2024 Autumn & Winter Season Announced

Irish Baroque Orchestra - Ireland’s Olivier Award-winning period instrument orchestra - announces a number of concerts for the Fall-Winter Season 2024. The programmes celebrate great music by Vivaldi, Handel, and Bach, featuring beloved seasonal Baroque classics. The concerts will showcase emerging talent and established performers alike, who will be touring to a variety of locations across Ireland. 

Highlights include:

A brief visit to Sicily for Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade, together with Irish National Opera

IBO Apprentices performing inDublin and Sligo

A jubilant and festive end to the year with Handel’s Messiah, and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio

In October, IBO’s Artistic Director, Peter Whelan, Irish National Opera, and the IBO travel to Noto, for ‘Opera in Sicily’ and a concert performance of our lauded co-production of Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade. Set in Ancient Greece at the time of the Olympic Games, Vivaldi’s 1734 opera Is about amorous rivalry and tangled relationships and ends in two marriage announcements. Earlier this year, the production toured throughout Ireland, prior to travelling to both London and Switzerland whilst garnering rave reviews. 

IBO apprentices perform Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and other selected works in The Pepper Canister Church, Dublin on November 23 and at The Model in Sligo on November 24. Our talented ensemble of IBO’s young artists will bring you the crisp winter chill, the blooming freshness of spring, the lazy heat of summer, and the rich harvest hues of autumn, performing the music with the unique textures and tones that only period instruments can produce. The performance on November 24th is presented in partnership with Con Brio, Sligo.

The Christmas season begins with the IBO’s annual production of Handel’s Messiah, directed by Peter Whelan, in partnership with Chamber Choir Ireland. Performances take place at the National Opera House Wexford on December 5 and in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin on December 6. As one of the greatest oratorios ever written, Handel's Messiah has never waned in popular and critical appeal, and is as timeless today as it was when it premiered in Dublin in 1742.

The 2024 season ends with the second instalment in our 2024-2026 Bach cycle featuring Bachs’ Christmas Oratorio. Directed by Peter Whelan, and with performances in Dublin on December 13 and Kilkenny on December 14, this wonderful work celebrates the nativity story with both reverence and exuberance. 

The Irish Baroque Orchestra wishes to express sincere thanks to a significant donor who wishes to remain anonymous. The IBO acknowledges the core support from Arts Council Ireland/An Chomhairle Ealaíon, from whom it receives principal funding.

Photo Credit: Frances Marshall, taken at Handel’s Messiah 2022