Ireland's Tombeau to Debussy

One hundred years after the death of the great French composer Claude Debussy, Thérèse Fahy, with the support of an Arts Council Music Project Award, presents an exciting Debussy Festival to celebrate the masterpieces of the great composer.

Ireland's Tombeau to Debussy involves a series of three concerts that will be performed at the National Concert Hall, Dublin in May and June 2018 as well as in the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris in October 2018.

These series of three concerts will include world premieres of seven newly-commissioned Irish works, inspired by Debussy, as well as performances of the original 1920 "Tombeau de Debussy", interwoven with Debussy's own masterpieces. 

Concert dates are 31 May, 7 June, and 14 June 2018 in the Kevin Barry Room at the NCH and 24 - 26 October 2018 in the Centre Culturel Irlandais.

The original Tombeau de Debussy was a special supplement of Parisian "La Revue Musicale" in March 1920, dedicated to the memory of Debussy, in which ten great composers (Dukas, Bartok, Stravinsky, Ravel, de Falla, Satie, Malipiero, Goosens, Schmitt and Roussel) wrote pieces in memory of the composer.

Ireland's Tombeau to Debussy will premiere performances of new works by Jane O'Leary, Raymond Deane, Sebastian Adams, Siobhán Cleary, Roger Doyle, Gráinne Mulvey and Benjamin Dwyer.

Performers will include Thérèse Fahy, piano, Elaine Clark, violin, Martin Johnson, cello, Madeleine Staunton, flute, Kathleen Tynan, soprano, Benjamin Dwyer, guitar and Dermot Dunne, accordion.

Not only has Thérèse Fahy been awarded this grant from the Irish Arts Council to curate "Ireland's Tombeau to Debussy", she has also been invited to perform a solo piano recital at Debussy's birthplace in St Germain en Laye, on March 25th 2018, the anniversary of the composer's death. This performance will be recorded by Radio France and aired on LyricFm (date to be announced).

The festival is also being supported by the Contemporary Music Centre and the Royal Irish Academy of Music who will host a public "Meet the Composer" event on April 19th 2018. This event will profile four of the composers who have been commissioned to write pieces for the festival. These composers will be in conversation with Thérèse Fahy as they talk about the evolution of their compositions and the influence of Debussy on their work.

This workshop will be of interest to composers, musicologists, performers and students as well as the general music enthusiast. Further details are available here