The Esker Festival Orchestra is back at St. Nicholas’ Church as part of their 2026 Orchestral concerts.
Simple Gifts: Orchestral masterworks by Brahms, Copland and Ethel Smyth
Tickets available via the Esker Festival Orchestra website or from: https://tickety.ie/s/69a1XAK
The Esker Festival Orchestra presents a concert of rustic orchestral Masterworks including Johannes’ Brahms serene 2nd Symphony, Aaron Copland’s groundbreaking ballet suite to Appalachian Spring and Ethel Smyth’s rousing Overture to her opera The Boatswain’s Mate. The 60 piece orchestra will present these works in the beautiful surrounds and acousitc of St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church Galway under the baton of Artistic Director Peter Joyce and Esker Festival Assistant Conductor Véronique Bernar. The performance will last 70 minutes with a short interval.
The Esker Festival, now in its 13th year, has established itself as Ireland’s most exciting orchestral and choral festival, bringing together Irish and international young professionals and advanced students in Galway each summer.
This August we present our most ambitious festival programme to date based on the theme of ‘Rustic Delights and Dangers’. This will include an orchestral concert with works by Aaron Copland, Johannes Brahms and Ethel Smyth and concert performances of Pietro Mascagni’s verismo masterpiece Cavalleria Rusticana, featuring a world class cast of International and Irish singers and the Esker Festival Orchestra and Choir. On top of this there will be performances of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf for children and chamber music performances by orchestra members and our ensemble in residence, the Kandinsky Quartet.
Principal Concerts will take place in St Nicholas Collegiate Church, Galway (August 18th and 22nd) and Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (August 23rd) conducted by artistic director Peter Joyce as well as performances in the Emily Anderson Concert Hall in the University of Galway on August 19th, 20th and 21st.