Made up of leading chamber musicians, orchestral leaders and principals and soloists from Ireland, the UK and Europe, The Fews Ensemble performs up to eight projects per year in Newry, Mourne, and Down, as well as in Dublin and Belfast.
The resident ensemble of Newry Mourne and Down and Newry Chamber Music, The Fews are renowned, not only for the quality of their playing, but for their innovative programme lead by Artistic Director, Joanne Quigley McParland.
The group perform well loved staples from the Chamber Music repertoire as well as countless commissions by Irish composers and Chamber version arrangements of larger scale orchestral works, including Mahler Symphony No. 4 for thirteen players and Brahms Serenade for nine players.
The group specialises in cross arts projects, working most notably with actor Ciarán Hinds on several projects including a sell-out, critically acclaimed run, of Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale at Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, in 2022.
In 2024 NCM and The Fews Ensemble founded the Narrow Water Festival to celebrate the announcement of the construction of Narrow Water Bridge. Future plans are in place to expand the festival on both sides of Carlingford Lough in 2025 and beyond.
The Fews Ensemble present a fresh approach to the String Quartet recital with a concert of stunning single movement pieces for this most popular of chamber music genres, interspersed with thematic poetry and prose.
The programme will include
Jesse Montgomery Strum
Ernest Hemingway Extract from Death in the Afternoon
Joaquin Turina La Oracion del Torero
Percy Bysshe Shelley The Sunset
Ottorino Respighi Il Tramunto
Roisin Kelly Oranges
Caroline Shaw Valencia
Emily Dickinson By The Sea
Osvaldo Golijov How Slow the Wind
Rainer Maria Rilke The Sonnets to Orpheus (Book II, No. 29)
Anton Webern Langsamer Satz
Patrick Kavanagh A Childhood Christmas
Trad. Don Oíche Úd I mBeithil
Daniel Kemper The Tango Argentine
Astor Piazzolla Four for Tango
Fews Ensemble on this occasion is
Mia Cooper
Joanne Quigley McParland
Rachel Roberts
Jonathan Aasgaard
Mary McCabe Soprano
Actor Ciaran Hinds.
Ticket prices for this concert are €20, €17 (concessions) and €5 (students/unwaged) and will be available at the door or on www.eventbrite.ie (a booking fee will apply and there are no refunds)