Singer-songwriter David Kitt is leaving Ireland because of the housing situation, and music writer and DJ Nialler9 is ‘stressed and broken’ by it. Boom after bust after boom, the lot of the Irish musician never seems to change. There is a way to change this, writes Toner Quinn.

In 2006, a strange thing happened: like canaries in the coal mine, musicians and artists began to leave Dublin. Nobody announced it publicly – there was no social media – but I noticed the pattern because I was one of them. The Celtic Tiger was difficult to navigate economically if you wanted to focus on creative work, so artists left. Years later, when I came across an economic chart for the 2000s, I noticed the moment of maximum overheating was the year when the creatives vacated the capital. From that point, the economy started to unravel. Two years later it collapsed.

Continue reading →

Irish National Opera continues to experiment and excite with a production of Gluck’s ‘Orfeo ed Euridice’ in Galway and a spectacular performance by Sharon Carty, writes Toner Quinn.

Last year, the Galway International Arts Festival presented the world premiere of Donnacha Dennehy’s opera The Second Violinist – the tale of a musician who struggles to find meaning in life and art. This year, GIAF hosted Irish National Opera’s production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice – the tale of another emotionally tortured musician.

Continue reading →

The Irish Government has launched a new initiative, ‘Global Ireland’, with international aspirations – but what does it mean for Irish music?

The debut album from The High Seas trio.

Fiddle-player Conor Caldwell’s diverse new album is inspired by both the historic work of collector Edward Bunting and the sounds of contemporary Belfast, writes Toner Quinn.

Conor Caldwell’s 2016 fiddle recording with Danny Diamond, North, was edgy and meditative, the emphasis on raw, spontaneous, unaccompanied duets.

Albums such as North appear to be a response to what writer Alex Ross calls the ‘cult of precision’ in modern recorded music; scrapes and the sense of a live performance are in, concern about technical perfection is out.

Continue reading →

The RTÉ orchestras report has made recommendations in response to a crisis, but we have not heard enough discussion of the issues that caused it, writes Toner Quinn.

This week in The Journal of Music, we published an article detailing the wide range of issues revealed in a new report on Ireland’s two full-time orchestras – RTÉ Orchestras: Ensuring a Sustainable Future.

Continue reading →

When we have instant access to every piece of music that we love, anywhere and anytime, something profound has happened, writes Toner Quinn.

A tribute to the great uilleann piper who died on 14 March 2018.

One of the great Irish traditional musicians of our time has passed away. Liam O’Flynn, aged 72, died yesterday (14 March) after a battle with illness over the last year.

So much that we take for granted today can be traced back to the impact that his uilleann piping had in the 1970s and after.
Continue reading →

The debate around RTÉ’s orchestras points to deeper challenges – it’s essential that we keep this conversation going, writes Toner Quinn.

The Galway Jazz Festival is on an ambitious new path – with over 40 events over 4 days held in October. Toner Quinn attended three sold-out shows at the Mick Lally Theatre.

Galway Jazz Festival began in 2005, but had slimmed down one to just one day of events by 2015. In 2017, a new team were determined to put it back on the path towards growth. Matthew Berrill (Artistic Director), Ellen Cranitch (Director) and Ciarán Ryan (General Manager) programmed more than forty events over four days (5–8 October), and set about a serious publicity campaign that created a real sense of anticipation. By the time the event was officially launched on 6 October by Carl Corcoran, Ryan could say from the mic, with real excitement, that people ‘were buying tickets like never before’.

Continue reading →