BlueWater Chamber Orchestra performs Ina's Elegy with cellist Linda Atherton
The BlueWater Chamber Orchestra is joined by cello soloist Linda Atherton in a performance of Ina’s Elegy. Also on the program is Gerald Finzi’s A Severn Rhapsody and Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 “Scottish Symphony.”
More information and tickets can be found here.
Irish Heritage Spring Concert
On April 26th, Irish Heritage will present its annual Spring Concert at the Royal Overseas League Princess Alexandra Hall. We are delighted that two of the Irish Heritage Bursary Winners will perform Ina Boyle’s Elegy for viola and piano. RAM student Jamie Howe, joint winner of the Homan Potterton Bursary for Strings, will be accompanied by Luke Lally Maguire, the overall Bursary winner who studies at Guildhall.
Tickets and more information can be found on Irish Heritage’s website:
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/irishheritage/890185?
International Women's Day performance of Ina Boyle's String Quartet
The City of London School is featuring Ina Boyle’s String Quartet in a concert that happens to take place on the composer’s birthday. The program will also include works by Lili Boulanger.
More information available here
Program Note:
Ina Boyle (1889-1967) studied with Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) between 1923 and 1939. It is of note that RVW taught a number of woman composers, both at the RCM and, as in the case of Ina Boyle , as private pupils. These include such figures as Ruth Gipps, Dame Elizabeth Maconchy and Grace Williams; other names, with whose musics we are perhaps also learning to become familiar and with whom Boyle enjoyed enduring musical friendships.
Rehearsing any piece of music with which I am unfamiliar is always a fascinating business. Rehearsing a work, where the composer was previously unknown to me is doubly so. The temptation to find parallels in the music of other composers and traditions – RVW, Holst, Elgar, Irish folk music – is strong and even if motivated by a wish to find into a way a musical language, would deny the composer her voice. That said, it is fascinating to speculate on whose music she did know. In the extracts of her digitised diaries, held by Trinity College Dublin, we see Boyle discussing with RVW performances of Janacek’s Sinfonietta (1926) and Schoenberg’s Third String Quartet (1927); she was clearly no Charles Ives figure, that American composer we cite when we want to name drop someone whose compositional choices at times fell outside the expected, due to his perceived isolation.
In a passage believed to have been copied at a much later date; it is in biro, which had not yet been invented, we find: Nov. 6th 1934 Dr. RV said he liked the material of the first movement [of the quartet] but thought the construction unsatisfactory. I was so hoping to find a roaring endorsement! The monograph on Boyle by Dr Ita Beausang and Seamas de Barra, details the long relationship between Boyle and RVW; this comment should be therefore be read in the context of a teacher and later friend who did very much to champion her music and clearly thought much of her as a composer.
Approaching a piece of music as a conductor, the music is on the page and is therefore a given. It is not so much a question of how material could have been rearranged or developed differently, but of how to lift the notes off the page into a performance. The excellent, recently released, premiere recording of this work by the Piatti Quartet has confirmed my musical thoughts about this piece. The Senior String Orchestra have worked with their customary musical intelligence on this music.
Harmonically, the movement opens with an E minor chord in close position with an added F# in the violin I part. This dissonant major ninth continues to feature both harmonically and melodically throughout the movement. The opening phrase quickly opens out so that by bar 7, there are three octaves between violin I and cello. This opening immediately establishes a commanding presence, with great rhythmic flexibility, capable of a wide expressive range, eminently suitable for translation from string quartet to string orchestra.
Ina Boyle's Violin Concerto
Philip Clark and Elizabeth Vaughn lead the Albemarle Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Ina’s Violin Concerto, with soloist Wanchi. Also on the concert will be other works by female composers, including Emilie Meyer’s Overture No. 2 in D, selected movements from Florence Price’s Symphony No. 1, and Cecile Chaminade’s Two Dances for Orchestra. Admission is free and open to the public.
https://www.albemarlesymphony.org/event-details/women-composers-concert
Kamloops Symphony performs Ina's Violin Concerto
The Kamloops Symphony performs Ina Boyle’s Violin Concerto with guest soloist Andrew Wan, conducted by Dina Gilbert. The concert also features works by Lili Boulanger, Philip Glass, Claude Debussy, and Canadian composer Samy Moussa. The concert will last approximately 110 minutes with intermission.
More information can be found here.
Royal Irish Academy of Music Philharmonia
The Royal Irish Academy of Music Philharmonia will perform Ina’s Overture in a concert conducted by Mihhail Gerts. The concert will also feature Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 “Eroica.”
For more information visit the RIAM website.
"The Last Invocation" at Wigmore Hall
As part of the Centenary of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Ina’s song The Last Invocation will be presented alongside works by other British composers, performed by Roderick Williams (baritone) and Susie Allan (piano).
Purchase tickets and view livestream here: https://wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/roderick-williams-susie-allan-202210131930
Ralph Vaughan Williams 150th Anniversary Concert, Carice Singers
The Carice Singers will perform Ina Boyle’s Hymn in a concert also featuring the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams at Kings Palace, London.
Ina Boyle's 2nd symphony (World Premiere)
The RTE National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Brophy, will be performing the world premiere of Ina Boyle’s 2nd Symphony at the National Concert Hall, Dublin. The work has been in manuscript since Ina composed it in 1929-30, and has been typeset for this occassion by Sarah Burn.
Ina Boyle's String Quartet in E minor
The ConTempo Quartet is performing Ina Boyle’s Quartet in E minor in the Kevin Barry Recital Room at the National Concert Hall, Dublin. The event takes place on 11 September at 3pm. Tickets are €17.50 with limited concessions available.
Vaughan Williams 150, Festival 200 at St Mary’s Banbury - The Carice Singers
Conducted by George Parris, The Carice Singers will perform Ina Boyle’s Caedmon's Hymn (1926) at Festival 200 at St Mary’s Banbury on Saturday, 16 July. George returns to his home town to lead Banbury Choral Society together with The Carice Singers, to perform a wealth of beautiful works by Vaughan Williams and his close contemporaries.