Thanks to everyone who entered our Christmas Crackers Twitter Giveaway. All winner have now been contacted! More special offers coming soon!
As the season of giving is almost upon us, we are getting into the spirit of things a little early with thanks to Kevin Hough Productions! The first 20 people to email us HERE will win a free pair of tickets to Christmas Crackers on Wednesday 2 December at 8pm. Join Ellen McElroy, Damian Smith, Special Guests Arklow Shipping Silver Band, and presenter Kevin Hough for an evening of Christmas popular Songs, Carols and Poetry, Featuring all your Seasonal Favourites, HOW TO ENTER: Simply reply with your NAME and contact telephone number to info@nch.ie making sure to use TWITTER OFFER in the subject line. The first three received will also win a limited edition National Concert Hall Mouse! Good Luck!
Few artists can enthral an audience like the renowned vocalist and actress Ute Lemper. Her career is vast and varied. She has made her mark on the stage, in films, in concert and as a unique recording artist and interpreter of sultry Berlin cabaret, French Chanson and the works of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.
Ute was born in Münster, Germany in 1963. After graduation from the Dance Academy in Cologne and the Max Reinhardt Seminary Drama School in Vienna, she started performing in Stuttgart with roles in plays by Fassbinder and others. She went on to dazzle audiences in Europe and worldwide in musical theatre roles - Velma Kelly in Chicago (London, New York, Las Vegas), Lola in The Blue Angel, Peter in Peter Pan (both in Berlin), Cats in Vienna and Sally Bowles in Jérôme Savary's Paris production of Cabaret. Yet she returned again and again to the dark, complex and powerfully creative German past, in solo concerts like Kurt Weill Recital and Berlin Cabaret Evening; in symphony concerts, including The Seven Deadly Sins and Songs from Kurt Weill; in Pina Bausch's Kurt Weill Revue; and on the discs Ute Lemper Sings Kurt Weill (Vols. I & II), The Threepenny Opera, The Seven Deadly Sins, Mahagonny Songspiel, and Berlin Cabaret Songs (comprising works of songwriters censored or persecuted by the National Socialists).
Ute's edgy aesthetic and repertoire also reach far beyond Germany. Though she says, "I cannot stress enough my life's journey exploring repertoire inspired by art of the Weimar Republic," she points out that this art also "reflects other philosophical and cultural horizons, other political matters, and other times." In order fully to explore and comprehend the history she inherited, Ute has naturally and with brilliant success taken up material from other European traditions and from the United States. Ute has explored the French chanson from Edith Piaf, Jacques Prévert, Joseph Kosma and Serge Gainsbourg to the Belgian poet Jacques Brel. She also explored the contemporary alternative rock repertoire – from Tom Waits, Elvis Costello to Nick Cave on her Punishing Kiss album – and finally created her own original material which can be heard on the latest album But One Day...
Ute has just recorded and co produced, with Todd Turkisher, a complete album with her own original songs. She wrote music and lyrics and together with her band, arranged a unique song cycle of unusual stories about places, cities, lives and love.
Following a remarkable début with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in 2007, hailed by the Irish Independent as 'brilliant, stunning and totally captivating', she returns on Tuesday, December 1 to command and mesmerise with her elegant, eloquent, inimitable style.
Signature Series: Ute Lemper with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. Tuesday, December 1. Show 8pm. Tickets from €25. Click HERE for booking info.
George Enescu - a prodigious musician since his early childhood is renowned for his violin virtuoso performances as well as his well-known Romanian Rhapsodies.
Enescu was born in Liveni, northern Romania. He entered the Vienna Conservatoire at seven, to study the violin, graduated when he was 13. It is there where he first met Brahms, whose influence is evident in Enescu's early works.
In 1923 he made his debut as conductor with the Philadelphia Orchestra in New York. He appeared as a conductor with many American orchestras, and in 1936 it is believed that he was one of the candidates considered to replace Toscanini as permanent conductor of the New York Philharmonic.
In 1935, he conducted the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris and Yehudi Menuhin (who had been his pupil for several years starting in 1927) in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major. He also conducted the New York Philharmonic between 1937 and 1938.
He lived in Paris and in Romania, but after World War II and the Soviet occupation of Romania, he remained in Paris.
His generosity and conviviality were legendary. Between the two World Wars, George Enescu seemed to be at the height of his powers, conducting the New York Philharmonic and numbering among his pupils Yehudi Menuhin. But his long exile from Romania following the communist take-over took its toll on him, practically and psychologically, and he died in poverty in Paris in May 1955.
Remus Azoitei and Eduard Stan’s Internationally acclaimed recordings of George Enescu's complete works for violin/piano on 2CDs (2007/8) have inspired an international tour of cultural capitals, bringing the work of this brilliant Romanian composer and musician to a live, world-wide audience.
Catch them on their only Dublin show tonight in the intimate setting of The John Field Room for what promises to be a very special concert. Show 8pm. Tickets: €18. Click HERE for more information.
Just two days to go until beloved Opera Star Frederica Von Stade performs the Irish leg of her Farewell Recital Tour at The National Concert Hall with an evening of beautiful French Melodies, German Lieder and more. Frederica von Stade has enriched the world of classical music for three decades with her appearances in opera, concert, and recital. The mezzo-soprano is well known to audiences around the world through her numerous featured appearances on television including several PBS specials and "Live from Lincoln Center" telecasts. She has made over sixty recordings with every major label, including complete operas, aria albums, symphonic works, solo recital programs, and popular crossover albums and is a six-time Grammy nominee. Dont miss this opportunity to see one of the most beloved musical figures of our time.
Frederica von Stade- Thursday 12th November 2009, 8pm. Tickets from €30. Limited Tickets available. Click HERE for more information.
Tuxedos, martinis and billionaire villains are all core elements of any James Bond Film, but nothing communicates the essence of the film’s content, plot twists and the suave agent himself, quite like the best Bond Themes.
For decades, top contemporary singers and songwriters have been commissioned to put their stamp on the James Bond Franchise, from songs by John Barry, Tim Rice and Paul McCartney to the powerhouse performances of Carly Simon, Shirley Bassey and even A-Ha! Making a welcome return to The National Concert Hall on Sunday, 8th November, Ellen McElroy and Eoin Cannon will perform the most infectious Bond themes recorded. Featuring such hits as "Nobody Does It Better", Man with The Golden Gun", "Thunderball", "Diamonds Are Forever", "Goldfinger", "Live and Let Die and of course the powerful "Bond Theme". Starring Ellen Mc Elroy, Eoin Cannon with the 007 Big Band and presented by Kevin Hough
Tickets from €25/8pm Show. Click HERE for booking information.
