The world premiere of a new work by Donnacha Dennehy, performed by Crash Ensemble, will feature in one of the seven Imagining Home concerts taking place at the National Concert Hall this week.

Programmed to commemorate the centenary of the 1916 Rising, the Imagining Home series will run over seven nights (Monday 28 March to Sunday 3 April) and will focus on the following themes: ‘America’, ‘England’, ‘Into Europe’, ‘On Revolution’, ‘The Literary Imagination’, ‘This is Ireland’ and ‘Out of the Tradition’. 

Dennehy’s new work, titled The Dark Places, with a text by Colm Tóibín, will be performed this Thursday and focuses on an imagined dialogue between writer Joseph Conrad and Irish revolutionary Roger Casement in the Congo, where they met. Dennehy spoke to The Journal of Music about the piece:

What inspired me here was the very specific scenario between Joseph Conrad and Roger Casement.  This scenario has long exercised the imagination of Colm Tóibín, and I was very happy when he came to me with it.  Both Conrad and Casement were in the Congo together, and both were aghast at the colonial atrocity there. Conrad became a conservative because of it, and Casement became a radical. This scenario, and Tóibín’s very beautiful, humane and specific text, inspired me to write this piece.

A 12-piece Crash Ensemble conducted by Alan Pierson will accompany baritone Robin Adams and bass Stephen Richardson, who will play Casement and Conrad respectively.

Also featuring in the On Revolution concert are Cork-born writer Joseph O’Neill (author of Netherland), Ahdaf Soueif (author of The Map of Love and founder of the Palestine Festival of Literature), Libyan writer Hisham Matar (author of In the Country of Men and Anatomy of a Disappearance), Polish poet and novelist Adam Zagajewski, Polish-American writer Eva Hoffman, pianist Michael McHale and the Vanbrugh Quartet.

This evening’s concert focusing on America is already sold out, as is Imagining Home: This is Ireland (2 April), which features Glen Hansard and guests, and Imagining Home: Out of the Tradition (3 April), which features Martin Hayes and many other traditional musicians. For further details on all concerts, see below:

Imagining Home: America
Monday 28 March – Sold out
Rosanne Cash, Paul Brady, Maura O’Connell, Rodney Crowell, Andy Irvine, Tim O’Brien, Mick Moloney and band. 

Imagining Home: England
Tuesday 29 March – Tickets
Martin Carthy, Camille O’Sullivan, Cait O’Riordan, Paul Brady, Andy Irvine, Cathal Coughlan, Lisa O’Neill, Kevin Rowland and Sean Read of Dexys, Declan O’Rourke

Imagining Home: Into Europe
Wednesday 30 March – Tickets
Lisa Dwan performs Samuel Beckett’s Not I and Footfalls; Fintan O’Toole on Roger Casement and human rights; Barry Douglas (piano) and Camerata Ireland 

Imagining Home: On Revolution
Thursday 31 March – Tickets
Joseph O’Neill, Ahdaf Soueif, Hisham Matar, Adam Zagajewski, Donnacha Dennehy, Colm Tóibín. 

Imagining Home: The Literary Imagination
Friday 1 April – Tickets
John Banville, Anne Enright, Colm Tóibín, Eavan Boland, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, John Montague, Marina Carr, Kevin Barry, Paul Muldoon. More to be announced. 

Imagining Home: This Is Ireland
Saturday 2 April – Sold out
Glen Hansard with guests Paula Meehan, Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Maya Youssef, Judith Mok, Josephe O’Connor, Brendan Begley, Ye Vagabonds, David Rooney, Lisa O’Neill, Stephen James Smith, Loah and Roddy Doyle. 

Imagining Home: Out Of The Tradition
Sunday 3 April – Sold out
Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill, Usher’s Island, The Tulla Céilí Band, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Maighread & Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, Treasa Ní Mhiollain, Tríona Marshall, Aoife Ní Bhriain, Louis de Paor & Olwen Fouéré; Brian Conway & Brendan Dolan.

For more, visit https://goo.gl/4ZyAGc