Three World Premieres at Louth Contemporary Music Society Festival This Weekend

Bára Gísladótti and Skúli Sverrisson (Photo: Juliette Rowland).

Three World Premieres at Louth Contemporary Music Society Festival This Weekend

Festival takes place in Dundalk on 17 and 18 June.

Louth Contemporary Music Society will this weekend present five concerts as part of its ‘Nothing Has Changed. Everything Has Changed’ festival. The event is the organisation’s first live festival since 2019 and will take place on 17 and 18 June in several venues in Dundalk, Co. Louth. 

The theme ‘Nothing Has Changed. Everything Has Changed’ is based around the idea of life post-pandemic. Introducing the festival, Artistic Director Eamonn Quinn says, ‘Nothing has changed: we’re still here, aren’t we? But everything has changed. Our relationships have been tested. We’ve seen more of life’s fragility. Art can help – especially new art, that has lived through these experiences with us.’ 

Three world premieres will be presented over the two days. The opening concert on 17 June will feature a new work by composer Andrew Synnott, I follow, I follow performed by the Esposito Quartet and flautist Silvia Scerbaviciute. The world premiere of Gavin Bryars’ Wittgenstein Fragments will also be part of the opening concert, featuring poet Vincent Woods and the Esposito Quartet, Scerbaviciute, and counter-tenor Alex Chance. Wittgenstein Fragments focuses on Wittgenstein’s time spent in Ireland and uses Irish poet Woods’ magical words and phrases to invoke the spirit, thoughts and times of the philosopher’, says Quinn. This concert will also include Sam Perkin’s Flow for string trio and Meadow by Linda Catlin Smith, both of which were recorded and released on the Louth Contemporary Music Society label

The closing concert on 18 June will see a performance by Estonian choir Vox Clamantis and Andrew Lawrence King on harp of the world premiere of Siobhán Cleary’s Storm in Devon, along with a programme of works by Lou Harrison, Helena Tulve and Arvo Pärt, ‘the necessary balm to close off the festival’, Quinn adds.

On Saturday afternoon, there will be a concert featuring Australian singer Mitch Riley and French pianist Vanessa Wagner performing O Mensch! by Pascal Dusapin. That afternoon, the Spirit Store venue will host an event with Icelandic improvising musicians Bára Gísladóttir (double bass) and Skúli Sverrisson (bass guitar); and at St Vincent’s Church that evening, Jon Heilbron (double bass) and Rebecca Lane (quarter tone bass flute) perform Catherine Lamb’s 60-minute work Muto Infinitas – a delve into slow sound and interference patterns. 

Commenting on the weekend, Quinn says:

After three years, even though I’m involved in the organisation, I am so looking forward to attending LCMS concerts as a listener and interacting with our lovely audience. I feel the musicians, composers, physical spaces and audience are all key elements of the performance.

For further information and tickets, visit: www.louthcms.org/nothing-has-changed-everything-has-changed.

Published on 14 June 2022

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