Chamber music challenge

Hard work and imagination led to the success story that is West Cork Chamber Music Festival, writes Áilín Quinlan.

TEN YEARS ago Francis Humphrys was a dairy farmer near Bantry who had a deep and abiding love of classical music.

The problem was, most of the time when he or his friends wanted to attend a concert, they had to make a three-hour round trip from the West Cork town to Cork City.

"We thought 'why not bring the musicians to Bantry?' The RTÉ Van Brugh Quartet which is based in the city were very interested in having their own chamber music festival where they would play every year," he said.

Along with Christopher Marwood of the RTÉ Van Brugh Quartet, Francis decided not only to bring classical music to Bantry a relatively small town 90 minutes from Cork and about five hours from Dublin but to establish what was then Ireland's first annual international chamber music festival.

Crazy?

No doubt many thought so at the time. But within three years the West Cork Chamber Music Festival had grown so large Francis sold his cows, set up a limited company, West Cork Music, and took over as full-time director of the event.

The festival, which is considered to be on par with the major European events, has continued to grow from six days to nine days and from less than 20 events to more than 50 now there are about 36 concerts and 20 master classes.

"Bantry House is one of the things that attracted people in the early days," Francis recalls. "To come out of a wonderful concert when the sun is setting over the bay, it does make for a very special atmosphere. We are very grateful to the family for allowing us to use it.

"It is very difficult to imagine what it is like it becomes a community of musicians for the week all these people doing nothing but playing music all day long every room you go into you have different people playing all the time."

He attributes his success to "70% hard work, 5% imagination and 25% luck", not to mention "all the people who have helped down the years".

Concerts run from noon until late at night in a variety of venues from the beautifully decorated Rose Room and intimate Library at Bantry House as well as St Brendan's Church in the town square.

This year's line-up marking its 10th anniversary is exceptional: young violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Dutch cellist Pieter Wispelwey, clarinettist Martin Frost from Sweden and pianist Alexei Lubimov, as well as world-renowned ensembles such as the Rosamunde Quartet of Germany, Trio Wanderer from France and the Mondrian Ensemble from Switzerland.

Tenor Ian Bostridge appears at a spectacular mid-week concert in St Brendan's Church on Wednesday June 29, while the Nobel prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney will speak during the Tuesday 8pm performance in St Brendan's Church.

West Cork Music oversees the RTÉ-sponsored festival which has the support of the Arts Council.

However the organisation has another role in conjunction with the County Arts Office it brings live music in a workshop environment to both primary and second schools in the Cork region.

"I feel every child should experience music if you expose a child to music they will have a chance to come back to it later."

Master classes are provided for some of the country's best young musicians this year features two superb teachers, Christian Schuster from Austria and Ferenc Rados from Hungary.

This year's event takes place from Saturday June 25 to Sunday July 3.

Tickets and brochures are available from West Cork Music, 13 Glengarriff Road, Bantry,

Tel. [phone] or Lo-Call 1850 788 789.