The 2011 Apprentice Ensemble

One of the most exciting pieces of news for the residency this year is the announcement of our new apprentice ensemble – The Chatham Saxophone Quartet who will be taking up the post in mid April and availing of one to one tutoring with the globally renowned Con Tempo quartet who are the current ensemble in residence in Galway.

The Chatham will be a fun and interesting addition to the residency and will be given a number of performance opportunities in Galway as part of their apprenticeship throughout the year. The Chatham Saxophone Quartet will make their Galway debut on September 6th at our Lunchtime Concert Series at The Town Hall Theatre Studio at 1 p.m.

The Chatham Saxophone Quartet - Daniel Dunne, Darren Hatch, Ciaran Sutton and Louis Boland - was founded by four students studying at the DIT Conservatory of Music. Since their foundation in 2008 they have performed at the Boyle Arts Festival, International language Conference at Alliance Francaise for president Mc Aleese, INVITE: International Music Education Conference April 2010, Unitarian church, and have had several successes at the ESB Feis Ceoil. The members of the quartet have a particular interest in transcribing string quartet repertoire for saxophone.

They have transcribed and performed Debussy String Quartet in G minor and Shostakovich’s String Quartet No.6. This process has been documented and also presented in two lecture recitals at the conservatory of music as part of their Masters in Music performance course at DIT. Apart from transcription the quartet has an enthusiasm for contemporary music and has performed works by Irish composers such as Ian Wilson and Greg Caffrey and they are currently preparing John Buckley’s saxophone quartet. They have also participated in workshops where they showcased works by new Irish composers who are completing postgraduate study at the DIT Conservatory of Music.