Two days of extraordinary contemporary music in Dundalk, with Sciarrino, Feldman, Hennies, Cage, Kagel and Philip Glass.

Another Look. Another Listen.

LCMS Festival 2027 — 18 & 19 June, Dundalk

Louth Contemporary Music Society celebrates its 21st year with Another Look. Another Listen., two days of remarkable music in some of Dundalk’s most distinctive spaces.

The festival brings together leading international and Irish performers in music by Salvatore Sciarrino, Morton Feldman, Sarah Hennies, John Cage, Mauricio Kagel and Philip Glass, alongside a major new LCMS commission.

On Friday evening, violinist Ilya Gringolts opens the festival at St Nicholas’ Church with new additions to Sciarrino’s extraordinary Caprices for solo violin, followed by Vanitas, performed by Giulia Zaniboni, Jean-Pierre Collot and Francesco Dillon.

Saturday begins in Dundalk Gaol with Elīna Viļuma-Helling performing Morton Feldman’s hypnotic Three Voices. At St Vincent’s Chapel, the Esposito Quartet gives the world premiere of a new LCMS commission by American composer Sarah Hennies. Later, acclaimed accordionist Teodoro Anzellotti brings music by John Cage and Mauricio Kagel to the Spirit Store.

The festival closes in St Nicholas’ Church with Chamber Choir Ireland, conducted by Gabriel Crouch, performing Philip Glass’s monumental Another Look at Harmony – Part IV.

Written in 1975 for chorus and organ, Another Look at Harmony – Part IV marked an important turning point in Glass’s music. Glass described the project as an attempt to reconnect rhythmic and harmonic structure, bringing clearly audible harmonic movement back into music whose foundations remained intensely rhythmic. The approximately 50-minute work gradually builds a vast, luminous architecture from repeating vocal and harmonic patterns.

Its appearance in Dundalk also has a lovely LCMS connection: Philip Glass himself performed for LCMS in Dundalk in 2009, making the closing concert genuinely another look — and another listen — at a composer who is part of the Society’s own history.

Chamber Choir Ireland is Ireland’s professional chamber choir, based at the National Concert Hall, and has become one of the country’s leading ensembles for adventurous choral repertoire. Under conductor Gabriel Crouch, the choir has recently appeared in major projects including Jóhann Jóhannsson’s Drone Mass.

All-Festival Ticket includes admission to all five concerts:

Friday 18 June, 8pm — St Nicholas’ Church

Ilya Gringolts / Giulia Zaniboni / Jean-Pierre Collot / Francesco Dillon

Salvatore Sciarrino

Saturday 19 June, 1pm — Dundalk Gaol

Elīna Viļuma-Helling

Morton Feldman: Three Voices

Saturday 19 June, 3pm — St Vincent’s Chapel

Esposito Quartet

Sarah Hennies: new work — World Premiere / LCMS Commission

Saturday 19 June, 5pm — The Spirit Store

Teodoro Anzellotti

John Cage / Mauricio Kagel

Saturday 19 June, 8pm — St Nicholas’ Church

Chamber Choir Ireland / Gabriel Crouch

Philip Glass: Another Look at Harmony – Part IV

Funded by The Arts Council and Louth County Council Arts Office.

Description supplied by the event organiser.