The pipes are calling!

Music lovers are in for a real treat on Friday, November 22, at 7.30pm in St Mary’s Church of Ireland, Nenagh, when organ maestro Dr Warren Symes will give a recital on St Mary’s heritage organ.

All will be very welcome to attend - entry will be free, but donations will be very gratefully received to a retiring collection in support of organ maintenance and much needed church repairs.

Warren has local roots in Lisnagry, where his parents still reside. His love for organ music goes back to his time as a chorister, and later Assistant Organist, at St Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick. He has diplomas in organ performance from the London College of Music, and trained under internationally renowned organists in France and Germany. He has played in such illustrious venues as St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, Westminster Cathedral, Rochester Cathedral and Liverpool Cathedral.

The fine organ in St Mary’s Church was built by Telford of Dublin, designed to reveal a stained-glass window in the gable-end of the church, and installed in time for the consecration of the new church in 1860. Since then it has been renovated on a number of occasions, most recently by Dermot Locke of Cork in 2004/5, when it was disassembled, cleaned and adjusted at the time the church roof was replaced.

Those present on the night can expect to hear pieces by Irish composer Charles Villiers Stanford (whose centenary falls this year), JS Bach and V Bellini, among others.

A little bird tells us we may also be treated to Warren’s own setting of ‘The Broad Majestic Shannon’ by one Shane MacGowan!