13 June 2010: NUI Maynooth Chamber Choir, Aengus Ó Maoláin (conductor), John Columba McCann OSB (organ)
The NUI Maynooth Chamber Choir was founded in 1986 under Professor Gerard Gillen and was first directed by John O’Keeffe. Since then the choir has gained recognition as one of the leading university choirs in Ireland. It has mainly specialised in the performance of sacred repertoire from renaissance polyphony to contemporary works, but its current focus is primarily on twentieth-century choral repertoire. The choir has an established tradition of commissioning and promoting new music and has presented premières of a number of pieces by Irish composers. Membership of the choir is by audition and is open to all students and staff of both NUI Maynooth and St Patrick's College Maynooth. The on-campus work of the choir centres each year on its involvement in the annual Maynooth Carol Services and on a major end-of-year concert in the College Chapel.
Aengus Ó Maoláin graduated with a first-class honours music degree from NUI Maynooth in 2009 specialising in composition. He is currently completing an MA (Performance and Musicology) in Old Roman and Gregorian chant at NUIM. Aengus first experienced choral singing in the Palestrina Choir of St Mary's Pro-Cathedral as a boy, and has sung with The Lassus Scholars, St Patrick's Cathedral Choir and many other groups. From 2003 to 2008 he was a touring member of Anúna. In May 2009 he was appointed conductor of the NUI Maynooth Chamber Choir. Aengus' compositions, (mainly choral) have been performed in the USA, Canada, the UK, and across Europe. He also works as a sound designer for theatre, most notably with Painted Filly Theatre and Gúna Nua. In February 2010 Aengus was elected President of Maynooth Students' Union and takes up office in July.
John Columba McCann, who was born in 1961, was organist in St Michael's Church from 1979 to 1983, during which time he studied music in UCD and organ with Peter Sweeney. In 1988 he was ordained to the priesthood for the diocese of Dublin. After some years of study at the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy in Rome, he returned to Dublin where he worked in liturgical ministry, liturgical studies and liturgical music. In 2004 he joined the Benedictine Community at Glenstal Abbey, where his current work includes school chaplaincy, teaching, choral training, composition and organ performance. It is a particular pleasure for him to play again in St Michael's Church, his last recital having been another joint recital with the late Anne Leahy in 1984.
Programme
Alan Gray (1855-1935)
Magnificat in F minor (1911)
Gustav Holst (1874-1934)
Nunc Dimittis, (1915)
Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986)
Prélude pour l'Introit de l'Epiphanie, op. 13
Meditation, (1964)
Fugue sur le theme du carillon des heures de la cathédrale de Soissons, op. 12
Maurice Duruflé
Quatre motets sur des thèmes grégoriens op.10
— Ubi caritas
— Tota pulchra es
— Tu es Petrus
— Tantum ergo
André Fleury (1903-1995)
Versets pour le Magnificat du huitième ton, alternating with plainchant verses.
Eric Whitacre (b 1970)
i thank You God for most this amazing day.
Jiri Ropek (1922-2005))
Variations on ‘Victimae Paschali Laudes’