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About the Ensemble

 

Resurgam was founded in 2003 by Mark Duley, and is one of Ireland’s most acclaimed vocal ensembles. Resurgam is the premiere project-based professional choir in the country, and many of its singers have parallel careers as international soloists. It inspires audiences and partner choirs the length and breadth of Ireland, bringing alive the emotional drama found in so much vocal music, especially that of the seventeenth century.

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Resurgam is proud to follow Monteverdi’s famous dictum recitar cantando (speak through singing). Resurgam’s hallmarks as a ensemble are clarity and transparency of sound, attention to text and emotive content, virtuosity in improvisation and ornamentation, colourful interplay of instrumental and vocal resources and textures, and imaginative and engaging programming.

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With performances across Ireland, Resurgam is committed in particular to bringing the highest level of music-making to the West of Ireland, with a focus on places and regions where few professional vocal ensembles may perform. Resurgam hugely values its relationships with local choirs in these communities and enjoys bringing the expertise of its singers and players alongside them with regular workshops and performance collaborations.​

 

Resurgam has worked with an international array of conductors including Monica Huggett, Christophe Rousset, Erin Headley, John Butt and Christian Curnyn, and has performed in the UK and continental Europe, including acclaimed appearances at the Bach Festival of Lausanne and Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg.

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Within Ireland, Resurgam has appeared at most of the major international festivals, including Galway International Arts Festival, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Ardee Baroque Festival, Cork International Choral Festival.

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Resurgam has given many groundbreaking performances of music from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, including the first Irish period-instrument performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion. Resurgam’s unique work in the field of early vocal music in Ireland has also extended to the acclaimed single-composer retrospectives the choir has undertaken (including Giovanni Gabrieli, Heinrich Schütz and Orlandus Lassus). 

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In addition to its work in the field of historically informed performance of Renaissance and Baroque repertoire, Resurgam has also brought to Irish audiences the great choral works of the Russian Orthodox tradition, touring the country with Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil and Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, and giving the first complete Irish performance of Schnittke’s monumental Concerto for Choir. 

 

Resurgam has collaborated with flagship Irish instrumental ensembles, including the Irish Baroque Orchestra, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, and the Orchestra of St Cecilia. It works regularly with the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, and with this group has undertaken tours of the west coast of Ireland performing music by Schütz, Praetorius, Lassus and Monteverdi.

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In 2023 Resurgam released its first recording, 'Thomas Weelkes: Gentleman Extraordinary', in collaboration with the ECSC, to high critical acclaim. The disc focuses on the sacred works of Thomas Weelkes, and is available to purchase here. Resurgam was thrilled to be Editor's Choice for Gramophone Magazine in January 2024.

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2023 also featured the ensemble's lauded sell-out performance of Claudio Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers as part of the Galway International Arts Festival. The choir was once again joined by the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble for this project.

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In 2024, Resurgam partnered with Opera Collective Ireland under the direction of Christian Curnyn, in presenting double-bill performances of Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and John Blow's Venus and Adonis. These performances were part of Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg, and were met with international critical acclaim.

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