Sun of the Sleepless - When the moon is on the wave

Vocal and Instrumental Duo

Gordon Ferries - guitar & lute
Petrea Cooney - Soprano, violin & harp

The vocal and instrumental duo ‘La Seraphine’ features the combined talents of the Irish soprano, violinist and harpist Petrea Cooney and Scottish guitarist and lutenist Gordon Ferries in a unique fusion of music and poetry. The duo’s interests are divided equally between music and literature and concerts feature the words of authors as diverse as James Joyce, William Blake, Robert Burns, Thomas Moore and Lord Byron alongside music by Mozart, Britten, Sor and Schubert. 

La Seraphine’s concerts feature many of their own unique arrangements with a special emphasis on songs and music found in the works of James Joyce, (whose work is intrinsically linked to music throughout) including songs by Thomas Moore alongside the famous 'Love’s old Sweet song’ from Ulysees and 'The lass of Aughrim’ which plays a seminal role in Joyce’s ‘Dubliners’ story 'The dead’. These beautiful songs are the perfect blend of the classical and traditional music which existed happily side by side in the Dublin of Joyce’s youth and which had such a lasting influence on his writing.
The duo’s repertoire also includes original compositions by Gordon Ferries including his song cycle 'Sun of the sleepless’  with settings of poems by Lord Byron for voice and guitar which explores many aspects of the great Romantic poet’s work including 'She walks in beauty’ and ‘Childe Harold’s pilgrimage’. 

Readings are an integral part of ‘La Seraphine’s’ programmes helping to be put the writers,  their inspirations and their backgrounds in a clearer context and combined with the music provide the listener with a moving and heady and enlightening experience.

Petrea Cooney is a skilled interpreter of vocal and instrumental music and is as comfortable with an aria from Don Giovanni or a Schubert song as she is with a traditional Irish air. 

Gordon Ferries has long been recognised as a skilled accompanist a versatile solo performer and recording artist and together these two musicians perfectly complement each other and delight the audience in equal measure.   



La-Seraphine

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