Events
Pipeworks International Organ and Choral Festival 2026
We are delighted to announce the programme for the Pipeworks International Organ and Choral Festival Festival 2026, taking place from Wednesday June 10–21. Over twelve days, the festival welcomes celebrated artists from Ireland and abroad for concerts, recitals, premieres and masterclasses.
The 2026 Festival opens on Wednesday June 10 in the glorious surroundings of St Patrick’s Cathedral with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra conducted by Pipeworks' Artistic Director David Leigh, alongside internationally acclaimed organist Stephen Farr, the Pipeworks Festival Chorus and soloists Felicity Haywood, Sarah Thursfield, Rory Lynch and Eoghan Desmond. The programme includes Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro, Leighton’s Organ Concerto and Mozart’s Requiem.
Celebrated guest artists Martin Schmeding and Sarah Kim appear across the festival alongside leading Irish organists David Adams, Peter Barley, David Bremner and Rónán Murray. We are also delighted to welcome Feis Ceoil 2026 Catherine McAuley Cup winner Nathan Whitley for a special lunchtime recital, and to present the return of the Young Organists’ Platform, showcasing emerging talent. Events take place at venues including St Patrick’s Cathedral, Trinity College Dublin’s Examination Hall, Sandford Parish Church, Church of the Immaculate Conception (Adam and Eve’s) and St Michael’s Church, Dún Laoghaire.
This year’s festival includes the world premiere of Christopher Fox’s The River and the Irish premiere of Morton Feldman’s Principal Sound, presented by David Bremner, alongside Rónán Murray’s Bloomsday recital at Adam and Eve’s Church. Earlier musical traditions also feature through a chant workshop led by Giovanna Feeley and a performance of Couperin’s Messe pour les Couvents with David Adams and Schola Hyberniae.
Pipeworks Festival is funded by the Arts Council of Ireland.
Festival partners include RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Trinity College Dublin, St Michael’s Church and Dún Laoghaire Organ Concerts, Sandford Parish Church and St Philip’s Milltown and the Church of the Immaculate Conception (Adam and Eve's).
DUBLIN ORGAN MONTH - May 2026
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DAVID BREMNER @ SANDFORD CHURCH January 27 2026
Join us on Tuesday 27 January for a distinctive concert of contemporary organ music, featuring brand new works by emerging Irish composers.
Pipeworks Festival, in collaboration with the Irish Composers’ Collective, presents an evening of exciting and atmospheric music curated and performed by composer and organist David Bremner.
Sandford Parish Church, Ranelagh 7.30pm | Admission free
David Bremner is an organist, composer and pianist based in Dublin. Originally from West Cumbria, UK, he moved to Ireland in 1999. He has performed with many of Dublin’s leading ensembles, including the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and Crash Ensemble. From 2010 to 2019 he was Assistant Organist at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, where in addition to his regular duties he helped devise experimental liturgies. He lectures in composition at TU Dublin Conservatoire, and with Elizabeth Hilliard co-directs the music/text production company Béal.
Some recent performances include Finding a Voice in March 2023 (for the premiere of Gráinne Mulvey’s …until the women are free), Sonic Vigil, and Dún Laoghaire Organ Concerts. He has a longstanding uilleann pipes/organ duo with piper Mark Redmond; in 2014 they released the CD l’air du temps/the spirit of the times; excerpts have been broadcast on Lyric FM, BBC Radio 3, and the European Broadcasting Network.
Recent composition projects include a work for Uilleann Pipes and Javanese gamelan, a multi-disciplinary project sonifying housing crisis data, and a chamber opera Slow Recognition. His portrait CD Mixed Circuits was released on the Farpoint Recordings label in December 2022.
Pipeworks in partnership with Whitefriar Street Church presents BACH RECITALS November – December 2025
It gives me great pleasure to announce the Pipeworks autumn/winter series of organ recitals, presented in association with our good friends and valued partners at the Carmelite Church, Whitefriar Street Church. The series will present the complete “Leipzig” chorale preludes, one of the great seminal collections of Bach’s output, sometimes known as “The Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes” (for obvious reason).
Each concert takes three of the preludes, linked by chorale and/or theme, and places them in the context of other complimentary works, including one of the great preludes/toccatas/Fantasias and Fugues.
Each programme is curated and presented by a different organist, who has carefully chosen their own programme. These recitals promise to showcase the best of indigenous organ talent, the superb instrument and beautiful surroundings of Whitefriar Street Church, and of course the incomparable music of J S Bach.
Recitals take place on Saturdays at 4pm, beginning on 1 November, and will last approximately 1 hour
Admission free | Retiring collection much appreciated.
David Leigh, Artistic Director, October 2025
Saturday November 1st - David Leigh
Saturday November 8th - Andrew Johnstone
Saturday November 15th - David Adams
Saturday November 22 - Malcolm Proud
Saturday November 29 - David O'Shea
Saturday December 6 - Simon Harden
