Music festival is coming Bach!

10 days and nights, 50 concerts and 80 musicians. That’s what a music festival taking place this summer in West Cork has promised.

It’s the West Cork Chamber Music Festival which runs from 28 June–7 July in Bantry and will feature five international quartets are at the heart of the programme. These are Signum Quartet from Germany, Dudok Quartet from the Netherlands, the all-woman Nightingale Quartet from Denmark and the youthful Sonoro Quartet and Chiaroscuro Quartet which is made up of musicians from Russia, Spain and France.

These are joined by a stellar line-up of world-class musicians including the winner of the 2024 Leonard Bernstein Award, cellist Anastasia Kobekina; violinists Fanny Clamagirand and Esther Hoppe; pianists Roustem Saitkulov, Anna Fedorova, Boris Giltburg and Julius Drake; violist Dana Zemtsov; clarinettist Matthew Hunt; Baroque ensemble Camerata Øresund; wind quintet Ensemble Midtwest; mezzo soprano Fleur Barron; soprano Anna Devin and many more.

The musicians follow a 50 year trail of classical masterpieces starting with Haydn and Mozart and finishing with Beethoven and Schubert. A key milestone on this journey will be the series of 10 violin sonatas by Beethoven played by Fanny Clamagirand and Roustem Saitkoulov. Haydn’s string quartets, Beethoven’s late quartets and Schubert’s overwhelming String Quintet feature, as well as works by Bach, Vivaldi and Handel performed by Camerata Øresund and soprano Anna Devin.

There will also be ree family friendly fringe concerts and pop-up performances in Bantry town. Festival masterclasses run daily throughout the town and Ireland’s only instrument exhibition will be held in the Old Methodist Church.