Announcing 2026 Limerick Early Music Festival Programme
Limerick Early Music Festival
18–22 March 2026
Limerick music lovers, get ready for an unforgettable week of celebrating “MASKS & MASQUES” with Limerick Early Music Festival.
Audiences of all ages are invited to performances and workshops exploring the multiple meanings of this year’s theme. Join us for our annual choral concert, vocal and instrumental solos, chamber music, historical dance, theatre, and much more! Read below for detail on each of this year’s incredible events. We hope to see you there!
WEDNESDAY 18th MARCH
The People’s Museum, upstairs in the blue room
Performances and Reception
5:45pm–6:15
MASQUERADE: Exploring the Human Psyche through Gombrowicz, Baroque Music, and Chant
Justyna Czwojdinska: actor
Anna Banko: voice, violin
6:30pm–7:30pm
MASKS AND MUSIC IN CEREMONIAL CONTEXT: Transformation and Liberation
Billy Mac Fhloinn: presenter, musician
7:30pm–8:15pm
RECEPTION
FRIDAY 20th MARCH
Saint Mary’s Cathedral 8pm–9:30pm
TICKETS: €25/€20
Peter Barley & Cecilia Madden: directors
Choirs: Ancór and Saint Mary’s Cathedral
Guest Vocal Soloists: Sarah-Ellen Murphy (contralto), Emma English (soprano)
LEMF Chamber Orchestra
LEMF 2026 McCullagh-Ó Briain Emerging Artist: Dylan Donegan
Concealed and Revealed delights in images of revelation and spiritual epiphany, of texts and sounds whose meanings are elucidated and uncovered, and of a multitude of ideas and images on the theme of concealment: the night, the moon, and sensual metaphors such as budding flowers and other feminine imagery, both sacred and secular. Featuring music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Henry Purcell, and Maddalena Casulana, this annual choral concert brings together multiple local choirs under the direction of Peter Barley and Cecilia Madden. Cantatas, motets, madrigals, and virtuosic instrumentals are sure to delight the ear and move the heart in this programme of sacred & secular music in the beautiful medieval venue of Saint Mary’s Cathedral. The recently established McCullagh-Ó Briain Emerging Artist Award marks its second year, recognising an outstanding instrumentalist playing with historically informed style, and named in memory of Bertha McCullagh-Ó Bríain, educator, and longtime supporter of arts, literature, and culture. The winner of the award will once again be showcased as a soloist during the evening’s concert.
SATURDAY 21st MARCH
Fun for all the Family, ages 6+
(in partnership with H.I.P.S.T.E.R., Historically Informed Performance Series, Teaching, Education & Research)
Belltable 1pm–2pm
TICKETS: €15 pps, €50 for family of 2 adults & 2 children
Elaine Funaro: harpsichord
Eric Love: actor, narrator
In a special theatrical concert, Elaine Funaro and Eric Love present the live version of their children’s book, “The Harpsichord Diaries”. This hour-long, family-oriented musical journey features Elaine at the harpsichord playing music from five centuries, in conversation with Eric acting over a dozen characters. The experience is enriched by projections of Andrea Love’s animated illustrations from the book. The script for this theatrical concert is adapted from the audio play version of “The Harpsichord Diaries”, called “Elena’s Dream”.
Chaconnes, Charades & Chicanery
Belltable 8pm
TICKETS: €25/€20
Mary Collins: historical dance specialist
Steven Player: baroque guitar, historical dance specialist
With guest musicians: Paulo Alonso (viola), Sarah Groser (viola da gamba), Yonit Kosovske (harpsichord)
Chaconne: a stately dance, popular in the 18th century
Charade: an absurd pretence intended to create a pleasant or respectable appearance
Chicanery: the use of deception or subterfuge to achieve one’s purpose
This delightful performance of dance, music, and drama offers a peek into the world of Baroque Theatre with its fascination for masquing, disguising and Commedia dell’Arte and explores the use of these conventions to satirise and reflect the timeless foibles of human behaviour.
SUNDAY 22nd MARCH
Mask: The Art of Culture, Expression, and Transformation
(theatrical performance & interactive workshop, 13+)
Belltable
12–1:15pm
TICKETS: €20 active participant (maximum 20 persons) / €10 audience
Simon Thompson: presenter, actor
This performative presentation maps historical and contextual information in relation to the Mask and Masking. Simon Thompson—celebrated clown noir, actor, and researcher—will discuss and demonstrate how the masks relate to ritual, performance, and audience engagement through an exploration of the Commedia dell’arte Mask, Neutral Mask, Character Mask, Ritual Mask, and Larval Mask. Simon will discuss how the application of mask promotes patience and openness, teaching the student that every small gesture or movement suggests meaning, taking the focus away from the face and redistributing it to the whole body. Simon will share his research on how the mask facilitates the very first steps of play by reducing our tendency to overthink, allowing the body, its impulses, sensations, and emotions to lead.
(workshop, ages 13+)
Belltable
2pm–4pm
TICKETS: €20 active participant (maximum 20 persons) / €10 audience
Mary Collins: historical dance specialist
Steven Player: baroque guitar and historical dance specialist
This workshop explores the techniques and application of Baroque gesture, as well as the power and use of masks. This work has an intrinsic focus upon the relationship between social interaction, its customs and boundaries, and community health and well-being. It is particularly important for young people in the light of current research concerning social isolation and its impact upon mental health resulting from a deficit of physical interaction, the dominance of keypad communication, and the virtual world of the internet and social media.
Wayfaring Pipers: Virtuoso Everyday Music of the Middle Ages
Belltable
8pm–9:30pm
TICKETS: €25/€20
Ian Harrison; bagpipes, shawm, cornett
Poul Høxbro; pipe & tabor, percussion
Considering the many natural and human disasters that have struck Europe, it is remarkable how much medieval music has survived. Numerous liturgical manuscripts preserve Gregorian chant, hymns, sequences, and complex polyphonic masses, alongside sacred and secular songs sung by both nobles and commoners. Yet this material cannot provide a complete picture of medieval musical life. Most surviving notation records vocal music, and only the social elite—religious and worldly—documented what they performed. What remains is only the visible tip of a vast musical iceberg. Still, medieval images of active musicians show a vibrant everyday musical culture now largely lost. This living sound world is what the Wayfaring Pipers programme explores. Drawing on surviving sources and folk traditions that have continued unbroken since medieval times, Ian Harrison and Poul Høxbro reveal a rich exchange between popular melody and liturgical music, blending classical medieval sounds with inherited folk traditions.