Edel O'Brien, from Kilrush, Co. Clare, is a graduate of NUI Maynooth where she was awarded an Honours Masters degree in Music and Performance. She studied singing at Trinity College of Music, London, gaining a Distinction in her Postgraduate Diploma in Vocal Studies while also winning the Vocal Faculty Prize and the College Gold Medal. While still at TCM, Edel won an Italian government scholarship to study for one year at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi, Milan. In 2002, Edel was chosen for the Young Artists' Programme at the Centre de Formation Lyrique, Opera Bastille, Opera National de Paris. There she won the Prix Lyrique. In opera she has sung with the Opera Bastille, Opera de Rouen, Opera Ireland and the Anna Livia International Opera Festival. In concert, she was guest soloist with the Choeur du Palais Royal, Paris; the Palestrina Choir, Dublin; the Malcolm Sargent Festival Choir, the Culwick Choral Society, Dublin; the Dublin County Choir, the Goethe Institut Choir, Limerick Choral Union, Galway Choral Association, the Dublin Bach Singers, Mullingar Choral Society and The Lismore Singers. Edel has given recitals in the Church of St. Martin in the Field, London; the Royal Chapel, Royal Naval College, Greenwich; le Sorbonne, Paris; the National Concert Hall, Dublin; the John Field Room, NCH, Dublin; Bank of Ireland Arts Centre, Foster Place, Dublin and Galway Cathedral.

John O’Keeffe is Director of Sacred Music at the National Seminary of St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, where his duties include lecturing, training of cantors, choir and organists, and the preparation and composition of music for college liturgies. As NUI Maynooth’s Director of Choral Groups he conducts the University Choral society and oversees the activities of the Maynooth Chamber Choir, the Maynooth Schola Gregoriana (a joint SPCM/NUIM project) and the recently established NUI Maynooth Ladies’ Choir. Prior to his appointment to Maynooth, he was Choirmaster at St. Mel’s Cathedral, Longford, having already served as Organ Scholar of Westminster Cathedral and Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral. His organ teachers have included Rev. Frank McNamara, David Sanger, Ben Van Oosten and Gerard Gillen. He holds Master’s degrees in Organ (NUIM) and Chant Performance (UL) and his doctoral thesis was on the liturgical output of Seán and Peadar Ó Riada. He is involved in the administration of postgraduate and diploma courses in liturgical music and chant at both St. Patrick's College and NUI Maynooth.

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)

From L'Ascension

Alleluias sereins d'une âme qui désire le ciel

Transports de joie d'une âme devant la gloire du Christ qui est la sienne

Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672)

O nomen Jesu

Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986)

Prélude sur 'Ecce advenit'

Jean Langlais (1907-1992)

Incantation pour un jour saint

Henryk Górecki (1933-2010)

O Domina nostra

Jehan Alain (1911-1940)

Litanies

Maurice Duruflé

Pie Jesu

Jacques Charpentier (b. 1933)

L'Ange à la trompette