Cello, is it me you're looking for?

The Ortús Chamber Music Festival will make a return to Cork this winter with a huge lineup of top Irish and international classical musicians ready to enchant audiences across the county.

The 9th outing of the ever-popular festival will run from 25 February to 3 March in Cork city, Mitchelstown, Midleton, and Bantry.

The festival gets underway with a performance by Mairéad Hickey (violin) and Ella van Poucke (cello) at Brendan’s Church in Bantry at 3pm on Sunday 25 February. Tickets for the show will be available from West Cork Music.

On Friday 1 March, Mairéad Hickey (violin), Ella van Poucke (cello), Seán Morgan-Rooney (piano), Kelley Petcu (voice), Alex Petcu (percussion), and Karolina Errera (viola) will perform at MTU Cork School of Music at 7.30pm. The performance will include Etienne Perruchon’s ‘Five Danses Dogoriennes for cello and timpanis’ and Gustav Holst’s ‘Four songs for voice and violin’.

On Saturday 2 March, Kelley Petcu (voice), Alex Petcu (percussion), and Karolina Errera (viola) will perform the likes of ‘Crucible’ by Kate Moore and ‘Verve’ by Ella Macens and much more at My Place in Midleton from 2pm.

In Mitchelstown on the same day, Mairéad Hickey (violin), Ella van Poucke (cello), and Jérémie Moreau (piano) will perform at St George’s from 7.30pm. They will be performing Schubert’s ‘Grand Duo’ and Prokofiev’s ‘Cello Sonata’.

On the final day, Sunday 3 March, a selection of 17th and 18th century works will be performed by Marja Gaynor (baroque violin), Aoife Nic Athlaoich (baroque cello and 5 string piccolo cello), and Siobhán Armstrong (baroque harp).

The concert will take place at St Peter’s Cork, Cork city, at 11am.

Later on 3 March, Mairéad Hickey (violin), Ella van Poucke (cello), Seán Morgan-Rooney (piano), Jérémie Moreau (piano), Kelley Petcu (voice), Alex Petcu (percussion), and Karolina Errera (viola) will perform at MTU Cork School of Music from 3pm.