Updates2019-11-07T15:35:34+00:00

Handel’s Messiah with Portland Baroque Orchestra broadcast on AllClassical Portland – April 11th 2020

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.

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

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.

Beautiful Portland

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.

20 Years of RTÉ Lyric FM

2019 marks the 20th birthday of RTÉ Lyric FM.  Each year for the last 20 years the limerick-based station has run the Choirs for Christmas competition in celebration of choral singing in Ireland. On December 1st, Desmond will conduct the Irish Chamber Orchestra and winning choirs from across Ireland in this concert celebrating the power of community music-making nationally and the power of singing!

For more information and tickets, visit the University Concert Hall Limerick website.

Interview: Nurturing Excellence with Desmond Earley

‘My motto when it comes to music is that excellence is the only way forward. You can perform nearly any piece when the backbone principle is to bring our best voice to it. It’s so important to see yourself as an artist striving for excellence and to live it in every aspect of your approach.’

Read the full interview with Francis Marshall at Final Note Magazine.