2026 Limerick Early Music Festival opening concert returns to St Mary’s Cathedral Friday, March 20

2026 Limerick Early Music Festival opening concert returns to St Mary’s Cathedral on Friday, March 20

The 2026 Limerick Early Music Festival gets underway with the annual choral concert at St Mary’s Cathedral on Friday, March 20

Saint Mary’s Cathedral will be filled with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Henry Purcell, and Maddalena Casulana on Friday, March 20, for the opening concert of Limerick Early Music Festival 2026.

The Festival’s annual choral concert, entitled Concealed and Revealed, features Ancór Chamber Choir and Saint Mary’s Cathedral Choir; guest vocal soloists Sarah-Ellen Murphy (contralto) and Emma English (soprano); the LEMF Chamber Orchestra; and the LEMF 2026 McCullagh-Ó Briain Emerging Artist, Dylan Donegan.

These solo voices and choirs will perform sacred and secular cantatas, motets, madrigals, and virtuosic instrumentals, directed by two distinguished figures in Irish classical music: Peter Barley and Cecilia Madden. Lyric FM’s Vlad Smishkewych joins them onstage as guest conductor for madrigals by the pioneering Italian 16th-century composer and lutenist, Maddalena Casulana.

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Peter Barley is Organist and Choirmaster of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, and teaches piano and organ at Limerick School of Music. Cecilia Madden founded Ancór Chamber Choir in 2005 and is also a conductor and Principal at the Limerick School of Music. Festival codirector Vlad Smishkewych is known to Lyric fm listeners as Ireland’s voice of early music through his Sunday morning programme “Vox Nostra”, with expertise honed alongside some of the world’s leading early music groups.

Limerick contralto Sarah-Ellen Murphy is an in-demand oratorio soloist who has performed with ensembles including Limerick Choral Union, Galway Choral Association, and Sing Ireland.

Emma English’s wide-ranging repertoire spans opera, oratorio, lieder, and musical theatre; a key figure in the vocal department of Limerick School of Music for over 20 years, she also teaches vocal technique to the Monks of Glenstal Abbey.

Also performing are trumpet players Andrew Jordan and Chilean trumpeter Alejandro Angel, both Limerick-based, and Limerick School of Music’s Michael Dooley on bassoon. Ancór Chamber Choir member Richard Pomfret steps out as bass soloist for the evening.

The concert title—Concealed and Revealed—speaks directly to this year’s Festival theme, Masks and Masques, which explores the rich symbolism of masks as both survival tools and celebrated elements of performance traditions across world cultures. The programme revels in images of revelation and spiritual epiphany, alongside texts filled with hidden meanings—the night, the moon, and sensual metaphors such as budding flowers and feminine imagery, both sacred and secular.

Now in its second year, the McCullagh-Ó Briain Emerging Artist Award recognises an outstanding instrumentalist playing with a historically-informed style. The 2025 winner, harpsichordist Dylan Donegan, will be showcased as a soloist during the evening.

“The essence of things concealed and later revealed—be it a chorale hymn-tune that floats up to the top of a Bach string ensemble piece, or the hidden meanings behind the sensual poetic imagery of madrigals—are all at the heart of this concert of stunning music, vocal and instrumental,” said Vlad Smishkewych.

“Add to this two of Limerick’s best-known choirs, and the return of our Emerging Artist performance, and it will be an unforgettable experience.”

A magical journey through five centuries of music, accompanied by stories and delightful animated illustrations, awaits families at the Harpsichord Diaries.

Harpsichord Diaries, for ages 6+, is a family concert, presented by H.I.P.S.T.E.R. (Historically Informed Performance Series, Teaching, Education & Research) as part of Limerick Early Music Festival 2026.

Featuring harpsichordist Elaine Funaro and actor/narrator Eric Love, it takes place at the Belltable, O’Connell Street, Limerick, from 1pm to 2pm on Saturday 21 March.

The show is a special theatrical concert version of Elaine and Eric’s children’s book, The Harpsichord Diaries. It features Elaine playing music from across five centuries, and Eric acting over a dozen characters.

The experience will be enriched by projections of Andrea Love’s animated illustrations from the book. The script for this theatrical concert is adapted from Elena’s Dream, the audio play version of The Harpsichord Diaries.

Limerick Early Music Festival 2026 closes with a concert celebrating the music of the people, drawn from sources which miraculously survived the violence and turbulence of the medieval period.

Popular melody and liturgical music, classical medieval sounds, and folk traditions, will combine in Wayfaring Pipers: Virtuoso Everyday Music of the Middle Ages – the closing concert of Limerick Early Music Festival 2026 – featuring two of the very finest pipers in Europe.

Ian Harrison, described as “the Miles Davis of Early Music,” and Poul Høxbro, acclaimed as “an endlessly fascinating and inspiring musician,” will play at the Belltable, O’Connell Street, Limerick, at 8pm on Sunday 22 March.