Sweet sounds at festival of Early Harp at Kilkenny Castle

Discover the world of the exquisite and ancient Irish harp at the Festival of Early Harp which takes place at Kilkenny Castle later this month.

The festival will take place from July 7 to 13 and includes a full schedule of 50 talks, workshops, social occasions, and concerts of harping, song, piping, viola da gamba, lute, and more.
The festival will feature hands-on playing sessions and workshops, live Q&A sessions with Irish music masters, presentations on history, repertory, and instruments, as well as concerts featuring some of the world’s finest historical and traditional musicians, recreating the glorious sounds of the early Irish harp.

Families all set to move into new houses in rural Kilkenny

Using everything from 18th-century manuscripts to cutting-edge 21st-century science, we aim to explore as much of the world of the old harpers as is now possible. Hear, play, and sing the music familiar to Irish and Gaelic chieftains, and in the Great Irish Houses.

An array of artists will be performing such as Eibhlís Ní Ríordáin, early Irish harp, and voice; Jimmy O’Brien-Moran, uilleann pipes; James Ruff, early Irish harp; Máire Ní Chéileachair, sean-nós song; Siobhán Armstrong, early Irish harp. The Irish Consort: Róisín O’Grady, soprano; Ryosuke Sakamoto, Renaissance lute; Sarah Groser, Reiko Ichise and Malachy Robinson.
The Gala Concert: Masters of Irish Music will take place at the Parade Tower at 8pm on July 8 and features Eibhlís Ní Ríordáin, early Irish harp and voice; Jimmy O’Brien-Moran, uilleann pipes; James Ruff, early Irish harp; Máire Ní Chéileachair, sean-nós song and Siobhán Armstrong, early Irish harp.

This concert—in the setting of the 1000-year-old tower of Kilkenny Castle—is a rare gathering of some of the world’s leading performers on early Irish harp and pipes, together with a prize-winning sean-nós [‘old style’] singer, in a programme of evocative and lively instrumental music, solo singing, and harp songs, some of which have only recently been unearthed, and reconstructed, after several hundred years of being lost to the living tradition.

Another highlight will be The Irish Consort: Róisín O’Grady, soprano; Ryosuke Sakamoto, Renaissance lute; Sarah Groser, Reiko Ichise, Malachy Robinson, viols and Siobhán Armstrong, early Irish harp and direction who will perform at the Parade Tower at 8pm on July 11.

The Historical Harp Society of Ireland was founded in 2002 and leads a rediscovery of Ireland’s illustrious medieval musical instrument.

www.irishharp.org