The final concert in Irish Songmakers’ 2020/2021 Season is an exploration of the Ballad, in various incarnations across several centuries: from folk-ballads, to the “Murder-ballads” sung by street singers, epic poetic ballads of Keats, and “torch-songs” in the Cabaret style.

Susie Gibbons, soprano
Andrew Gavin, tenor
Niall Kinsella, piano

Programme to include:

Carl Loewe (1796-1869)
Erlkönig, Op. 1, No, 3

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Die Löwenbraut, Op. 31, No. 1 

Henri Duparc (1848-1933)
Au pays où se fait la guerre 

Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)
La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Viola, D.786 

Kurt Weill (1900-1950) / Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)
Die Moritat von Mackie Messer 

Dillie Keane (*1952) / Adèle Anderson (*1952)
I watched two people

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
Long Time Ago

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
La mort d’Ophelie, Op. 18, No. 2

Havelock Nelson (1917-1996)
Dirty Work

Cole Porter (1891-1964)
The Tale of the Oyster

Ballads, defined as a story narrated through short verses, have captured the imaginations of listeners for centuries, often being passed from generation to generation and without a definitive authorship. Either in spoken verse or song, the Ballad has evolved constantly. In this recital, we present folk-ballads, like the “Erlking” set to music by Loewe, Kurt Weill & Bertold Brecht’s chilling opening ballad from The Threepenny Opera, Stanford’s setting of Keats’ epic “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”, and a modern-day ballad, or “torch-song”, of unrequited love by Fascinating Aïda’s Dillie Keane & Adèle Anderson, plus several others. A truly eclectic programme, yet unified at the same time, this recital will be a revelation of the Ballad in all its forms.

Susie Gibbons is a soprano from Dublin currently in her final year of the Master of Performance at the Royal College of Music in London as a Sussex Scholar under the tutelage of Amanda Roocroft. Following her Psychology degree in UCD, Susie turned her attention to her singing studies in 2016 as a student at the TU Dublin Conservatory of Music and Drama where she studied with Colette McGahon-Tosh. During this time, Susie sang the role of Dido in Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell. Other recent performances include the title role of The Sleeping Queen by William Balfe at the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival and the Mananan International Festival. Susie has also performed with Irish National Opera in their productions of Aïda and Madama Butterfly at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre, Dublin and Cork Opera House. Susie was selected as a ‘2020 Rising Star’ by University Concert Hall Limerick and in 2019 and was a finalist in Northern Ireland Opera’s Festival of
Voice. Susie was also a winner of the Nancy Calthorpe Cup for French Mélodie and was a finalist in the Gervase Elwes Cup at the Feis Ceoil. In addition, Susie is the winner of the 2019 Bernadette Greevy Bursary and Mahler prize, presented by the National Concert Hall and Celine Byrne.

Irish tenor Andrew Gavin is establishing himself as one of Ireland’s most sought-after young tenors. In increasing demand on the opera stage and concert platform, recent performances have included the Evangelist in Bach’s St John Passion, Monatatos in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Curzio The Marriage of Figaro (Irish National Opera), and Telemachus in Monteverdi’s The Return of Ulysses (Opera Collective Ireland). Andrew is a member of the Irish National Opera’s ABL Aviation Opera Studio, and participated in Wexford Festival Opera’s young artist programme, Wexford Factory. Andrew completed his Masters in Music Performance at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin in 2016, where he is now persuing the D.Mus. in Performance. He made his Wigmore Hall debut in 2016 as part of Irish Culture in Britain: A Centenary Celebration. At the Kilkenny Arts Festival in 2016 he sang the role of Arbace in a concert performance of Mozart’s Idomeneo, and he was a winner of the 2016 PwC Wexford Festival Opera Emerging Young Artist bursary. 

Niall Kinsella studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna and at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin, completing his studies in Lieder accompaniment at the Franz-Schubert-Institut, in Baden-be-Wien, Austria, and at the International Summer Academy of the Mozarteum University, Salzburg. He has performed extensively across Europe, in Austria, France, Spain, Hungary, Czech-Replublic, Italy and United Kingdom, in venues such as Wiener Musikverein, Wiener Konzerthaus, Mozarthaus Wien, The Liszt Academy, Budapest, St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, and National Concert Hall, Dublin. His debut CD “The Complete Songs & Airs of John F. Larchet” will be released internationally on Champs Hill Records (UK) this year, and his second CD, of Schubert lieder, for Austrian label Gramola Klassik is also due for international release. Niall is Artistic Director of Irish Songmakers, and has also curated a recital series at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London.

Presented by Irish Songmakers