Bantry and Beyond
West Cork Chamber Music Festival
Access can be purchased as a festival pass, 14-concert festival echoes pass, six-concert package, or individually:
Already purchased? Click here to watch.
The West Cork Chamber Music Festival in Bantry, County Cork, Ireland, is delighted to introduce its 2021 virtual festival incarnation: Bantry and Beyond.
One of the most iconic and scenic locations in Ireland, Bantry is a stunningly beautiful harbor town, set between sea coast and mountains and known for its three Festivals - Chamber Music, Literary and the Masters of Tradition, as well as its teeming agricultural life, markets and outdoor activities, complete with its own ancient circle of standing stones, the Kealkil Stone Circle.
The renowned West Cork Chamber Music Festival typically takes place annually in Bantry, County Cork, Ireland. Over a period of ten days, a world-class line-up of international ensembles and soloists perform an extensive program of concerts which run from morning to late night.
This year, however, as the Festival musicians and audiences could not come to Bantry, the Festival has gone virtual and is pleased to present a truly unique series of thirty concerts from May 28 – July 25, enabling festival-goers to become virtual travelers to destinations across Europe and the USA.
In this special presentation, Bantry and Beyond surrounds its luxurious, central Festival Echoes series of twice-daily concerts (June 25 – July 4), with six elegant weekends of themed concert sets: opening with Classical Prelude (May 28-30), Russian Pictures(June 4-6), The Romantics (June 11-13), and Solos (June 18-20), concluding with Coda (July 16-18) and Encore (July 24 - 25).
The West Cork Chamber Music Festival also offers a special focus on Irish musicians and composers and proudly features them across many of its concert programs – from composers Deirdre Gribbin and Garth Knox to distinguished artists from Siobhán Doyle and Seán Morgan-Rooney, to the Esposito Quartet. Click here for more information on the concerts featuring Irish artists and composers.
Festival locations include concert halls in Amsterdam, Utrecht and Chicago; historic Great Houses of Ireland and the Netherlands; a centuries-old abbey with a fabulous library; Palaces in Prague and Vienna; old churches in London, Bantry and Amsterdam; a vaulted tunnel under a vanished convent in Cologne; studios in Amsterdam and Berlin; and Music Centers in Hungary and Italy. Click here for more information about the festival’s venues.
We are delighted that you can join us virtually this year and look forward to welcoming you to Bantry in the future!
Pricing
Full Festival Pass: €250 / $300
Single Ticket: €10 / $12
Purchase a curated or custom package of concerts for a reduced price of just €50 / $60 for each six performances.
*New!* Festival Echoes multi-concert package: €140 / $120 for all 14 Festival Echoes Concerts
Concert Information
Each concert will be broadcast twice: first in Irish Standard Time (GMT +1) and then again in US/Eastern Time. Concerts will be available to view on demand for a period of 48-hours following the North American broadcast.
Evening concerts:
European Broadcast: 8:00pm Irish Standard Time (GMT + 1)
North American Broadcast: 8:00pm ET / US
Festival Echoes Coffee Concerts:
European Broadcast: 11:00 am Irish Standard Time (GMT + 1)
North American Broadcast: 11:00 am ET / US
Encore | Friday 23 July - Sunday 25 July
Our two encores come to you from Berlin and Amsterdam. Rosanne Philippens chose to mark the 50th anniversary of Stravinsky’s death with his light-hearted Divertimento, placing it between two Bach sonatas. Irish violinist, Mairéad Hickey and Dutch cellist, Ella van Poucke make a powerful combination for the Duos by Schulhoff, Kodály and Finola Merivale’s new work, commissioned by the Festival.
About West Cork Chamber Music Festival
The West Cork Chamber Music Festival takes place annually in Bantry, County Cork. For ten days, from the last Friday in June, a world-class line-up of international ensembles and soloists perform an extensive programme of concerts which run from morning to late night. The two main venues are the intimate library of the historic Bantry House, which overlooks Bantry Bay; and St Brendan’s Church in the centre of Bantry. The Festival also includes a full schedule of performance workshops and masterclasses with resident student ensembles, composition workshops, public talks with artists as well as exhibitions and demonstrations from instrument makers.
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