Maintaining an excellent concert programme year on year is no mean feat, and Drogheda Classical Music’s lineup for 2019-20 offers yet another enticing season for the year ahead, with recitals and more at the historic St Peter’s Church of Ireland in Drogheda.

Award-winning Pianist Leon McCawley was last seen in Ireland in January taking part in Music for Galway’s Midwinter Festival, and during the summer is set to make his sixth appearance at the BBC Proms in London. He opens the season with a solo recital on Friday 27 September, with a programme including music by Haydn, Schumann, Brahms, and Hans Gál.

The career of superstar cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason has been on a roll since he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year in the UK in 2016, with his first full-length album ‘Inspiration’ released in early 2018. He makes his Irish debut touring with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, playing in Drogheda on October 24. Tickets are already selling well for this, so get in quick if you want to see it.

Friday 15 November sees the internationally-acclaimed Navarra String Quartet, in a concert themed Love & Death, performing works by Turina, Kurtag, Puccini, and Schubert’s famous string Quartet Death and the Maiden. Following this, pianist Michael McHale joins violinist Patrick Rafter for a recital on 6 December featuring music by Mozart and Debussy, and the atmospheric Violin Sonata of César Franck. The Franck sonata will also be the subject of an education project with a local school, funded by Creative Ireland.

In the new year, Louth native mezzo soprano Tara Erraught comes to Drogheda to convene a special weekend, on 31 January-2 February,  entitled ‘Celebrating the Voice’, offering performances and more, with details to be announced shortly. This is followed on 23 February by an appearance by the great Venezuelan pianist and humanitarian Gabriela Montero, performing Mozart, Beethoven’s Waldstein Sonata, and Schumann’s Kreisleriana, as well as her own improvisations. The season finishes on 12 March, with Quintets for Piano and Wind Instruments by Mozart and Beethoven, played by an ensemble made up of Matthew Manning (oboe), Macdara Ó Seireadáin (clarinet), Constantin Barcov (bassoon), Cormac O hAodain (horn), and Finghin Collins (piano).

Tickets are available from Droichead Arts Centre (041 9833946 or www.droichead.com), and further information from www.droghedaclassicalmusic.com

The Series is funded by the Arts Council and Louth County Council and run in partnership with Droichead Arts Centre. The Series receives sponsorship from the d Hotel, RTÉ Supporting the Arts and Creative Ireland.