- Supported by:
Esker Festival Orchestra
Peter Joyce, conductor
Kathleen Nic Dhiarmada, soprano
Madeline Judge, mezzo-soprano
Esker Festival Choir
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Symphony no. 2 in C minor (“Resurrection”)
Allegro maestoso
Andante moderato
In ruhig fließender Bewegung
Urlicht (“Primal light”)
In tempo des Scherzos
ESKER FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA, one of Europe’s most exciting orchestras for emerging
young professional and pre-professional musicians, was set up in 2014 to provide a high quality,
beneficial and meaningful musical opportunity for young emerging musicians from all across
Ireland and for the first time to have an orchestra of this quality and scope based in Galway. The
orchestra was set up to fill the musical and social void that currently exists in Ireland by allowing
young musicians from across the country to perform together, socialise together and to build
relationships that will be essential during their personal and professional lives, to promote and
develop orchestral music in Ireland by nurturing the talents of its emerging musicians and
crucially to provide all of this with as little financial burden as possible on the musicians
themselves. Finally, it is unique in that it is entirely led and run by its members for its members,
allowing those taking part to gather invaluable first-hand experience in the world of orchestral
music. The Esker Festival Orchestra now also welcomes international members each year,
allowing musicians from across the world to come to Ireland, perform together and to meet and
learn from their international colleagues and peers, further developing the impact and reputation
of orchestral music in Ireland and abroad.
PETER JOYCE is a prize-winning Irish musician, conductor and composer whose musical
identity has been strongly developed by his early experiences with jazz, music theory, his
vigorous training in Viennese Classicism and Modernism and his ongoing passion for
contemporary music and experimental as well as traditional musical theatre. His artistic identity
is as much influenced by the landscapes and great modernist literature of his native country as it
is by the psychoanalytic and musical innovations of his adopted home Vienna. He is a music
graduate of Trinity College Dublin where he began composing, arranging and conducting, later
studying conducting with Dr. Geoffrey Spratt at the CIT Cork School of Music. Peter continued
his musical education by studying conducting with Mark Stringer, and composition with Detlev
Müller-Siemens at the renowned University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and has
capped it off in masterclasses with Peter Eötvös, Marin Alsop, Sian Edwards, Salvatore Sciarrino
and Stefano Gervasoni among many others. Winner of the 1st Prize and Orchestra Prize of the
2023 Feis Ceoil Conducting Competition, Peter has worked in symphonic, musical theatre, opera
and choral settings with groups such as the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Podlasie Opera and
Philharmonic, Pro-Arte Orchestra Vienna, Orchestra of the Technical University Vienna, the
Akademische Philarmonie Wien, Max Brand Ensemble, Ensemble Ars Nova, the Webern
Ensemble and the Webern Chamber Choir, and with the ORF as a musical assistant for live
broadcasts from the Vienna State Opera. Peter is the founder and conductor of the Esker Festival
Orchestra, Ireland’s longest established, and one of Europe’s most exciting orchestras for
emerging young professional musicians.
KATHLEEN NIC DHIARMADA is an Irish soprano based in Ireland and the UK. Recently
graduating from Royal Academy Opera where she studied with Kate Paterson and Raymond
Connell, Kathleen is now a member of the Irish National Opera Young Artist Studio. Kathleen
has performed lead roles in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi (Lauretta, Royal Academy Opera, 2021),
Handel’s Alcina (Morgana, Ensemble OrQuesta, 2021), Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
(Helena, Royal Academy Opera 2020), Puccini’s La Bohème (Musetta, Hampstead Garden
Opera, 2019) and Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (Poppea, Ensemble OrQuesta, 2019).
Kathleen premiered the role of the Green Death Witch in ROA’s production of Freya
Waley-Cohen’s Witch and performed the role of Zerbinetta in the prologue of Strauss’s Ariadne
auf Naxos in Royal Academy Opera’s Triple Bill this year. Last summer Kathleen was an
Alvarez Young Artist at Garsington Opera where she covered the role of Fiordiligi in Mozart’s
Cosí fan tutte and performed an entire show for their annual OperaFirst performance with the
English Consort Orchestra. Kathleen recently covered the role of Norina in Irish National
Opera’s production of Don Pasquale and Fiordiligi in their production of Cosí fan tutte. Kathleen
also won the Dramatic Cup at the Feis Ceoil this year and was a recipient of the Margaret and
Tony Quigley award.
MADELINE JUDGE is an operatic mezzo-soprano originally from Waukee, Iowa, USA. A
graduate of Drake University and New York University, Madeline is now based in Dublin and
recently completed her Doctorate in Voice Performance degree from the Royal Irish Academy of
Music and Trinity College Dublin where she studies with Dr. Imelda Drumm. Previously,
Madeline has been engaged by Irish National Opera as understudy for the lead role ‘Angelina’ in
Rossini’s La Cenerentola which starred Tara Erraught in 2019, and was featured as a soloist with
the RTE Concert Orchestra in their young artist showcase. She has been an active member of
INO’s chorus since 2018. For the 2022/23 season, Madeline is a member of the Irish National
Opera Studio, and their Company Chorus. Most recently, she portrayed the role of ‘Noble
Orphan 2’ in their production of Der Rosenkavalier by Strauss, and will be covering the roles of
Charlotte in Werther by Massenet and Dorabella in Cosí fan tutte by Mozart