Welcome to the Sligo Baroque Orchestra website. Please take the time to look around and find out a bit about us. Check out our news section for any upcoming concerts.
Sligo Baroque Orchestra began life as Sligo Early Music Ensemble in 1990 at a time when classical instrumental music in Sligo was almost non-existent.
Its aim was playing music from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in a historically informed manner and for twenty years it has maintained that goal, meeting for weekly rehearsals, exploring hundreds of baroque compositions, holding workshops and giving more than a hundred performances in Sligo and the North West.
The orchestra is markedly inclusive, involving much sought-after professional musicians as well as amateur and student instrumentalists, and involving members from very different musical backgrounds.
The sbo has been joined by eminent soloists including cellist Stephan Forck, viola player Stefan Fehlandt, flautist Eleanor Dawson, gamba player Sarah Groser and violinists Niamh Crowley and Nicola Cleary.
It’s a bit of a secret, but you almost certainly will enjoy the concert on December 1st ...
Hidden Gems in the foyer of the Hawk’s Well Theatre
Sligo Baroque Orchestra (leader, Nicola Cleary) will unearth some musical treasures from the Eighteenth Century
Thursday 1st December at 8pm in the Foyer, Hawk’s Well Theatre, Sligo
in The Model, The Mall, Sligo at 1pm admission €5 children go free
Guest artists from Sligo International Chamber Music Festival, The Vogler String Quartet,
Aoife Ni Briain , Calmin Gilmore and the Mesefe String Quartet will form part of the line-up for this special Informal Music Afternoon, along with Felip Carbonell and Sligo Baroque Orchestra.
It is an essential characteristic of Sligo's monthly IMAs that there is always an eclectic mix of music from different genres; and that all who attend will discover music and musicians that are new for them. IMAs are very informal, very relaxed, but are also very stimulating. And they importantly provide a platform for young, emerging performers.
A centre piece of the programme will be a performance of Grieg's string quartet op 27 by the Mesefe Quartet who have been part of the Strings Attached project with the Vogler Quartet at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
The Vogler Quartet will play two airs by John Buckley; and a violin sonata by Ysaye, a concerto grosso by Heinichen, and music by Caimin Gilmore and Felip Carbonell will make up Sunday's varied fare.
IMA's take place in the Atrium in the Model, beautifully light for a midday event with an equally bright acoustic.
The Gallery Café offer a tempting range of food and drink, children are always welcome (with free admittance), and the set-up is in relaxed cabaret style.
We hope to see you there,
Rod Alston
Composers were pretty much three-a-penny, a-pfennig, every schloss had more than enough to keep the local court orchestra busy with new pieces, and the drawing room alive to the sound of the Margrave's daughter's fingers on the harpsichord. (Just as now-a-days, where Irish and English orchestra's are rare and relatively unsupported compared to the hundreds of German professional bands; so it wa in the eighteenth century, most of the Irish and English Big House types cared little for supporting composers or musicians...).
But the three-a-penny German eighteenth century composer was male. It wasn't that the German eighteenth century female mind was less musical, or less creative, or less imaginative, or in any way inferior to that of the male; it was just that that was the way it was. Except it wasn't. Take the sisters of the fellow we know as Frederick the Great: they not only played music but also composed, and their music was performed. Princess Friederike Sophie Wilhelmine of Prussia, who became Princess Wilhelmine Margravine of Bayreuth and established the beginings of the musical life that was in later generations to nuture the talent of Wagner, well, the good Princess not only played and composed for flute and harpsichord, but she also employed a female composer in her court, Anna Bon di Venezia. The Venezia part was not exactly true, her parents (both musicians) came from the lagoon state, but she was definitely a woman and a composer, and...
...and on March 26th 2015 three intrepid and very musical girls in Sligo will re-create the sounds that Ms Anna Bon imagined some two hundred and fifty years ago in the schloss of the the good Princess Wilhemine.
Charlotte Kinsella and Magan Corcoran (flutes) and Emily Gaine (harpsichord) are currently rehearsing Ms Bon's trio opus 3 No 1 – as well as doing the odd bit of study for their Junior Cert. They will perform it as part of the sbos Student Soloist Concert and if you are not there you will miss this bit of entirely female creativity and recreation.
And you will also miss other students performing in works by Mozart, Handel, Vivaldi, Dowland and Heinichen
SBO Student Soloist, with Guest Leader Niamh Crowley The Model
6.30 pm Thursday March 26th
The Model, Sligo
admission €5 - children free
The popular cabaret-style Informal Music Afternoons begin the 2015 season with something of a Russian flavour. Russian harpist Ramona Sakaluskaite (who began learning harp aged three and studied and subsequently played professionally for fifteen yearsin St Petersburg) is one of the performers and Russian music, including composers Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, also feature.
These monthly musical treats take place usually on the first Sunday in each month at 1 pm in The Atrium in the Model. The programme is always eclectic, usually with a core of classical chamber music. People come expecting to be surprised and delighted. The Model Cafe is in operation offering wholesome fare and a smile; you can come and go as you please; absolutely ideal way of introducing children to live music in a relaxed atmosphere.
On Sunday February 1st the performers are Nicola Cleary, Anna Houston, Leonard Dorrian, Ramona Sakaluskaite, Felip Carbonell, Bláithín Norah Farrell, and Ferdia Durkin. Nicoloa Cleary, Anna Houston and Leonard Dorrian will perform the two centre movements from one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written: Schubert's sublime second piano trio in E flat.
One aim of Informal Music Afternoons is to encourage really gifted student performers, and next Sunday performing for the first time in an IMA is Bláithín Norah Farrell, a sixteen year old pianist, pupil of Dr John O'Connor at winner of many awards in Dublin and Sligo
In the last Informal Music Afternoon of 2014...
Aileen Cahill (piano), Gavin Brennan (saxophone) and The Sligo Baroque Orchestra, leader Nicola Cleary, will perform a varied programme of music from the sixteen hundreds up until the present day.
Aileen Cahill is no stranger to either this remarkable series of music performance in a cabaret-style setting or to Sligo. A native of Tubbercurry, she has performed many times in Sligo both as an accompanist and a soloist. She completed her solo studies at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in 2007, graduating from Dr John O'Conor's Masters class. She then continued her studies at the Conservatory of Music, DIT, completing a Masters in Accompaniment in 2011. It is there she met Gavin and the two have been an ensemble since. This year, they were awarded an ensemble residency with RTE Con Tempo Quartet and the Galway Music Residency. This involves a year of masterclasses and concerts throughout the country. With the Sligo Baroque Orchestra she has performed Mozart piano concertos and she appeared in a Young Con Brio concert with Jamie Rock. On Sunday Aileen will play Chopin and will accompany a programme of music by Philip Glass, Villa-Lobos, Wagnein and others.
Gavin Brennan is one of Ireland's young up-and-coming musicians. He graduated from with first class honours from the Conservatory of Music, DIT, where he studied with Kevin Hanafin. He is currently a Masters student of Paul Roe and Fintan O'Carroll at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
Sligo Baroque Orchestra will play a chamber concerto (for flute, oboe, violin, cello and continuo) by Vivaldi; some movements from a Telemann concerto grosso and a Concerto by one of the key composers in the court in Dresden in the 18th century, Johann David Heinichen – a composer whose music certainly deserves to be better known – with solo violins, flutes bassoons and cellos!
If you have never been to an Informal Music Afternoon this is your last chance this year (next one in February 2015), they are very relaxed, welcoming, and child-friendly; and you can enjoy the fare of the Model Cafe and come and go as you please. What is more is that it is only €5 admission – and children go free....
IMAs are organised by Sligo Baroque Orchestra and The Model
Adricha Bosakani, Patryk Ramazani, Steve Wickham & Rod Alston
Tuesday July 8 , 8pm
Musical collaboration between Sligo Baroque Orchestra & Tropicana Musica featuring a special new composition by Steve Wickham.
The Model
Adm €10/€5
A Common Ground is a musical collaboration which brings together the two diverse musical worlds of Sligo Baroque Orchestra and African Soukous band, Tropicana Musica. Members of Sligo Baroque and Tropicana Musica have come together to share music, ideas and find a ‘a common ground’ for creating a new musical world together. The event features the fruits of this very successful musical partnership as well as two new musical compositions; one by Steve Wickham and another by Patryk Ramazani.
As part of Sligo Loves Live Music, Sligo Baroque Orchestra Invites you to join them for an Open Rehearsal and Play-through of Music by Telemann and Schubert on Saturday June 21st at 3pm (play-through after 4 pm) in The Model.
If you play an instrument JOIN US AT 3pm for a fun filled music making afternoon!
or Come and Observe
It’s FREE for everyone
Wednesday's concert is coming together nicely with our student soloists getting very excited about their performances...
The programme includes an early Mozart symphony, a Vivaldi violin concerto (soloist Carla Blennerhassett), a Telemann flute concerto (Charlotte Kinsella, Megan Corcoran and David Watters) a movement from a Vivaldi bassoon concerto (Milo Cummins) a movement of an original composition by Ferdia Durkin and will end with Beethoven’s wonderful Romance in F for solo violin and orchestra (Peter Watters).
The ability and dedication of these students soloists and, no less, our student members who are not playing as soloists on this occasion is a source of pleasure and pride for us in the SBO. We hope that you will come – to support the students and to enjoy the music.
The concert will last about one hour and it will be followed by light refreshments and a chance to chat.
Wednesday 12th March @ 8pm - Presbyterian Church Hall, Sligo
Sligo Baroque Orchestra has purchased a single strung Italian harpsichord from UK
harpsichord maker, Colin Booth. The purchase was made possible due to generous assistance
from Music Generation Sligo Instrument Bank Scheme and a loan from an anonymous
supporter.
The new harpsichord has already been used in two Informal Music Afternoons, but part of
the reason for acquiring the instrument is to have a harpsichord in Sligo that is available for
students to use – and also other ensembles.
The harpsichord in use at IMA on February 2nd 2014 in The Model
Italian single strung harpsichord made by Colin Booth who has been an important part of recent Sligo Festival of Baroque Music, as harpsichordist, bringing a number of instruments, as technician and as maker talking about technical, historical and aesthetic aspects.
