BRITAIN’S ACCLAIMED PARAORCHESTRA TO PERFORM GÓRECKI'S SYMPHONY OF SORROWFUL SONGS AT THE NATIONAL CONCERT HALL FOR THE FIRST TIME

Conducted by Charles Hazlewood and featuring soprano Victoria Oruwari

Saturday, 30 November 2024, 7:30pm 

Paraorchestra, the internationally acclaimed ensemble of disabled and non-disabled professional musicians, will perform at the National Concert Hall (NCH) Dublin for the first time, when they bring Henryk Górecki's Symphony No. 3, Op. 36, known as Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, to audiences on Saturday 30 November at 7.30pm. 

Conducted by Paraorchestra’s award-winning artistic director Charles Hazlewood and featuring the acclaimed soprano Victoria Oruwari, Górecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs is a spellbinding meditation on loss and transcendence, that received four stars when they performed it recently in London. This will be paired with Gustav Mahler’s appropriation of Franz Schubert’s String Quartet No. 14 in D minor D 810 (Death and the Maiden). 

Paraorchestra are the only orchestra in the world pro-actively increasing their representation and professional development of D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent players. Embedded alongside their ambition to provide meaningful opportunities for world-class music making, Paraorchestra's artist development programme – Modulate – provides opportunities for disabled musicians to develop skills and advance their careers. In doing so, Paraorchestra are removing the barriers that prevent disabled players from performing at the highest level.

Charles Hazlewood said: 

"I’m really looking forward to coming back to Dublin, one of my most favourite cities in the world, and especially as it's the first time for the Paraorchestra to have performed there. Symphony of Sorrowful Songs is a dark yet glittering, hour-long piece, which people may be familiar with through film and television, if not the concert hall. It's profoundly moving, evoking deep emotion whilst being ultimately uplifting and hopeful."

Each of the three movements that make up Symphony of Sorrowful Songs features a Polish lament, exploring themes of motherhood, grief, and the heartache of war. It includes a message inscribed on a Gestapo prison cell wall from a teenage girl to her mother, and a folk song about a mother who has lost her son in the Silesian civil war.

Paraorchestra perform as part of the National Concert Hall’s International Concert Season 2024/2025 which sees some 60 concerts scheduled to run until May 2025. Appealing to the  widest possible audience the season showcases some of the world’s most acclaimed orchestras, conductors, ensembles, choirs, emerging talent, cutting-edge ensembles and outstanding soloists alongside a full season of concerts by National Symphony Orchestra with guest artists and conductors. 

See www.nch.ie for full details of all concerts in the National Concert Hall’s International Concert Season 2024/2025. 

 

CONCERT INFORMATION

Paraorchestra. Charles Hazlewood, conductor. Victoria Oruwari, soprano

Saturday, 30 November 2024, 7:30pm

National Concert Hall, Dublin Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin, D02 N527

Tickets from €15. 10% Discount for NCH Friends and Groups of 10+ 

Pre-Concert Talk 6.15pm – 7pm 

Booking www.nch.ie

 

ENDS

Media Queries: Sinead Doyle, Marketing & PR Manager, National Concert Hall, Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2. Tel: 087 1775334 or Roisin Dwyer, PR & Publications Executive, National Concert Hall, Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2. Tel: 085 7129628.

 

NOTES TO EDITORS

Paraorchestra

Paraorchestra bring extraordinary live orchestral music experiences to people in venues and public spaces around the world. 

Under the artistic direction of award-winning conductor Charles Hazlewood, the pioneering ensemble aims to disrupt and reinvent the orchestra. Bringing together professional disabled and non-disabled musicians, Paraorchestra create powerful music experiences that span genres and artforms. As a result, they are radically changing outdated ideas about both orchestral music, and of disability.

Paraorchestra’s diverse programme of live work puts audiences at the centre of the action. They regularly present contemporary and classical orchestral masterpieces by composers such as Steve Reich, Mozart, and Górecki. As well as exploratory and even playful new commissions, including recent and current work such as Trip the Light Fantastic, The Nature of Why and the joyous outdoor show SMOOSH! Partnerships bring Paraorchestra’s live shows to world-class venues such as Southbank Centre, the Barbican, and Bristol Beacon, as well as music festivals, communities, and unlikely spaces across the world. Collaborations with recording artists – Hannah Peel, The Unfolding, released on Real World Records, and Death Songbook with Suede’s Brett Anderson released on BMGs World Circuit label - are taking their work directly into the homes of millions across the globe.

Paraorchestra are the only orchestra in the world pro-actively increasing their representation and professional development of D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent players. Embedded alongside their ambition to provide meaningful opportunities for world-class music making, Paraorchestra's artist development programme – Modulate – provides opportunities for disabled musicians to develop skills and advance their careers. In doing so, Paraorchestra are removing the barriers that prevent disabled players from performing at the highest level.

Paraorchestra are based in Bristol UK and are Associate Artists of Bristol Beacon. As a Registered Charity (number 1163725) Paraorchestra gratefully acknowledges funding from Arts Council England; The Mark Leonard Trust; Esmée Fairbairn Foundation; The Linbury Trust; Garfield Weston Foundation; John Ellerman Foundation, and Bristol City Council. paraorchestra.com 

 

About Charles Hazlewood

Charles Hazlewood is the Artistic Director of Paraorchestra, the world's first large-scale professional ensemble of virtuoso disabled and non-disabled musicians. He won first prize in the European Broadcasting Union Conducting Competition while still in his twenties and has conducted many of the world’s great orchestras including Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Swedish and Danish Radio Symphony Orchestras, Philharmonia and The Orchestra of St Luke’s, New York.

Since founding Paraorchestra over a decade ago Charles has blazed a trail for the classical sector, leading Paraorchestra through performances around the globe, releasing two studio albums and creating ambitious, genre-busting live works that upend orchestral orthodoxies. In 2024 he conducted and co-directed The Virtuous Circle for Paraorchestra’s BBC Proms debut. Charles has authored, presented, and conducted the music in multiple landmark films for BBC TV and Sky Arts and has won three Sony Radio Academy Awards for his shows on BBC Radio 2 and 3. He has conducted over 200 world premieres and founded Dimpho Di Kopane – an award-winning opera company out of township South Africa, which toured the world and whose film U Carmen e-Khayelitsha won the Berlin Film Festival 'Golden Bear' for Best Film.

Charles has three TED talks to his name, was a recent Castaway on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs and in 2021 became Sky Arts Ambassador for Music. In 2023, he was further honoured by leading charity Making Music, with the Sir Charles Groves prize for 'his outstanding contribution to the musical life of the United Kingdom'.

 

Victoria Oruwari, soprano

Acclaimed soprano Victoria Oruwari is a Nigerian born, London-based singer whose versatile repertoire covers art songs, operatic arias, songs from musical theatre, traditional folk songs and jazz. She was previously soloist when Paraorchestra performed Gorecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs at Bath Abbey in 2021. Other performances with Paraorchestra include Hannah Peel’s The Unfolding at St George’s Bristol; Birmingham Symphony Hall, where she also sang with Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; soloist for the 'Play at Barbican' concert with the Army of Generals and Paraorchestra; and duetting with Jarvis Cocker at the BBC 6 Music Festival.

She played the role of "Mother" in the Royal Opera House and Candoco’s Christmas production of Shaun Tann’s The Lost Thing. She played Mrs Peachum in Graeae Theatre’s production of Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera, which was performed at Birmingham Rep, Nottingham Playhouse, Yorkshire Playhouse, and New Wolsey Theatre. She also performed at Wigmore Hall as part of the African Concert Series at Wigmore Hall, and at the Heritage Flame event for the lighting of the Paralympic Torch at Stoke Mandeville in 2012.

Radio and television includes presenting Music’s Inner Vision (BBC Radio 3); Charles Hazelwood’s documentary Beethoven and Me (Sky Arts); Michael House’s documentary, Braille Music (Amazon Prime); The One Show and All Together Now (BBC One); The Last Leg (Channel 4). She was the subject of two Attitude TV documentaries, The Soprano’s Colourful Sounds and Victoria’s Kiwi Adventure, and was invited to Auckland in New Zealand to sing for the Attitude Trust Awards Night where she was accompanied by the Royal Navy Brass Band.