BRINGING LIVE CHAMBER MUSIC TO YOU
AUTUMN SEASON 2026
Click on a tour for details
CONTEMPO QUARTET
Of Woods and Water (9-13 September)
KANTOS QUARTET
Centenaries (16-20 September)
LIR QUARTET
Young at Heart (23-27 September)
VANBRUGH & FRIENDS
Romantic Masters I (2-4 October)
RAJA QUARTET
A World of Quartets (7-11 October)
ORA QUARTET
Contrasts (14-18 October)
ESPOSITO QUARTET
White Man Sleeps (21-25 October)
PIROSMANI QUARTET
Tenderness and Turmoil (3-8 November)
VANBRUGH & FRIENDS
Romantic Masters II (13-15 November)
GEALÁN QUARTET
Prayers and Truths (19-24 November)
FICINO QUARTET
The Lyric Tour (3-6 December)
NSQF concert venues 2026
TOUR 1 - CONTEMPO QUARTET - September 9-13
OF WOODS AND WATER
Newbridge - Dundalk - Birr - Cork - Dublin
ConTempo Quartet
ConTempo Quartet
Bogdan Sofei, violin
Ingrid Nicola, violin
Andreea Banciu, viola
Adrian Mantu, cello
Click here to read more about the ConTempo Quartet
Click here to read more about composer Judith Ring
Haydn - String Quartet in B flat Op.1 No.1 La Chasse [c. 1757]
Judith Ring - Of Woods and Water [2022]
Dvořák - Cypresses (selection) [1887]
Janáček - On an overgrown path (selection) [1900-1911] arr. for string quartet
Beethoven - String Quartet in E flat Op.74 The Harp [1809]
Formed in 1995 in Bucharest and based in Ireland since 2003 as Galway Music Residency’s Ensemble in Residence, the ConTempo Quartet is one of the most exciting and vibrant chamber ensembles performing today.
They open our autumn season with Haydn’s brilliant and uplifting Op.1 No.1, the first of his sixty-eight extraordinary string quartets which have inspired composers, musicians and audiences ever since.
Judith Ring’s Of Woods and Water was written in 2022 for the Appalachian Chamber Music Festival in Virginia, USA. It pays homage to two folks tunes, one of Irish origin and one of American origin – Cooney’s Reel and Old Joe Clark
Dvořák’s Cypresses is a collection of love songs arranged for string quartet by the composer, and Janáček’s On an overgrown path is a series of piano pieces, also arranged for quartet, which contain distant reminiscences… so dear to me that I do not think they will ever vanish.
Beethoven wrote three of his best loved and most serene masterpieces in 1809, the Emperor piano concerto, the piano sonata Les Adieux and this magnificent quartet, all in the warm and radiant key of E flat major. The quartet is full of confidence, lyricism and dramatic contrasts, the work of our greatest composer at the height of his powers.
Click on the venues for bookings (when available):
NEWBRIDGE - Wednesday 9th September at tbc - Riverbank Arts Centre
DUNDALK - Thursday 10th September at tbc - An Táin Arts Centre
BIRR - Friday 11th September at tbc - Birr Theatre and Arts Centre
CORK - Saturday 12th September at 1pm - Triskel Christchurch (Haydn, Ring, Beethoven)
DUBLIN - Sunday 13th September at 3pm - National Concert Hall
TOUR 2 - KANTOS QUARTET - September 16-20
CENTENARIES
Listowel - Tullamore - Thurles - Mallow - Ballina - Monaghan
Kantos Quartet
Kantos Quartet
Sarah Sew, violin
Hugh Murray, violin
Alexandros Koustas, viola
Aoife Burke, cello
Beethoven - String Quartet in B flat Op.18 No.6 [1800]
Caroline Shaw - Blueprint [2016]
Swan Hennessy - String Quartet No.2 [1920]
Janáček - String Quartet No.1 Kreutzer Sonata [1924]
This is the debut tour of an exciting new quartet comprising four of our finest and most experienced musicians. Their programme looks both to music and events of the 1920s and to the upcoming bi-centenary of Beethoven’s death in 1827.
Beethoven’s early B flat quartet moves from a sprightly and nimble opening movement, through a gentle adagio and a wildly irregular scherzo, to its heart, a moving slow introduction to the finale which Beethoven entitled La Malinconia. The finale itself is curiously enigmatic, as if unsure how to react to the pathos of its opening.
Pulitzer prize winning composer Caroline Shaw took this Beethoven quartet as the blueprint of her 2016 quartet of that name and its transformation is both fascinating and entertaining.
The story behind Irish-American composer Swan Hennessy’s beautiful second string quartet is outlined here on RTE’s Century Ireland website. Written in memory of Terence MacSwiney, shortly after his death on hunger strike in 1920, the piece was premiered by four Dublin-based musicians at the World Congress of the Irish Race in Paris on the evening of 25 January 1922. The audience included Éamon de Valera, Countess Markievicz and Mary MacSwiney (sister of Terence).
Leoš Janáček’s first string quartet Kreutzer Sonata is one of the most searing and psychologically charged works in the quartet repertoire. Written in 1923 and inspired by Tolstoy’s novella of the same name, the music is raw, fragmented and intensely direct. Sudden contrasts, speech‑like motifs and restless rhythmic energy create a compelling sense of theatrical drama.
Click on the venues for bookings (when available):
LISTOWEL - Wednesday 16th September at 8pm - St. John’s Theatre and Arts Centre
TULLAMORE - Thursday 17th September at 8pm - Esker Arts Centre
THURLES - Friday 18th September at 2pm - Source Arts Centre
MALLOW - Friday 18th September at 7.30pm - St. James’ Church - presented by Mallow Arts Collective, Cork County Council and Culture Night
BALLINA - Saturday 19th September at 8pm - Ballina Arts Centre
MONAGHAN - Sunday 20th September at tbc - Garage Theatre
The Mallow concert is part of Culture Night 2026
TOUR 3 - LIR QUARTET - September 23-27
YOUNG AT HEART
Clifden - Cork - Cahir - Kilkenny - Dublin
Lir Quartet
Lir Quartet
Siobhan Doyle, violin
Sophie Williams, violin
Ed Creedon, viola
Killian White, cello
Click here to read more about the Lir Quartet
Click here to read more about composer Linda Buckley
Haydn - String Quartet in G major Op.76 No.1 [1796]
Linda Buckley - Bullens Bay † [2026]
Mendelssohn - String Quartet in A minor Op.13 [1827]
† First performances / new commission funded by the Arts Council.
The Lir Quartet brings together three of our finest musicians with Scottish violinist Sophie Williams in a superb programme including masterpieces by an elderly Haydn and a young Mendelssohn alongside a new quartet by award winning Cork composer Linda Buckley.
Haydn’s glorious Op.76 quartets exude confidence and inventiveness, none more so than No.1 in G major. The 64-year-old musical grandmaster had seen Mozart burst on to the musical scene and die tragically young. The young Beethoven was in the wings, but Haydn just kept re-inventing himself. Full of wit and elegance, this is truly music to treasure!
Linda Buckley’s new string quartet Bullens Bay tells the story of Anne Bonny, an infamous pirate in the Bahamas, who was born near the Old Head of Kinsale in 1698.
Mendelssohn’s wrote his A minor quartet at the age of just eighteen but it is a masterpiece of extraordinary maturity, blending emotional urgency with exquisite craftsmanship. He was inspired and deeply influenced by Beethoven’s late quartets and especially by the A minor quartet Op.132 written just a couple of years earlier. There are many traces of it to be heard in this quartet, but this is not just imitation, it is an remarkable example of a brilliant young artist absorbing influences into their own unique language.
Click on the venues for bookings (when available):
CLIFDEN - Wednesday 23rd September at 1pm - Christ Church - presented by Clifden Arts Festival
CORK - Thursday 24th September at 7.30pm - MTU Cork School of Music - presented by Cork Orchestral Society
CAHIR - Friday 25th September at 8pm - Cahir Castle - presented by Cahir Social and Historical Society
KILKENNY - Saturday 26th September at 7.30pm - Parade Tower, Kilkenny Castle - presented by Music in Kilkenny
DUBLIN - Sunday 27th September at 3pm - National Concert Hall
TOUR 4 - VANBRUGH & FRIENDS October 2-4
ROMANTIC MASTERS I
Cork - Tracton - Doneraile
Vanbrugh & Friends
Keith Pascoe, violin
Marja Gaynor, violin
Simon Aspell, viola
Ed Creedon, viola
Christopher Marwood, cello
Brahms - Clarinet Quintet in B minor Op.115 - version for string quintet [1891]
Dvořák - String Quintet in E flat major Op.97 American [1893]
The Vanbrugh & Friends present two popular and contrasted works from the string quintet repertoire.
This Brahms quintet is the composer’s own alternative and rarely performed version of his famous clarinet quintet, with the clarinet part being played by a solo viola. Its richly autumnal soundworld is subtly altered in the string quintet version, the more blended voices offering a transparent texture of great beauty.
Brahms was an admirer and supporter of Dvořák’s work and the two were close friends from 1877 until Brahms’ death in 1897. Dvořák wrote this E flat major quintet during his time in America 1892-1895 as Director of the National Conservatory of Music, a fruitful and inspired period which also produced the New World symphony, the American string quartet and the cello concerto. This lovely quintet is filled with flowing melodies, rhythmic buoyancy and above all a sense of joy.
Click on the venues for bookings (when available):
CORK UCC - Friday 2nd October at 1.10pm - free admission, presented by UCC’s FUAIM series (Brahms)
CARRIGALINE - Saturday 3rd October at 8pm - Inkwell Theatre, Minane Bridge P17 NP40 - presented by Tracton Arts and Community Centre
DONERAILE - Sunday 4th October at 3pm - Doneraile Court - presented by OPW
TOUR 5 - RAJA QUARTET - October 7-11
A WORLD OF QUARTETS
Castlebar - Trim - Bantry - Cork - Dublin
Raja Quartet
Raja Quartet
Phoebe White, violin
Claire Wells, violin
Martin Moriarty, viola
Callum Owens, cello
Click here to read more about the Raja Quartet
Click here to read more about Aloys Fleischmann
Prokofiev - String Quartet No.1 [1930]
Webern - Langsamer Satz [1905]
Aloys Fleischmann - Quartet Movement [c.1930]
Ginastera - String Quartet No.1 [1948]
The brilliant Raja Quartet opens a treasure trove of great music from the first half of the 20th century, from Ukraine, Argentina, Austria and Ireland.
Donetsk-born Prokofiev’s first string quartet was first performed in Washington in 1931. At the time Prokofiev was living in Paris, having fled his native land after the 1917 Russian Revolution. This wonderful quartet combines music of exuberant brilliance with gorgeous tunes and a deep, expressive melancholy.
Webern’s Langsamer Satz is a beautiful and passionate love song to his future wife, written in the rich late Romantic sonorities of his teacher Schoenberg’s Verklaerte Nacht.
Aloys Fleischmann wrote his lovely Movement for String Quartet while a student at University College, Cork 1927-1932. It was performed privately in Munich in 1932 but not publicly until 2010 when the RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet played it in UCC’s Glucksman Gallery - and many times thereafter.
Ginastera’s stunning first string quartet is still one of the great unknowns in the quartet repertoire. Rooted in the rhythmic energy of Argentinian folk tradition this is wild and thrilling music - save for a haunting slow movement - and will bring this concert to a memorable close.
Click on the venues for bookings (when available):
CASTLEBAR - Wednesday 7th October at 7.30pm - Linenhall Arts Centre
TRIM - Thursday 8th October at tbc - Swift Cultural Centre - presented by Solstice Arts Centre, Navan
BANTRY - Friday 9th October at 8pm - St. Brendan’s Church - presented by West Cork Music
CORK - Saturday 10th October at 1pm - Triskel Arts Centre (Prokofiev, Fleischmann, Ginastera)
DUBLIN - Sunday 11th October at 3pm - National Concert Hall
TOUR 6 - ORA QUARTET - October 14-18
CONTRASTS
Bray - Ennis - Kinsale - Castlepollard - Kilkenny
Ora Quartet
Ora Quartet
Siun Milne, violin
Molly O'Shea, violin
Ali Comerford, viola
Yseult Cooper Stockdale, cello
Click here to read more about the Ora Quartet
Click here to read more about composer Alex Dowling
Haydn - String Quartet in F major Op.50 No.5 The Dream [1786]
Alex Dowling - Breathers (selection) [2026]
Shostakovich - String Quartet No.11 in F minor [1966]
Schumann - String Quartet in A minor Op.41 No.1 [1842]
The Ora Quartet is one of a new generation of fine quartets performing regularly and building a strong following. Their programme for this tour offers four strikingly contrasted quartets.
Haydn’s F major quartet is the most concise of his famous set of Prussian Quartets from 1786, nicknamed The Dream after the calm, otherworldly slow movement. Poised and elegant as always, Haydn delights in playful textures and unexpected turns, particularly in the mischievous final movement.
Alex Dowling’s Breathers is a collection of pieces that guide your breath. The composer writes: In recent years I began practicing meditation as a way to help with various health and autoimmune issues… I would usually do the meditation in silence but, after a while, I decided to try and write something that might serve as a backdrop. A type of music that could help with concentration and going deeper, but also something that I’d actually want to listen to.
Shostakovich’s string quartet no.11, from 1966, is dedicated to the memory of Vasily Shirinsky, second violinist of the Beethoven Quartet and a close friend of the composer, who had died a few months previously. Its seven short, connected, movements reflect on the loss in different ways, with tenderness, admiration, humour, anger and grief.
Schumann’s A minor quartet is the first of his three extraordinary quartets which inhabit the fervent, lyrical world of Romanticism. At its heart, the slow movement is one his most beautiful creations, unfolding with a quiet, glowing warmth. Celebratory and almost orchestral in its textures, the finale brings the quartet, and the concert, to a rousing end.
Click on the venues for bookings (when available):
BRAY - Wednesday 14th October at 8pm - Mermaid Arts Centre
ENNIS - Thursday 15th October at 8pm - glór (Pre-concert talk with quartet members at 7.15pm)
KINSALE - Friday 16th October at tbc - St. Catherine’s Cultural Centre
CASTLEPOLLARD - Saturday 17th October at 7.30pm - Tullynally Castle - presented by Derravaragh Music Association
KILKENNY - Sunday 18th October at 4pm - Parade Tower, Kilkenny Castle - presented by Music in Kilkenny
TOUR 7 - ESPOSITO QUARTET - October 21-25
WHITE MAN SLEEPS
Tullamore - Waterford - Manorhamilton - Virginia - Dublin
Esposito Quartet
Mia Cooper, violin
Anna Cashell, violin
Joachim Roewer, viola
William Butt, cello
Click here to read more about the Esposito Quartet
Click here to read more about composer Kevin Volans
Haydn - String Quartet in E flat major Op.33 No.2 The Joke [1781]
Kevin Volans - White Man Sleeps [1982]
Dvořák - String Quartet in E flat major Op.51 Slavonic [1879]
The wonderful Esposito Quartet has toured in every NSQF season since 2018, always bringing warmth and energy to their music-making.
Haydn’s E flat major quartet The Joke is the second of his revolutionary Op.33 set of quartets, in which conversational ease, rhythmic playfulness and sly humour redefined what a quartet could be. Its famous finale, with its teasing false endings, remains one of Haydn’s most delightful inventions.
Kevin Volans’ White Man Sleeps offers a dramatically different soundworld: spare, rhythmic and hypnotic. Drawing on traditional African dance music, the piece was originally written for two harpsichords, viola da gamba and percussion, but Volans was persaded to re-work it as a string quartet for the Kronos Quartet and it became perhaps his most popular and memorable work.
Dvořák’s E flat major quartet Op.51 is steeped in the warmth, lyricism and rhythmic vitality of Czech folk music. Its flowing melodies and dancing rhythms bring the programme to a joyful conclusion.
Click on the venues for bookings (when available):
TULLAMORE - Wednesday 21st October at 8pm - Esker Arts Centre
WATERFORD - Thursday 22nd October at 7.30pm - Dr. Mary Strangman Large Room, Waterford City Hall - presented by Waterford Music
MANORHAMILTON - Friday 23rd October at 8pm - The Glens Centre
VIRGINIA - Saturday 24th October at tbc - Ramor Arts Centre
DUBLIN - Sunday 25th October at 4.30pm - National Concert Hall
** PLEASE NOTE REVISED TIME OF NCH CONCERT DUE TO DUBLIN MARATHON ROAD CLOSURES **
TOUR 8 - PIROSMANI QUARTET - November 3-8
TENDERNESS AND TURMOIL
Rosscarbery - Listowel - Cork - Sligo - Navan - Dublin
Pirosmani Quartet
Mairéad Hickey, violin
William Hagen, violin
Natanael Ferreira, viola
Oleksey Shadrin, cello
Click here to read more about the Pirosmani Quartet
Click here to read more about composer Jane O’Leary
Schumann - String Quartet in F major Op.41 No.2 [1842]
Jane O’Leary - new work [2026] †
Schubert - String Quartet in G major D.887 [2026]
† First performances
Acclaimed Cork violinist Mairéad Hickey brings together colleagues from Brazil, Ukraine and the USA for a third tour by the Pirosmani Quartet
They open with the second of the three vividly expressive string quartets that Schumann wrote in a frenzy of creativity in the early summer of 1842. The previous September, his wife Clara - apart from Liszt, the most famous pianist of their time - had given birth to their first child, and perhaps that is the inspiration behind the disarming lullaby themes of the first two movements and the mischievous scampering of the scherzo and finale.
Galway-based composer Jane O’Leary is writing a new quartet for the Pirosmani Quartet to present on this tour.
Schubert’s vast G major quartet D.887 is a work of symphonic scale and emotional extremity. Like much of Schubert’s music in the last years of his short life it revolves around conflict between grief and joy, darkness and light, restless angst and sublime lyricism, often expressed through abrupt switching from major to minor or by the juxtaposition of music of near brutality with moments of great tenderness. This wonderful work is one of the greats, highly recommended!
The Pirosmani Quartet is presented in partnership with MTU Cork School of Music
Click on the venues for bookings (when available):
ROSSCARBERY - Tuesday 3rd November at 8pm - St. Fachtna’s Cathedral - presented by Barrahane Music
LISTOWEL - Wednesday 4th November at 8pm - St. John’s Theatre and Arts Centre
CORK - Thursday 5th November at 7.30pm - MTU Cork School of Music - presented by Cork Orchestral Society
SLIGO - Friday 6th November at 7.30pm - The Model - presented by Con Brio
NAVAN - Saturday 7th November at 8pm - Solstice Arts Centre
DUBLIN - Sunday 8th November at 3pm - National Concert Hall
TOUR 9 - VANBRUGH & FRIENDS - November 13-15
ROMANTIC MASTERS II
Cork - Wexford - Bantry
Vanbrugh & Friends
Vanbrugh & Friends
Keith Pascoe, violin
Marja Gaynor, violin
Simon Aspell, viola
Ed Creedon, viola
Christopher Marwood, cello
Brahms - Clarinet Quintet in B minor Op.115 - version for string quintet [1891]
Dvořák - String Quintet in E flat major Op.97 American [1893]
The Vanbrugh & Friends present two popular and contrasted works from the string quintet repertoire.
The Brahms Quintet is the composer’s own alternative and rarely performed version of his famous clarinet quintet, with the clarinet part being played by a solo viola. Its richly autumnal soundworld is subtly altered in this string quintet version, the more blended voices offering a transparent texture of great beauty.
Brahms was an admirer and supporter of Dvořák’s work and the two were close friends from 1877 until Brahms’ death in 1897. Dvořák wrote this E flat major quintet during his time in America 1892-1895 as Director of the National Conservatory of Music, a fruitful and inspired period which also produced the New World symphony, the American string quartet and the cello concerto. This lovely quintet is filled with flowing melodies, rhythmic buoyancy and above all a sense of joy.
Click on the venues for bookings (when available):
CORK UCC - Friday 13th November at 1.10pm - Aula Maxima, UCC - presented by UCC’s FUAIM series, admission free (Dvorak quintet)
WEXFORD - Saturday 14th November at 5pm - Our Lady's Island Church Y35 Y221 - presented by Music for Wexford
BANTRY - Sunday 15th November at 3pm - St. Brendan’s Church - presented by West Cork Music
TOUR 10 - GEALÁN QUARTET - November 19-24
PRAYERS AND TRUTHS
Carrick-on-Shannon - Birr - Cork - Dublin - Castleconnell
Gealán Quartet
Gealán Quartet
Gina Maria McGuinness, violin
Eoin Ducrot, violin
Fiachra de hOra, viola
Paul Grennan, cello
Click here to read more about the Gealán Quartet
Click here to read more about composer Sam Perkin
Sam Perkin - A Gathering [2025]
Turina - La Oración Del Torero [1925]
Puccini - Crisantemi [1890]
Shostakovich - String Quartet No.7 [1960]
Mendelssohn - String Quartet in F minor Op.80 [1847]
The Gealán Quartet open their programme this autumn with a series of evocative miniatures from Ireland, Spain, Italy and Russia, their concerts culminating in Mendelssohn’s powerful F minor quartet.
Cork composer Sam Perkin wrote his celebratory short quartet A Gathering for the opening of the 2025 West Cork Chamber Music Festival. He wrote: Are we in a barn, a pub, or at a chamber music festival? Regardless, our shared love of music and conviviality is woven throughout. In the spirit of fun and joy, we dance in celebration of The Musician. We honour all those who have come before and all those who will come after us
Turina’s Bullfighter’s Prayer portrays the contrast between the chaotic, festive atmosphere of a Madrid bullfight and the toreador praying for his safety. The music is unmistakably Spanish but also owes much to French impressionism.
Puccini’s Crisantemi is a moving elegy written in 1890 as a tribute on the death of Amadeo I of Spain, a son of the Italian King, Vittorio Emanuele II.
Shostakovich wrote his seventh string quartet in memory of his first wife who had died in 1954. In its three short movements the music is unsettled and unflinching, circling grief without finding resolution.
Mendelssohn approaches grief in a very different way in his F minor quartet Op.80, written in homage to his sister Fanny who had died a few weeks previously. The impassioned emotional turmoil of the first two movements gives way to a weeping lament in the slow movement and then to a fiery, virtuosic finale, perhaps a tribute to the brilliance of Fanny’s own string quartet writing.
Click on the venues for bookings (when available):
CARRICK-ON-SHANNON - Thursday 19th November at 8pm - The Dock
BIRR - Friday 20th November at 8pm - Birr Theatre and Arts Centre
CORK - Saturday 21st November at 1pm - Triskel Christchurch (Perkin, Turina, Puccini, Mendelssohn)
DUBLIN - Sunday 22nd November at 3pm - National Concert Hall
CASTLECONNELL - Tuesday 24th November at 8pm - All Saints’ Church - presented by Limerick Arts Office
TOUR 11 - FICINO QUARTET - December 3-6
THE LYRIC TOUR
Tralee - Skibbereen - Cork - Dublin
Ficino Quartet
Elaine Clark, violin
Lynda O’Connor, violin
Nathan Sherman, viola
Ailbhe McDonagh, cello
Click here to read more about the Ficino Quartet
Click here to read more about composer Ian Wilson
Ian Wilson - Quartet No.7 Lyric Suite [2004]
Jessie Montgomery - Strum [2006]
Beethoven - String Quartet in C sharp minor Op.131 [1826]
The Ficino Quartet comprises four of our most inspirational musicians and has featured in NSQF’s programme each year since 2019. This autumn they revive a lovely quartet by Ian Wilson and look forward to next year’s Beethoven anniversary with performances of his epic C sharp minor quartet.
Ian Wilson’s beautifully descriptive and atmospheric Lyric Suite was commissioned by RTE Lyric FM in 2004. It comprises Seven Elegiac Pieces which the composer describes as songs without words which explore a range of colours and emotions in their brief spans.
American composer Jessie Montgomery’s Strum brings an exhilarating contrast. It begins with fleeting nostalgia and transforms into ecstatic celebration, drawing on American folk idioms and the spirit of dance and movement.
Beethoven’s monumental C sharp minor quartet Op.131 is considered by many to be his greatest. It is a perfectly structured seven movement odyssey, played without a pause, which leads the listener through the many and varied pages of a universal story. Its opening fugue is austere and searching, its central movements shift between tenderness, wit and restless drive, and its dazzling finale unleashes a fierce, defiant energy.
Click on the venues for bookings (where available):
TRALEE - Thursday 3rd December at 7pm - Kerry School of Music (free entry, voluntary retiring collection)
SKIBBEREEN - Friday 4th December at 8pm - Abbeystrewry Church - presented by Barrahane Music
CORK - Saturday 5th December at 1pm - Triskel Arts Centre (Wilson, Beethoven)
DUBLIN - Sunday 6th December at 3pm - National Concert Hall
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