Welcome from the Artistic Director

It gives me great pleasure to unveil the details of the third series of The Castletown Concerts to be held from Friday 10th to Sunday 12th September 2010 in this great Irish house, which has become Camerata Ireland’s home since 2007.

This year the festival is in honour of one of Poland’s, and the world’s, greatest living composers, Krzysztof Penderecki. We look forward to welcoming him to Castletown this September on his first visit to the Republic of Ireland, where he will conduct several of his own works, meet young Irish composers and musicians, and receive an honorary doctorate of music from NUI Maynooth. We salute a great musician, composer, human being and friend of Ireland.

Camerata Ireland’s support of young musicians remains an important core of its artistic remit, and we are delighted to present the young 21-yearold winner of the 2009 Dublin International Piano Competition, Alexej Gorlatch. Continuing our close relationship with NUI Maynooth, we present a performance of the Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima and Benedictus by Penderecki in St Patrick’s Chapel, NUI Maynooth, given by a range of young musicians from the Faculty of Music at Maynooth, the DIT Conservatory of Music, the Royal Irish Academy of Music, the County Kildare Orchestra, University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin. We also look forward to working with local school children where they will compose a piece of music to perform during the festival. Our programme will also celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of another great Polish composer, Fryderyk Chopin.

Finally, we would like to thank the Arts Council of Ireland, Randox Laboratories, the Office of Public Works, Steinway & Sons and the Embassy of Poland in Ireland who have helped make this festival possible. Mamy nadzieję, że każdy znajdzie coś dla siebie w Castletown we wrześniu tego roku.

Barry Douglas