MOZART REQUIEM

The Irish Chamber Orchestra is the orchestra that invites you. It reserves a place for you to take you on a heartbreaking, hair-raising and at the same time exciting sound journey!
They play old things, they play new things, they play everything with passion and fire: in addition to the classics, the Irish Chamber Orchestra also performs in the theater, in the opera, with DJs and dance groups. Under the direction of concertmaster Kathrine Hunka, the musicians break new ground, courageously test the limits of classical music and thus give the audience unforgettable moments.
Every season the ICO can be heard in Limerick and Dublin, regularly tours to the far corners of Ireland and performs in some of the world's most prestigious concert halls.

With his arrival as chief conductor and artistic partner in May 2022, Thomas Zehetmair has begun a new chapter in the orchestra's work and put his own stamp on the repertoire. Together they have since performed groundbreaking new commissions from some of Ireland's finest composers and explored ways to see and understand the classics in new ways.
An important belief and aspect of their work is that music is for everyone! For this reason, the orchestra is also a charity with a number of successful community support programs. After 16 years, the ICO Schools initiative continues to provide valuable free music lessons for children and young people in Limerick City, while ICO Youth provides an orchestra platform for teenagers. ICO Teach, the online tutoring website, offers tutors and children worldwide access to free, outstanding music lessons. The ICO is also deeply involved in the MA Classical Strings program of the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick and is proud to act as Orchestra in Residence there. It is Ireland's rich, creative musical heritage that inspires her. It's the unbridled enthusiasm for what they do and the people they do it with. As Ireland's national chamber orchestra, they are fortunate to call the University of Limerick home and are supported by the Arts Council of Ireland/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

“Virtuosic technique combined with a musical spirit that questions everything. Zehetmair finds answers where other musicians don’t even see the question.”

Like hardly anyone else, Thomas Zehetmair knows how to combine his multifaceted musical preferences. He enjoys great reputation worldwide not only as a violin soloist, but also as a conductor and chamber musician.

He maintains a close musical collaboration with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Poznań Philharmonic and the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, with the Seattle Symphony, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and the Budapest Festival Orchestra.

Thomas Zehetmair has been chief conductor of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra since the 2019/2020 season and with the 2020/2021 season he also took on this role at the Orchester National Auvergne Rhône-Alpes. Zehetmair has also been chief conductor of the Irish Chamber Orchestra since May 2022.

Between 2012 and 2015 he held this position with the Orchester de Chambre de Paris, and between 2016 and 2021 with the Musikkollegium Winterthur. From 2002 to 2014, Thomas Zehetmair headed the Royal Northern Sinfonia and developed it into one of England's leading orchestras.

For his diverse artistic activity, Thomas Zehetmair received, among other things, the certificate of honor from the German Record Critics' Prize and the Karl Böhm Interpretation Prize of the State of Styria. Thomas Zehetmair holds honorary doctorates from the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar and Newcastle University.

Irish soprano Ailish Tynan won the Song Prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 2003. She took part in the prestigious Vilar Young Artist Program at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and as a BBC New Generation Artist she worked with the BBC orchestras on recordings and concerts and performed in recitals.
This season she returns to the English National Opera and Glyndebourne, first as the governess in Isabella Bywater's new production of The Turn of the Screw and to conclude the season as Berta in Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Glyndebourne Festival. She also plays Christine in the premiere of Festen by Mark-Anthony Turnage at the Royal Ballet & Opera. In concert she can be heard with Handel's Messiah at the National Concert Hall and Orff's Carmina Burana at the Royal Festival Hall.
Ailish Tynan has made a name for herself with numerous operatic roles, including Gretel in Hansel and Gretel (Royal Ballet & Opera, Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera), First Lady in The Magic Flute, Berta in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Madame Cortese in Il viaggio a Reims, Daughter of Podtotschina in The Nose (Royal Ballet & Opera), Mimì in La bohème, Zemfira in Aleko, Vixen Smart Head in The Cunning Little Vixen (Grange Park Opera), Tigrane in Radamisto (English National Opera), Papagena in The Magic Flute ( Teatro alla Scala, Royal Ballet & Opera), Despina in Così fan tutte (Garsington Opera, Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse), Héro in Béatrice et Bénédict (Houston Grand Opera, Opéra Comique, Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg), Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Nannetta in Falstaff, Atalanta in Xerxes (Royal Swedish Opera) and Miss Wordsworth in Albert Herring (Opéra Comique, Opéra de Rouen).

Irish mezzo-soprano Carolyn Holt, winner of the Dermot Troy Prize at the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition, studied at the Alexander Gibson Opera School of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Royal Irish Academy of Music and the Royal Academy of Music in London.
She is praised for her “rich and seductive mezzo-soprano” and has performed with companies such as the Royal Opera House, Irish National Opera, Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera and English National Opera.
Previous engagements include Bianca in The Rape of Lucretia (Royal Opera House), Annina in Der Rosenkavalier and the voice of Antonia's mother in Les contes d'Hoffmann (Irish National Opera), Mrs Grose in The Turn of the Screw and Madame Larina in Eugen Onegin (Garsington Opera); Maddalena in Rigoletto (New Opera Singapore); Cornelia in Giulio Cesare (Blackwater Valley Opera Festival); Gertrude in Hansel and Gretel and Charlotte in Werther (Lyric Opera Ireland/National Concert Hall), Minskwoman in Flight and Florence Newton, the “Witch of Youghal” in the premiere of Raymond Deane's Vagabones (Opera Collective Ireland), Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking, Dido in Dido & Aeneas and Mrs Jones in Street Scene (RCS) and mezzo soloist Elsewhere (Once Off productions). Other roles include Mrs Sedley in Peter Grimes, Margret in Wozzeck, Mary in The Flying Dutchman, Kitchen Boy in Rusalka and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni.
In the concert hall, Carolyn Holt is a sought-after soloist with orchestras and choirs throughout the UK and Ireland. Previous highlights include The Dream of Gerontius (National Concert Hall, Dublin), Handel's Messiah (Ulster Orchestra/Waterfront Hall); Dvořák's Mass in D major (Wexford Festival Orchestra), Mahler's Songs of a Traveling Journeyman and Bach's cantata I have enough (Esker Festival Orchestra) and Elgar's Sea Pictures (Birr Arts Festival Orchestra). Her other concert repertoire includes Bach's St. John Passion and Christmas Oratorio, Mahler's Second Symphony, Des Knaben Wunderhorn and Kindertotenlieder, Mendelssohn's Elias, Mozart's Requiem and Chilcott's Christmas Oratorio. Future engagements will take her to the Royal Opera House, the Theater Bonn and the Wexford Festival Opera.

Irish tenor Robin Tritschler, former BBC New Generation Artist and graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, has been praised by press and audiences alike for his “radiant lyrical voice”.
Highlights of this season include the Monteverdi Vespers with the Ensemble Pygmalion and Raphaël Pichon, Beethoven's 9th Symphony with Pichon in Paris, a Messiah concert tour with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, performances with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Václav Luks, and with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Reuss. He makes his Australian debut with recitals with Olli Mustonen in Adelaide and returns to the Wigmore Hall in London.
Last season Robin Tritschler made his debut with the London Symphony Orchestra with Bruckner's Te Deum under the direction of Nathalie Stutzmann. He also gave concerts of Mozart's C minor Mass with Raphaël Pichon and the Munich Philharmonic and returned to the Salzburg Festival with Maxime Pascal. Highlights also included the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's season opening with Beethoven's 9th Symphony under Stutzmann; He later returned as an evangelist in performances of Bach's St. Matthew Passion. He also sang Haydn's The Creation (Daniele Rustioni) with the Ulster Orchestra, Bach's Christmas Oratorio with the Oslo Domkor and later with the Dresdner Kreuzchor, and he was a guest at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera playing the role of Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) with Evan Rogister.
In recent seasons Robin Tritschler has appeared in concerts with Le Concert Spirituel and Hervé Niquet for performances of Mozart's Requiem recorded for Alpha Classics, Britten's War Requiem in Katowice with Charles Dutoit and Mozart's C minor Mass with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Listen to Herbert Blomstedt. He sang the Evangelist in the St. Matthew Passion at Theater Basel in a co-production with the Deutsche Oper Berlin directed by Benedikt von Peter, and he returned to the Royal Opera House as Jaquino in Fidelio (Antonio Pappano). Other highlights included the Swan Song in San Diego with Inon Barnatan, the St. John Passion in Dresden and Salzburg with Herreweghe, appearances with the NDR Radiophilharmonie, the London Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, a return invitation to the Risor Chamber Music Festival and his debut at the Bregenz Festival in a newly commissioned opera by Thomas Larcher, The Hunting Gun. With the RTE Concert Orchestra, Robin Tritschler performed the Messiah in front of Pope Benedict XVI on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Vatican City. and he gave the British premiere of C.P.E. Bach's St John Passion with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Kirill Karabits.
Robin Tritschler is a first-class song interpreter. He performs regularly at London's Wigmore Hall with leading accompanists such as Graham Johnson, Malcolm Martineau, Iain Burnside and Julius Drake. He has also appeared at many other renowned concert halls, including the Cologne Philharmonic, Het Concertgebouw, the Kennedy Center (Washington DC), the Aldeburgh Festival, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the PianofestRuhr and the West Cork Chamber Music Festival. In 2012 Robin Tritschler was selected as a BBC New Generation Artist and has made numerous appearances with the BBC orchestras, including at the BBC Proms with Sir Mark Elder.
His growing discography includes a critically acclaimed recording of Britten's Songs for Peter Pears with Malcolm Martineau for Signum Classics (2024), the complete Songs of Poulenc with Graham Johnson (Hyperion), and a Britten and Schubert recording with Iain Burnside as part the Wigmore Hall Live series.

Irish bass-baritone Padraic Rowan's 2024/25 season highlights include his return to the Semperoper Dresden and the Irish National Opera, concerts with Les Arts Florissants and the Irish Chamber Orchestra, and roles such as Papageno / THE MAGIC FLUTE and Henry Kissinger / NIXON IN CHINA at his home venue, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he has been an ensemble member since 2019. His roles there include Frank / THE FLEDERMAUS, Jesus / MATTHÄUS-PASSION, Lord Rochefort / ANNA BOLENA, Ssurin / PIQUE DAME, Sagrestano / TOSCA, Roucher / ANDREA CHÉNIER as well as Theseus / A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM and Donner / DAS RHEINGOLD the parking deck.
His most important guest engagements include Bartolo / LE NOZZE DI FIGARO (Berlin State Opera), Dottore Grenvil / LA TRAVIATA (Semperoper Dresden), Momus / PLATÉE (Theater an der Wien), Licore / L'INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA (Salzburg Festival), Danieli / THE LOVE BAN and Sagrestano / TOSCA (Leipzig Opera), Jesus / MATTHÄUS-PASSION (Basel Theater), Speaker / THE MAGIC FLUTE (Irish National Opera), Chief Priest / NABUCCO, Masetto / DON GIOVANNI (Stucgart State Opera) and First Soldier / SALOME (Northern Ireland Opera). Concert engagements include MESSIAH (Les Arts Florissants), WEIHNACHTSORATORIUM (Thomanerchor Leipzig) and MATTHÄUS-PASSION (Athens Symphony Orchestra). Under the direction of Emmanuelle Haïm, Padraic Rowan sang works by Handel at the Académie du Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2015.
Padraic Rowan has been awarded a Next Generation Bursary Award by the Arts Council of Ireland. He is a first prize winner at the 2016 Les Azuriales International Opera Singing Competition in France, winner of the 2016 Bernadette Greevy Bursary Award, and recipient of the 2016 Jim McNaughton/TileStyle Artist's Bursary.
Padraic Rowan graduated from the Royal Irish Academy of Music in 2013 with a Masters in Music Performance and was a member of the Opera Studio at the Stuttgart State Opera for the 2016/17 season. He was a Jerwood Young Artist at the 2014 Glyndebourne Festival and is a laureate of Le Jardin des Voix, the young artists program of Les Arts Florissants.