Echoes and Inspirations: The Fews Ensemble at Carlingford Heritage Centre
Ensemble in Residence 2026 — Funded by The Arts Council of Ireland
As Ensemble in Residence at Carlingford Heritage Centre, The Fews Ensemble presents Echoes and Inspirations — a four concert journey through music that draws on memory, faith, and imagination. Spanning the English pastoral tradition, the spiritual visions of Messiaen, the lush romanticism of Brahms and Schoenberg, and a new commission by Newry composer Amy Rooney, this series explores how composers transform experience and art into sound.
The season concludes with a programme examining the deep and reciprocal relationship between music and literature — from Beethoven’s stormy Kreutzer Sonata, which inspired Tolstoy’s novella of the same name, to musical works shaped by Shakespeare’s enduring influence. Each concert offers a moment of reflection and wonder within the historic setting of Carlingford Heritage Centre.
Elgar & Vaughan Williams: English Voices
Poetry, landscape, and the English spirit
Edward Elgar’s Piano Quintet in A minor and Ralph Vaughan Williams’s On Wenlock Edge capture both the grandeur and intimacy of the English musical imagination. Rooted in poetry and landscape, these works intertwine melancholy, tenderness, and timeless beauty — a fittingly evocative opening to The Fews Ensemble’s 2026 season.
Performers:
Aaron O’Hare – Tenor
David Quigley – Piano
Joanne Quigley McParland – Violin
Tom Jackson – Violin
Jonathan Aasgaard – Cello
Viola – TBC
Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time
Olivier Messiaen’s extraordinary Quartet for the End of Time, composed in a prisoner of war camp in 1941, stands as one of the 20th century’s most radiant works — a meditation on faith, time, and transcendence. Scored for the unusual combination of clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, its stillness and ecstasy are given voice in the resonant atmosphere of Carlingford Heritage Centre.
Performers:
David Quigley – Piano
Joanne Quigley McParland – Violin
Francesco Paolo Scola – Clarinet
Jonathan Aasgaard – Cello
Romantic Transformations
This concert brings together the emotional depth and textural richness of the late Romantic era. Brahms’s String Sextet in G major, Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, and music from Strauss’s Capriccio unfold side by side with a new work by Newry composer Amy Rooney, specially commissioned for The Fews Ensemble. Lyrical, intense, and transformative.
Performers:
Stephanie Gonley – Violin
Joanne Quigley McParland – Violin
Rose Redgrave – Viola
Joel Hunter – Viola
Jonathan Aasgaard – Cello
Nick Trygstad – Cello
Music and the Written Word
The closing concert explores the enduring dialogue between music and literature. Beethoven’s passionate Kreutzer Sonata, which inspired Tolstoy’s novella of the same name, opens a programme that also includes works born of Shakespeare’s timeless characters. A fitting conclusion to Echoes and Inspirations, celebrating the shared power of words and sound.
Performers:
Joanne Quigley McParland – Violin
David Quigley – Piano
Actor – TBC