Two concerts next week will bring the Galway Music Residency’s Lunchtime with ConTempo series to a close for 2023. The first will be in Galway City next Tuesday, December 5, at 1.10pm when the ConTempo Quartet will perform an uplifting Christmas concert in St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church. It will be repeated in Kinvara on Sunday, December 10, at 1pm as part of Galway Music Residency’s ConTempo Countywide series, in partnership with the Kinvara Area Visual Arts group.

The performances will include Concerto grosso in G minor, Op. 6, No. 8 by Arcangelo Corelli, commonly known as the Christmas Concerto. The work was commissioned by Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni and includes the inscription ‘Fatto per la notte di Natale’, which translates  as ‘made for the night of Christmas’. The programme will also feature a selection of Romanian Christmas carols by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók and a string quartet arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite.

Audiences in both venues are promised an hour of beautiful, festive music. Entry to the concerts is free and all are welcome. No booking is required for the Lunchtime with ConTempo next Tuesday.

Booking for the Kinvara performance on December 10 can be made in Healing Harvest Health Shop in the village.

Pictured: Concerts in the city and Kinvara from the ConTempo Quartet, from left; Bogdan Sofei, Ingrid Nicola, Adrian Mantu and Andreea Banciu. PHOTO: JULIA DUNIN.