Tullamore International Summer Organ Series

Peter King is a former student of Dame Gillian Weir (organ), Allan Wicks (organ) and Ronald Smith (piano), and was appointed Director of Music at Bath Abbey in 1986. Under his direction the Abbey Choir has visited France, Germany and Holland, and has released seven CDs. In 1997 Peter started a girls’ Choir at Bath Abbey which is recognised as one of the finest in the UK. With Nicholas Kynaston, Peter was responsible for the design and installation of the Abbey’s Klais organ. His twelve CDs on the new instrument have been highly acclaimed by the critics. A CD of works for organ & orchestra with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, including the Poulenc Concerto and the Respighi Suite has been particularly singled out for praise, being ‘Editor’s Choice’ in both BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone which describes the CD as “a disc of real distinction... leaves the competition standing... even reluctant converts are likely to be overwhelmed by this thrilling disc. The sound of the Bath Abbey Klais organ matches the life-affirming playing of Peter King. The whole recording is filled with a love of making music." Recent recital work has involved concerts all over Europe; highlights have included recitals at Ingolstadt Minster, Cologne Cathedral, King’s College, Cambridge, Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral, an opening recital on the new organ in Palacio Euskalduna, Bilbao, and Birmingham, where he played at the opening of the new organ in Symphony Hall. Other engagements have included solo appearances with the CBSO (Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony) and The Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields (Poulenc’s Organ Concerto).

The Tullamore Academy Chamber Choir was founded in September 2007 as part of a performing groups initiative undertaken by the Academy of Music in Tullamore. Each choral scholar is a student of voice with the Academy and has a different and wide-ranging background in solo, operatic and competitive performance, which enhances the choir’s ability to undertake some of the more challenging choral works and contributes to their fresh and unique sound. The Academy Chamber Choir’s repertoire spans from early to contemporary music.

The choir has had huge success in almost every national choral festival including many awards at Cork International Choral Festival. It has also won awards at Sligo Choral Festival and first place at the Plainchant competition at Limerick Choral Festival and Navan Choral Festival. It recently stood in for the Palestrina Choir at St Mary’s Pro Cathedral, and was most recently invited to perform in place of St Patrick’s Cathedral Choir at their mid-term Eucharistic celebration. It has worked closely with composer Colin Mawby in private master classes on his works, performances of which have brought much success to the Choir. Its most recent success was second place in RTÉ Lyric FM’s Choirs for Christmas Competition, out of 400 choirs.

Director Ciarán Brady has an honours master’s degree in Music and vocal performance from NUI Maynooth, where he also directed the University Chamber Choir. Further postgraduate studies brought him to Germany where he trained in advanced vocal technique with Prof. Markus Goritzky at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg. Ciarán is Director of the Academy of Music in Tullamore and is also a full-time professional vocal coach there. Ciarán’s voice training started at the age of 10 as a boy treble and Head Chorister of the famous Palestrina Choir. Professionally he was a member of the RTÉ Chamber Choir and founder member of the National Chamber Choir. He also has extensive work as a soloist and recordings and has worked with companies such as National Opera, Opera Northern Ireland and Opera Ireland. Ciarán also directs Moate Children’s Choir.