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 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 choir 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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The ensemble is committed to bringing fine choral music to the west of Ireland, and especially to places where hitherto there have been few, if any performances by professional choral ensembles. It also values its relationships with local choirs in the west and enjoys sharing the expertise of its singers and players through workshops and coaching sessions.

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Notable Appearances

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

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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.