Winter Weekend 14th-16th November 2025 On Sale!

The West Wicklow Festival is thrilled to unveil its Winter Weekend programme, offering a series of enchanting concerts from 14th to 16th November 2025. This seasonal edition of the festival will bring together world-class musicians for unforgettable performances in the luxurious Manor House at Tulfarris Hotel, promising a delightful experience for all music enthusiasts.

The opening concert on Friday 14th November sees Artistic Director and native Wicklow pianist Fiachra Garvey joined by 3 exceptional artists, Irish / Dutch violinist Gwendolyn Masin, Spanish violist Sara Ferrández and Irish cellist Brian O Kane. Their programme features Mozart’s G minor piano quartet, famously considered “too difficult” by the work’s commissioner; Mahler’s haunting quartet in A minor, a one movement work which Mahler abandoned after the first movement and his sole surviving work of instrumental chamber music; Undercurrent by Irish composer Rhona Clarke, depicting both the frenetic energy and calmness of the sea and Brahms’ G minor piano quartet, one of the composer’s most adored works, a tour de force taking audiences on an emotional roller-coaster and featuring the iconic “Gypsy Rondo” firework finale to finish!

The festival’s Rising Star this November is violist Fiachra de hOra who will be joined by his duo partner, Spanish pianist Claudia Fernández Parrondo for a Saturday morning coffee concert on 15th November. The duo will present a programme of Schumann’s evocative Märchenbilder (Fairytales), Garth Knox’s experimental Fuga Libre for solo viola and Rebecca Clarke’s much celebrated Sonata, a work which has become a real staple work of the viola/piano repertoire. This concert will also feature the winning work from the festival’s Composition Competition in partnership with the Contemporary Music Centre.

Saturday afternoon’s concert offers a dream-team pairing as leading Dutch violinist of her generation, Rosanne Philippens, teams up with celebrated Irish pianist Finghin Collins. Rosanne performed as part of the festival’s online offering in 2021 and a great pleasure for the festival to finally welcome her to Wicklow. Finghin Collins is no stranger to any music lover on this island! The duo’s programme commences with Mozart’s most adored sonata for violin and piano in E minor K 304, written in Paris at the time his mother’s passing. From a nostalgic opening the duo move to the brio and charm of Stravinsky’s dance inspired Suite Italienne, depicting the composer’s ballet Pulcinella. The first half concludes with Bartók’s energetic Romanian Dances, full of spirited folk tunes. The second half offers Brahms’ lively Scherzo from the FAE Sonata, The Whitening by Siobhán Cleary, inspired by W.B.Yeats’ poem Cap and Bell, and to finish arguably the greatest of Brahms’ violin sonatas, the monumental 3rd Sonata in D minor.

A late-night fusion concert on Saturday night is bound to thrill audiences. Versatile Irish violinist Aoife Ní Bhriain and Welsh harpist Catrin Finch have formed an award-winning duo and will perform selected works from their hugely successful debut duo album Double You. Traditional, classical and contemporary styles are married together by two exceptional artists of great skill and creativity.

On Sunday 16th November, the Winter Weekend finale concert offers popular Irish and international songs as well as opera arias and well-known musical numbers from the Sound of Music, the King and I and much more! Star Irish mezzo-soprano and BBC New Generation Artist, Niamh O’Sullivan, will join pianist Fiachra Garvey for an afternoon of pure extasy. Fresh from starring in Semele at the Royal Opera House London and Der Rosenkavalier at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées Paris, Niamh has been described as “one of the most sheerly beautiful lyric mezzos” (Opera Traveller).

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Tickets (€10-€35 +bkg fee) for the West Wicklow Chamber Music Festival’s concerts are now on sale from What's On

The West Wicklow Festival is funded by the Arts Council and supported by Wicklow Arts Office, Fáilte Ireland, the Apollo Foundation and RTÉ Supporting the Arts.