Giovanni Sollima and Mario Brunello. She is founder of the High Notes Festival in the Apuan Alps, now in its 14th edition. In 2024, she was commissioned by the Cellissimo festival by Music for Galway to compose a work for string ensemble, choir, ukulele ensemble and solo cello. She has performed at major international festivals including: Venice Biennale, Cello Biennale Amsterdam, Beethovenfest Bonn, Triennale Milano, Festival dei Due Mondi Spoleto, Oriente Occidente, Uffizi Galleries (Uffizi Live), Time in Jazz, Casa del Jazz, Spike Cello Festival (Dublin), Vicenza Jazz, Elba Isola Musicale d’Europa, as well as on tour in the U.S. (Irish Arts Center, New York) and Brazil (Italian Culture Week, São Paulo). Her performance at the Ice Music Festival, playing an ice cello on the Presena Glacier at 2,600 meters altitude, remains iconic. Photo credit: Paul Loughran Credits – Radio series produced and mixed by Paul Loughran, Interview and presentation by Cliodhna Ryan. Voxpops by Jaye Palmer, edited by Paul Loughran. Production team of Gay Graham, Gabor Zajzon and Jaye Palmer. Made with the support of Coimisiún Na Mean with the Television License fee. Thanks to Mary Barnecutt and the Sunday at Noon concert series. Thanks to all in the Abbey Presbyterian Church, Parnell Square. The Sundays at Noon concerts take place in their temporary home of the Abbey Presbyterian Church most Sundays in the year and are free to attend but booking is required, with support from Dublin City Council and the Arts Council of Ireland. For more information visit https://hughlane.ie/whats_on/sundays-at-noon/ [https://hughlane.ie/whats_on/sundays-at-noon/]

The Hugh Lane Concert series – John Butcher, Werner Dafeldecker and Roy Carroll

Near FM presents episode 37 in The Hugh Lane Concert series with an improvised concert by John Butcher, Werner Dafeldecker, and Roy Carroll. The new trio of John Butcher (Saxophone), Werner Dafeldecker (Double Bass), and Roy Carroll (Electronics) unites three singular voices.  In this new formation, the trio combines forensic attention to sound with visceral intensity—fracturing time, form, and material. Their music unfolds as a tapestry of glistening details, unstable structures, and shifting acoustic perspectives. The concert is interspersed with an in depth interview between the musicians and Cliodhna Ryan. We also hear audience reaction. Recorded in the beautiful Abbey Presbyterian Church on Sunday Oct 19th 2025. Born in Brighton and living in London, John Butcher is a saxophonist whose work ranges through improvisation, his own compositions, multitracked pieces and explorations with feedback, unusual acoustics and non-concert locations. He is well known as a solo performer who attempts to engage with a sense of place. Resonant Spaces, for example, is a collection of performances recorded during a tour of unusual locations in Scotland and the Orkney Islands. Werner Dafeldecker was born in Vienna in 1964 and studied the double bass which he plays with passion. As a musician, composer and sound artist he takes advantage of the manifold possibilities offered by electro-acoustics. His musical projects are often inspired and deduced by outside influences such as architecture, science, photography and film – partially resulting in the creation of graphical scores for various ensembles and instrumental performers. Roy Carroll is a musician / composer working with electroacoustic media, which is broadly a set of materials and processes that includes amplification, transducers, synthesis, feedback, audio recordings, software, – auditory and psychoacoustic phenomena even. Feedback, the horror of an instrument hearing itself, is a recurring component of Carroll’s work, creating multi-layered forms that continually renegotiate the transformation of electrical audio signals into disturbed air. Roy is based in Berlin. Photo credit: Paul Loughran Credits – Concert recorded and mixed by Roy Carroll. Radio series produced and mixed by Paul Loughran, Interview and presentation by Cliodhna Ryan. Production team of Gay Graham, Gabor Zajzon and Jaye Palmer. Made with the support of Coimisiún Na Mean with the Television License fee. Thanks to Mary Barnecutt and the Sunday at Noon concert series. Thanks to all in the Abbey Presbyterian Church, Parnell Square. The Sundays at Noon concerts take place in their temporary home of the Abbey Presbyterian Church most Sundays in the year and are free to attend but booking is required, with support from Dublin City Council and the Arts Council of Ireland. For more information visit https://hughlane.ie/whats_on/sundays-at-noon/ [https://hughlane.ie/whats_on/sundays-at-noon/]

The Hugh Lane Concert series – Korros Ensemble

Near FM presents episode 36 in The Hugh Lane Concert series with Korros Ensemble. The ensemble perform with the beautiful and unusual combination of flute, clarinet and harp. In the concert we hear works by Astor Piazzolla, Claude Debussy, Elizabeth Poston, Cheryl Frances-Hoad and Camille Saint-Saëns. The concert is interspersed with an in depth interview between the musicians and Mary Barnecutt. We also hear audience reaction. Recorded in the beautiful surrounds of the Sculpture Hall in the Hugh Lane Galley on Sunday June 22nd 2025. Concert Programme – Astor Piazzolla – Libertango // Claude Debussy – 2 Arabesques // Elizabeth Poston – Trio Piacevole, Molto moderato, Dolce delicato, Vivace scherzando // Cheryl Frances-Hoad – Vocalise // Camille Saint-Saens – Danse Macabr Korros Ensemble – Comprising the beautiful and unusual combination of Flute, Clarinet and Harp, the Korros Ensemble has been performing together since its formation in 2001 during the musicians’ studies at the Royal Academy of Music. The Korros Ensemble has performed in chamber music festivals across the UK and internationally and has recorded two albums, the most recent for Convivium Records celebrating premiere recordings of works by Elizabeth Poston. Other performances include Tate Modern, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Birr Castle, Killaloe Cathedral and the ON rbyhus and Hudiksvall Festivals, Sweden and collaborations with Ballet Rambert and Pineapple Dance Studios. With a strong vision of introducing something new and original to the chamber music world, Korros continues to cleverly rework its favourite repertoire – creating an exciting and fresh way of listening to beloved orchestral, chamber and solo works. The group performs with dynamism and flair, and the sound world they produce is lush and mesmerising. Collectively, Camilla, Nick and Eliza are highly experienced and in demand artists, having individually performed with all major UK orchestras, including Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Royal Opera House (on stage soloist), BBC Concert Orchestra and London Sinfonietta. They have also toured with Elton John, Peter Gabriel, Andrea Bocelli, Karl Jenkins, Bryn Terfel, and recorded with Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Katherine Jenkins, and on numerous Hollywood blockbuster soundtracks for Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman and Ennio Morricone. No strangers to Theatreland, The Korros musicians have appeared at the RSC, National Theatre, on all major West End Shows, and Eliza currently holds the flute chair for The Lion King at London’s Lyceum Theatre. Credits – Concert and radio programme mixed by Paul Loughran, Interview and presentation by Mary Barnecutt, Concert recorded by Paul Loughran Gabor Zajzon, production support from Cáit Boyce Willis, audience reaction by Dorothee Meyer Holtkamp.  Made with the support of Coimisiún Na Mean with the Television License fee. The Sundays at Noon concerts take place in Hugh Lane Gallery most Sundays in the year and are free to attend but booking is required, with support from Dublin City Council and the Arts Council of Ireland. For more information visit https://hughlane.ie/whats_on/sundays-at-noon/ [https://hughlane.ie/whats_on/sundays-at-noon/]

The Hugh Lane Concert series – Susannah de Wrixon and Conor Linehan

Near FM presents episode 35 in our Hugh Lane Concert series with Susannah de Wrixon on vocals and Conor Linehan on piano, with a diverse programme of song and piano music including works by Shakespeare, Bucchino, Weill, Joyce, Gershwin, Sondheim and original compositions by Conor Linehan. The concert is interspersed with an in depth interview between the musicians and Cliodhna Ryan. We also hear audience reaction. Recorded in the beautiful surrounds of the Sculpture Hall in the Hugh lane Galley on Sunday May 18th 2025. Credits – Concert and radio programme mixed by Paul Loughran, Interview and presentation by Cliodhna Ryan, Concert recorded by Gay Graham and Gabor Zajzon, audience reaction by Dorothee Meyer Holtkamp.  Made with the support of Coimisiún Na Mean with the Television License fee. Programme Shall I Compare Thee – Shakespeare/ Linehan // Song With The Violins – John Bucchino // That Old Bilbao Moon – Weill/ Brecht // Sepia Life – Bucchino //Tell Me The Truth About Love – WH Auden // I’m A Stranger Here Myself – Weill  // Simples – James Joyce/Linehan (premiere)  // Three Preludes for Piano- Gershwin  // The Ghosts of Old Houses – Linehan  // Barbara Song – Weill  // Oh Mistress Min – Shakespeare  // Could I Leave You? – Sondheim  // Honeysuckle Row – Linehan (premiere) Susannah de Wrixon has been charming audiences for years with her exquisite voice, keen wit and distinctive choice of song. She currently lives in Dublin and for the last twenty five years has been working as an actor/singer on stage and screen. Theatre highlights include, “An Ideal Husband” and “Pygmalion “ in The Abbey Theatre Playing Maggie in “Dancing at Lughnasa” and Goneril in “King Lear” to name but a few. She won best Actress in 1991 for her role as Reverend Hale in “The Crucible”, in fact her stage career has been hugely varied playing men, monkeys, old women and young saints. She gained her comedy stripes touring Ireland and the UK in the late 90s with “The Nualas”. As a singer she has worked with the National Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra and has performed in the acclaimed jazz venue “The Iridium” in New York. She has recorded three albums. Conor Linehan is a pianist and composer from Dublin. He has enjoyed a long career writing music for theatre companies in Ireland and England, including Druid, The Abbey, The Royal Shakespeare Company, Landmark Productions and many others. His music has features in productions at Lincoln Center Festival, The Barbican Theatre, The Sydney Opera House and the West End. Conor’s piano piece ‘Roadshow’ was commissioned by Joanna MacGregor for her 2015 Irish tour after she heard his music in the Abbey Theatre production ‘The Risen People”. His piece ‘Intermezzo’ was the most selected Irish commissioned piece at the 2018 Dublin International Piano Competition and has subsequently received many performances by young pianists around the world. Conor is represented by the Contemporary Music Centre. As a pianist he has been soloist with the NSO Ireland (for whom he is also a regular orchestral pianist), The RTE Concert Orchestra and the Dublin Philharmonic. He has played with many chamber ensembles including The John Lynch Chamber Music Project, The Far Flung Trio, The Crash Ensemble and others. He has performed many solo concerts throughout Ireland and the world. Conor is on the piano faculty of the Royal Irish Academy of Music and is also a member of the WhistleBlast quartet who create music education projects throughout Ireland. The Sundays at Noon concerts take place with support from the Arts Council of Ireland.