Ergodos Musicians present I Call to You

Centred around Johann Sebastian Bach’s organ chorale prelude, 'Ich ruf’ zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ', I Call to You features both new works and arrangements of the chorale prelude by composers of the current cutting-edge in Irish composition: Jonathan Nangle, Simon O’Connor, Benedict Schlepper-Connolly and Garrett Sholdice.

A cast of the most eclectic and exciting chamber musicians working in Ireland today will perform the music: Ergodos Musicians, featuring Cliodhna Ryan (violin), William Butt (cello), Jonathan Sage (clarinet) and Michael McHale (piano), with mezzo-soprano Michelle O’Rourke (Ergodos Voices, Tryst).

I Call to You is a celebration of continuity and thus an affirmation of action in the present tense. We celebrate lineage: Simon O’Connor, Jonathan Nangle and Garrett Sholdice provide four new arrangements of JS Bach’s chorale prelude ‘Ich ruf’ zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ’, an elegiac harmonisation of a Lutheran hymn tune from Bach’s Orgelbüchlein.

These are, of course, acts of homage to an important artistic ancestor, but also the perpetuation of the practice of using pre-existent material as compositional vehicle – a reminder of the very beginnings of our art in improvised organum. The new works by Benedict Schlepper-Connolly and Garrett Sholdice carry this metaphor to the next level with new arias firmly rooted in the tradition of Baroque musical rhetoric, yet speaking in a resolutely modern tongue.

I Call To You is an Ergodos production, curated by Benedict Schlepper-Connolly and Garrett Sholdice. It's presented at The Model with the support of a Touring Award from the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

For booking and information, see [link]www.themodel.ie[/link] or call (0)71 914 1405.