The Clifden Arts Festival is one of the stops for the Irish Chamber Orchestra as it opens its Autumn/Winter Season this month, with a touring programme that brings snapshots from Italy all over Ireland.

This Italian voyage sees ICO teaming up with celebrated U.K. Conductor Christian Curnyn, and two of Ireland’s finest singers, ICO Artist in Association Sharon Carty and Anna Devin to perform Pergolesi’s emotive Stabat Mater.

Stabat Mater, a deeply personal meditation, was written by a dying Pergolesi and takes us to the heart of human passion.

Listeners will enjoy an amazing variety of sounds and moods that produces some of the most stirring music imaginable.  A masterwork of entrancing operatic clarity, it will captivate the audience.

Continuing the journey, Respighi was inspired by old lute works to create his Ancient Airs and Dances. In No. 3, his imaginative writing captures all the musical spirit and nuances and makes for a lush sounding Irish Chamber Orchestra.

Puccini’s gorgeous Chrysanthemums (Crisantemi) will mesmerize audiences with its poignant and beautiful melody.  Written in response to a death of a friend, this short work is expressive, accessible, and so emotive.

Van Wassenaer’s ground-breaking Concerto Armonici No.5 was inspired by the Italian violin school and is Northern-European music infused with that Italian sparkle – so much so that it was originally thought to be from Pergolesi’s pen.

These scenic snapshots celebrate some of Italy’s most beautiful music with one of Ireland’s finest ensembles in Clifden as well as Waterford, Limerick and Birr this September.

The ICO will be in St Josephs’ Church, Clifden, as part of the Clifden Arts Festival, on Friday, September 22, at 7pm.

And for audiences on the east side of the county, they will be in St. Brendan’s Church of Ireland, Oxmantown Mall, Birr, the following night – Saturday, September 23 – as part of the Birr Festival of Music.

The ICO is a dynamic group of musicians whose warm and infectious ethos shines through every performance.  They deliver rich musical experiences to broad and diverse audiences in towns and cities countrywide and beyond.

The orchestra is funded by The Arts Council of Ireland and is resident at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick.

Pictured: Anna Devin…performing.