This Shining Night - Belfast Philharmonic Choir
7:30pm, Sat, 15 Jun 2024
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- Event Details
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Type of event: Performance Start time: 7:30pm End time: 8:50pm Venue: Hill of the O'Neill
26 Market Square
Dungannon
BT70 1ABSee map below Ticket pricing/options: £20 (£10 Under 25s/Students) Tickets: 
Description: 
Belfast Philharmonic Choir performs music inspired by light, outer space and the night sky
Belfast Philharmonic Choir closes out its 23/24 season with a beautiful programme of contemporary choral music on the theme of light, the night sky and outer space. The Hill of The O'Neill's unique setting, with its outlook over the hills, is perfect for this summer evening concert, whether you're new to choral music or it's a familiar friend.
Led by Chorus Director James Grossmith and with Gail Evans at the piano, the 100-voice choir is excited to return to Dungannon following our 'Stage and Screen' concert in 2022.
The concert begins with James Whitbourn’s The Seven Heavens, which celebrates Irish writer CS Lewis. The piece uses the planets and their movement through space to illustrate Lewis’s life and work, with texts from hymns and literature, including by CS Lewis himself.
Morten Lauridsen’s Nocturnes are settings of poems about love and longing, wandering and memory. They include the well-known ‘Sure on this shining night’, which evokes the wonder of the stars on a summer evening, the lyrics and music together illustrating the elegance and clarity of Lauridsen as a composer.
The evening will close with Elaine Hagenberg’s glorious and dramatic Illuminare. The singers of the choir fell in love with this modern piece when we gave the UK and Ireland premiere in 2022, and are delighted to present it again for a new audience. Illuminare sets lesser-known sacred texts in Latin, Greek and English, the music beginning in beauty, disrupted by darkness and a plea for mercy, and ends with the triumph of hope and peace through song - ideal for these times and this season.
