From Tír na nÓg to Scandinavia at Waterford New Music Week

Lorcán Mac Mathúna of Northern Lights. Photo: Lucy Clarke.

From Tír na nÓg to Scandinavia at Waterford New Music Week

‘New Music, New Audiences’ is the theme of this year’s Waterford New Music Festival, which runs from 4 to 11 February in eight venues across the city. The festival incorporates workshops and talks as well as concerts, as well as a multimedia exhibition. Admission is free for all daytime events.

The composer Linda Buckley, who is currently the RTÉ Lyric FM Composer-in-Residence, will give a series of composition workshops throughout the week — these take place earlier on in the day. Other talks include a presentation of academic papers on music, ranging from portrayals of Tír na nÓg in music to the workers’ choral music of the English composer Alan Bush.

Highlights include the RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet, who perform an evening concert on Wednesday, 6 February, featuring works by the Irish composers Raymond Deane — his Embers, which he recently cited as his favourite work — and Deirdre McKay, as well as music by Benjamin Britten and Franz Schubert.

Earlier that day the Contemporary Music Centre is hosting an event in its salon series, featuring the performers Kate Ellis (cello) and Paul Roe (clarinet). The programme includes solos and duos by Linda Buckley, Deirdre McKay, Emma O’Halloran and Eric Sweeney. The composers will be present to talk about their work.

Northern Lights, a group combining the sean nós singer Lorcan Mac Mathúna, Raphael de Cock (who plays a number of instruments including hardanger fiddle and the uilleann pipes) and guitarist and pipes player, Rémi Decker feature on Thursday, 7 February, with an evening performance in Christ Church Cathedral and a seminar earlier in the day. The seminar will focus on how the group marries Scandinavian and Irish folk music traditions, with illustrations from the musicians.

At noon on Sunday, 10 February, a large-scale work by the Waterford composer Julie Quinlan, scored for choir, brass, percussion and organ, will be performed at the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity on Barronstrand Street. The work, Celebration Mass, was composed to celebrate the composer’s father’s fifty-year membership of City of Waterford Brass.

For full programme details, download the festival brochure.

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Published on 29 January 2013

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