This weekend, AllClassical Portland will broadcast Handel’s Messiah performed by the Portland Baroque Orchestra and Capella Romana, conducted by Desmond Earley. Recorded in 2018 at the First Baptist Church, the performance features solos from Miriam Allan, soprano; Laura Beckel Thoreson, mezzo-soprano; Nils Neubert, tenor and William Gaunt, bass-baritone.

For more information and to listen, visit allclassical.org.

The Christmas season hasn’t finished for the Choral Scholars as they have been working with Desmond Earley to prepare the music ready to record a brand-new Christmas album in the next few days. Reflecting their Irish heritage, the album will include songs in Irish, by Irish composers and based on Irish texts, as well as several new arrangements of much-loved seasonal songs. Following their successful collaboration in December, Desmond has invited the Irish Chamber Orchestra to join them on the album. The full track list will be revealed later in the year before the release.

Read more in this blog post from one of the Choral Scholars.

Having spent three weeks in Portland (Oregon) for a composing retreat before heading into the studio with the Choral Scholars at the end of February, Desmond heads back to Dublin this weekend to prepare the choir.   The new album will be released on Signum Classics later in 2020.

His highly acclaimed work “The Body of the Moon” was commissioned by All Classical Portland in 2017 in anticipation of Portland’s first total solar eclipse since 1979. Drawing on Galileo’s letters, the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest and the universality of the humbling and magnificent experience of the eclipse, “The Body of the Moon” was premiered by the Resonance Ensemble with the Oregon Symphony Orchestra (Nancy Ives, cello soloist), Chris Whyte of the Portland Percussion Group and improvisational pop vocalist Erick Valle.

This weekend sees three consecutive concerts with  The Choral Scholars of University College Dublin at Newman University Church, Dublin. They will be performing a programme of seasonal music in time for the festive period.

Tickets for these concerts are now sold out.

“Whatever artistic director Desmond Earley and voice coach Síle McCarthy-Cannon are doing with The Choral Scholars of University College Dublin, it’s something every other choral director should be knocking down their door to discover.”

Read the full review on Gramophone.

Desmond and the UCD Choral Scholars featured on CBS Sunday Morning following their Carnegie Hall debut in New York on March 15th 2019.

Watch their performance of Danny Boy on the CBS Sunday Morning Facebook page.

“Just a song and storytelling is very important to the Irish cultural psyche. The light that we experience this far north is really special, especially in winter time when the light has a sort of a slanting character.”

Read the full interview at ClassicalMPR.

“The music on Perpetual Twilight combines contemporary pieces with folk and more popular-inspired works. Desmond feels the disc has layers of narrative to the sequence of works, a joyous beginning progresses through moments of darkness only to come out the other side.”

Read Desmond’s interview with Robert Hugill on Planet Hugill.

Desmond will conduct The University College Dublin Choral Scholars on the stage of Carnegie Hall on Friday 15th March 2019. The programme, entitled Imagine Ireland: Songs of Home, features a program of arrangements of Celtic folksongs, from Danny Boy to Wild Mountain Thyme, and commissioned works set to Irish texts by composers including Ivo Antognini and Bill Whelan.

For more information and tickets, visit the Carnegie Hall website.

The Choral Scholars of University College Dublin and Artistic Director Desmond Earley follow up their debut release with a programme of new choral music inspired by the evocative imagery of the natural world in traditional Irish and Scottish folksong and poetry. The disc includes a number of world-premiere recordings of new works and arrangements commissioned by the choir.

The new album is out today on Signum Classics.