The achievements of Ireland’s composers abroad are not getting enough attention at home.
You would not know it from the vibrant music scene that we have today, but Ireland’s relationship with certain types of music has often been complicated, tormented even.
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Irish National Opera gave the world premiere of ‘Least Like the Other: Searching for Rosemary Kennedy’ in Galway this week, a work by composer Brian Irvine and director Netia Jones that tells the story of JFK’s sister. Toner Quinn reviews.
Brian Irvine’s new opera Least Like the Other, which was given its world premiere at the Galway International Arts Festival on 15 July, tells the story of Rosemary Kennedy (1918–2005), the sister of US president John F. Kennedy.
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Luminosa string orchestra recently held its inaugural concerts in Galway, the first focussing on work by female composers and the second on the theme of landscape and music. Toner Quinn reviews.
Launched last November, Galway’s new orchestra Luminosa held its first two concerts in April and June of this year. The group is the initiative of Lucy Hayward and it draws on the musical strengths of the west: the four members of ConTempo Quartet are all section principals, and Paul Ezergailis, who is co-principal of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, is Concertmaster. The ranks of each section are filled by musicians who perform with national and international orchestras but are based in or near Galway.
There was an irony in the fact that Other Voices was in Belfast this week. If you tune into debates in Britain at the moment, voices from Northern Ireland really are the ‘other voices’. Their experiences are hardly considered in the discussions about the border, Brexit or the Tory leadership. But the North has a lot to say.
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It takes a long time to get to Sherkin Island, through the bends of West Cork, down through Dunmanway and Skibbereen, the ferry from Baltimore, then a trip on the back of a golf-buggy up to the North Shore stage and camp site. One can only guess what is involved in organising the Open Ear festival on this small island, but the unlikeliness of it all is part of the attraction – we are there to escape.
How can we ensure that we have the infrastructure to support all Irish music into the future? Why have we not achieved this already? In an essay written to mark the twentieth anniversary of the music and arts station RTÉ Lyric FM, Toner Quinn, Editor of the Journal of Music, asks the question: what is holding us back?
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Young people are not waiting for action on climate change any more – they are taking action, and history shows that music is going to play a key role in their movement, writes Toner Quinn.
Ten days ago, two hundred student protestors from the Sunrise movement entered the offices of the US Democrat Nancy Pelosi, demanding that she support what is being called the ‘Green New Deal’.
Toner Quinn reviews a Music and Musings concert in Galway featuring the world premiere of Greg Caffrey’s fourth string quartet.
The Music and Musings concerts run by the Galway Music Residency are an opportunity to participate in a conversation about new music as well as listen to it. Following the performance of a work, there’s a discussion with the composer, Chaired by Linda O’Shea Farren of the Contemporary Music Centre, and then the work is played again.
Toner Quinn 