A weekend of jazz piano and song at inaugural Newry Chamber Music Piano Festival
The acclaimed Rob Barron Trio and the award-winning vocalist Georgia Cécile join forces for a celebration of jazz and Leonard Bernstein at the inaugural Newry Chamber Music Piano Festival.
Newry Town Hall will be the venue on Saturday 7 February 2026 at 8pm for Leonard Bernstein Reimagined - the Festival's flagship jazz concert - featuring a first-half dedicated to the peerless West Side Story, and a second half drawing from Candide, On The Town, Wonderful Town, A Quiet Place, and more.
The concert promises a fresh and original take on Bernstein. Barron, the celebrated London Jazz pianist, and Cécile, a rising star of the UK jazz scene, will update, reimagine, reinterpret, and celebrate the music of one of the true icons of 20th-century composition, who, with lyricist Steven Sondheim, produced some of the most memorable and best-loved works of musical theatre.
Scotland’s Georgia Cécile is at the forefront of the UK jazz renaissance, as confirmed by the acclaim which greeted her 2021 debut album, Only The Lover Sings, and winning UK Jazz Act of the Year and Vocalist of the Year at the 2022 Jazz FM Awards. She has toured with Gregory Porter and been championed by Jamie Cullum and Jools Holland.
Her live performances have won critical praise with Brighton Source declaring Cécile bridges “the gap between the smokey standards of the 1950s chanteuses with a contemporary sound that club kids can dance to”, while Wonderland declared, “Every so often a voice comes along with the ability to bowl the listener over… that is Georgia.”
Pianist, arranger and composer, Rob Barron is a mainstay of the London jazz and studio scene. The Jazz Man has called The Rob Barron Trio “perfectly balanced”, playing music that is “rich in terms of nuance and detail, while remaining unfailingly upbeat and swinging”.
Rob has performed on the soundtrack of Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby, recorded with Jamie Cullum and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and he performs regularly at the iconic Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in London.
His musicianship is highly regarded. As jazz blog “Bebop Spoken Here” said, “The piano is an instrument of such diversity that the permutations of notes and chords are forever available for experimentation and Barron does this beautifully…here is a pianist (and composer) to be reckoned with.”
Jazz all weekend
Rob Barron will treat Sunday shoppers to a morning of jazz classics from the Great American Songbook at the NCM Hub, The Quays Shopping Centre, Newry (8 February 2026, 11.30am). The programme features George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Rodgers & Hart, and other Broadway masters, with several pieces in new solo piano arrangements created specifically for this performance, not least of which will be Gershwin’s iconic Rhapsody In Blue.
Later that day, Jazz and piano enthusiasts are welcome to participate in Barron’s Jazz Workshop (NCM Hub, 1pm). This class will explore jazz harmony, phrasing, accompaniment, voicing techniques, scales, and simple improvisation tools in a relaxed and informal setting.
Tickets are £20/£10 for the Leonard Bernstein concert; £10/£5 for the Sunday morning Jazz concert; and £10 (free for under-18s) for the Jazz Piano Masterclass. Booking is via https://newrychambermusic.org/piano-fest.
Newry Chamber Music Piano Festival is supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Newry Mourne and Down District Council, and RTÉ Supporting the Arts.