Francesco Turrisi Tarab

I was glad I made the decision to head into JJ’s last night to check out Francesco Turrisi’s ensemble Tarab, despite being exhausted after a very early morning start. The evening was in three parts and I arrived just in time to catch the first set with Francesco, Robbie Harris, Emer Mayock and Nick Roth. Throughout the evening there were various shifts in performers on stage with cellist Kate Ellis joining the ensemble a number of times.

I was absolutely shattered and it was difficult to take in all the subtleties of the performance, especially as each of the performers contributing are well known for their individual skill, but I was struck by Emer and Nick’s fusion on a jig Emer brought to the table. I also didn’t realise Emer was quite as versatile as she is - tin whistle, low whistle, pipes and flute all made an appearance at some stage in the evening. Her control over the temperamental pipes was especially remarkable.

Suffice to say that if you get a chance to check out the ensemble again don’t hesitate.

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I’m heading out of the country for a few weeks so the blog will be quiet until I get back…

Culture and the City – The Debate

As a follow up to last year’s Culture and the City conference, Temple Bar Cultural Trust (TBCT) are hosting Culture and the City: The Debate on August 19 this year. This is a positive step forward as there were many points made at last year’s conference that would benefit from further investigation.

Maintaining conversation around culture is vital to development and understanding of current practices, however, the debate will only be effective if cultural practitioners are involved in conversation with managers and policy-makers. TBCT have yet to announce who will chair discussions and confident mediation of the debates will be required to ensure it doesn’t turn into a free-for-all soapbox. Watch this space…

The Fold I

Note Productions last night launched a new space for music entitled The Fold which take place over the next few months in St Audeon’s Church. The events enlist a series of musicians known for their ability to work in a variety of contexts, this time focusing on improvisation.  The first session comprised of Séan Óg, Fergus Cullen, Gavin Duffy & Karl Him and Iarla Ó Lionáird. Ó Lionáird was unfortunately unable to participate due to tonsillitis but was replaced by fiddle player Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh.

Musician, composer and producer Séan Óg opened the evening with a half hour performance  of one work which he outlined briefly before starting (approx. half hour - I didn’t have a watch but it felt about a half hour and too short at that). He took his starting point as a 15th century hymn which worked perfectly in the 15th Century nave of St Audeon’s and wound his way forward through music history ending on a lullaby of his own composition. He varied the performance with recordings, looped sections and various saxophone techniques to produce a work which kept the listener engaged for the full half hour.

The performance by Cullen, Duffy and Karl Him was an exercise in feedback and electrical hum which made the most of the underground feel to St Audeon’s.  There were many concepts hinted at and tested during the work but none developed to a convincing level. With a bit more time to work through all the different elements (feedback, the use of unusual instruments such as a recorder with electric guitars, bowing the strings, vocal repetition & distortion) it could be possible to chose a few to focus on a develop. It felt a bit like a basement rehearsal and I personally found the sheer volume of the three electric guitars working towards deafening.

Stepping in for Iarla Ó Lionáird at the last moment the multi-faceted Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh three works; one a variation on a West Kerry tune and two of his own devices. Ó Raghallaigh’s music gently insinuates itself into your subconcious and rests there urging you to relax and give yourself over to the music. His diversity is aptly reflected in the diversity of the three instruments; the rich basses of his custom-made 5 string viola and the sweetness of the fiddle offset by the layered sounds of the hardanger fiddle. Séan Óg used nailed Ó Raghallaigh’s performance in one when he stated “I feel nourished after that.” 

The evening itself was a success although it seemed there were two tested concepts which have been aired in public a number of times previously acting as bookends to a work which needs more development. The initiative is a collaboration of 9. records, The Joinery, The Bottlenote Collective and Note Productions and future performance dates can be found here along with recordings of each performance.

Goebbels & Hilliard Ensemble, review

 

I made it to Lausanne, Switzerland on Thursday last to see “I went to the house but did not enter”, the most recent work by German composer Heiner Goebbels. The production features the internationally acclaimed Hilliard Ensemble performing music set to texts by T.S. Eliot, Maurice Blanchot, Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett against the backdrop of the most spectacular set I have seen since Vestuport Theatre’s production of Metamorphosis in the Dublin Theatre Festival last year.

The first scene was a treatment of the T.S. Eliot work The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock; the four voices singing in close harmonies with occasional solo sections. The muted pastel greys of the set were accentuated with lighting designs by Klaus Grunberg*, Goebbel’s set and lighting designer. The lighting changed so gradually it almost went unnoticed until a moment when it appears the entire set had changed in composition without any changes to props or performers. This use of one of the often unexploited elements of theatre is typical of Goebbels fanatic attention to detail that permeates all of his work.

Another of these elements is the deliberate decision to allow the audience witness set changes. Following the first scene the curtain was lowered and immediately raised again to reveal the stagehands rolling in the colossal faux house used for the next scene. Apart from the sheer size of the sets, the incorporation of the stagehands and their vocal calls to each other when moving the set was striking and felt like a continuation of the Hilliard’s performance. Allowing the audience access into the workings behind the scenes of the production perfectly reflected the access granted into the mind of a troubled individual through Goebbel’s choice of texts and the vocal scoring.

The move in texts from Eliot to Blanchot was firmly established by both the visual change in set and the change in behaviour of the ensemble. The Blanchot’s text The Madness of the Day (from which comes the title line “I went to the house but did not enter”) is unsettling in its exploration of the inner workings of the mind of a temporarily blinded man. The ensemble spoke the words of this text, often overlapping and speaking over each other, all seemingly oblivious to the distress of the other characters while speaking directly to them. There were occasional lighter moments in the scene – banging on the ceiling with a broom to bring a halt to the noise upstairs – which only served to highlight the anxious despair present in the text.

Kafka’s Excursion into the Mountains provides a short lighter break between scenes, although the Sound-of-Music-like sweeping melodic line “It’s a wonder that we don’t burst into song” belies the emptiness behind the notion of an excursion with a “pack of nobodies”.

While the Eliot text explores the seemingly calm exterior, the Blanchot delves into the frantic internal chaos which eventually resolves into Beckett’s Worstward Ho. This is the most inaccessible of the four texts featuring fragmentation and repetition of words and phrases. This was beautifully considered by Goebbels with the vocal part focusing on short phrases of repeated rhythms in very close intervals. Unlike the other three texts there were no subtitles for Worstward Ho which allowed the audience to focus their entire attention on the voices. The definition of characters in the final scene is complex as the text. Initially it seemed as though the four performers were each one separate aspect in one character’s day but their eventual interaction with each other complicated that version of events. This intelligent handling of Beckett’s text brought the audience to the edge of the character’s (be it one character or four) internal struggle and left the performance unresolved and the audience with the words “Fail Again. Fail better”, “Fail worse again”.

Although this is only my second time seeing a Goebbels production live (I was fortunate enough to catch Stifters Dinge in 2008) this production was typical of Goebbels work. His combination of many elements is almost overwhelming - lighting, sound, set design and stage management. It’s a huge shame the production is not coming to Ireland but there are still dates remaining in Europe and I would urge everyone to see one of the seminal works of 21st century contemporary theatre during its first run.

 

 *[Edit to the text - The Set Design and Lighting is the work of Klaus Gruenberg not Erich Wonder as I had originally thought]

 

 

 

 

Thursday was the 8th night of a run of ten performances in Theatre Vidy, one of the coproducers in the production. Given the tendency towards lighter audiences for contemporary music productions in Ireland I was amazed to discover an almost full 400 seat theatre for this challenging work. I was informed that this was the case for every night of the ten night run despite the fact that Lausanne is a city of only approx 130,000 people. I didn’t get a chance to talk to anyone in the theatre on my short trip but that would be a very interesting conversation on audience development.

The performance was a departure for the Hilliard Ensemble who are unused to movement during performance, however Goebbels worked in collaboration with the ensemble to develop the work and the results were obvious. The comfort with which they walked through the visually striking set was apparent from the outset. (Read their take on the complexities of this new experience here.)

Cultural Notes for today

Instead of detailed everything in separate posts I’m stealing Damien Mulley’s fluffy links idea and posting a few items together. Well, maybe with a little more detail…

Arts Management Ireland blog mentions the new opportunity from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland in partnership with the British Council for young visual arts curators. Applications from the ACNI site here. Shame there’s not the equivalent on offer for music programming… Watch this space!

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Denise at Virtual Existence has started a list of all Irish arts and cultural organisations on twitter.

I’m twittering away too –  @samadhya

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I followed the “picturegate” incident with my jaw on the floor today and was thrilled with Pat Kenny’s interview with FF TD Michael Kennedy (podcast possibly at this link tomorrow). So thrilled in fact, I emailed Pat congratulations on an excellent interview and he read it out on air! This is the body of what was in the email:

I would like to offer my congratulations to Pat Kenny on his interview this morning with FF TD Michael Kennedy. It was a brilliant interview in defence of freedom of speech and non-censorship of our public broadcaster by policital parties. The apology offered on RTE TV last night was atrocious and a disgrace to the democratic process.
 
Well done Pat, you have my newfound respect

Pat read it out and added “Aisling! I’m sorry that I didn’t have your respect before and I’m glad to have it now”

Nice

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The deadline for Waterford Youth Arts Ted and Mary O’Regan Bursary for arts practitioners is Friday 29 May 09. Application forms available here

Badke Quartet Irish Tour

Following a decent sized article in the Irish Times this weekend the Badke Quartet began their eleven date Music Network tour of Ireland in the Coach House, Dublin Castle this evening. The programme featured three works, the highlight of which was Ian Wilson’s String Quartet No 1 “Winter’s Edge”. A beautiful work, it demonstrates Wilson’s unique voice and his comprehensive understanding of the string family.

This is a little bit of a plug as I work with Music Network but am not involved in the touring or the artists & promoters rosters so I’m not always entirely familiary with the concerts before attending. The Badke performance was of the usual Music Network excellent standard and if you get a chance check out the remaining tour dates here.

National Music Symposium

Local Authorities & Music, Knowing The Score

A collaborative national music symposium took place todayin St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra - one of the partners in the research report under discussion. The report was researched and written by Ailbhe Kenny over two years in partnership with Sligo County Council, Wexford County Council and St Pat’s through the Arts Council Local Partnership Scheme and was concerned with compiling a national outline of Local Authorities work in relation to music.

Ailbhe Kenny presented the report, focussing on the research methods, the findings and her recommendations. After examining the range of programmes and initiatives in music by all the arts offices and following a series of conversations with stakeholders Kenny exposed a series of issues in the area. With regard to each of these issues (staff supports, public profile & awareness, music education partnerships, commissioning, musicians professional development and partnerships) she detailed her findings and provided a number of recommendations to address each issue. There is far too much information to provide details of all the recommendations here but as soon as the report is available online I’ll post a link.

Marc Jaffrey of the UK’s major music initiative support by public money Music Manifesto presented the keynote speech. Jaffrey examined the need to champion music and the arts as vital in the dramatically changing global climate. His talk touched on many of the same points which have been coming up at conferences over the past number of years, including the outdated model of education and how it is stifling creativity in youth and the importance of the creative arts to an economy.

“European creative industries now employ more people than the european car industry”

After a quick lunch in St Pat’s canteen (back-to-college experience for all!) we were treated to a performance of Ardee Dances, a work by Rachel Holstead commissioned by Louth County Council. The performance by the Irish Baroque Orchestra was wonderful and featured soloists Sarah Sexton and Gerry O’Connor. The work was a beautiful amalgamation of the traditional and classical styles, both very significant in Holstead’s music background.

I had to skip out early but caught Martin Drury’s response to the report recommendations. Drury is an excellent speaker and given his wealth of experience in arts education he is perfectly equipped to respond to the report. His speech is also full of wonderful sound bites: “We must talk about the arts, not as something separate to ourselves but as integral to our lives” – Mary Robinson, 1973.

Drury related the need for professional development of musicians to professional development in the visual arts in recent years. Traditionally following education the development of visual artists was based in solo studio spaces and gallery exhibitions. The visual arts have moved towards more collaborative approaches to working and audience engagement and Drury suggests that professional development for musicians should also be considered in terms of complementary and alternative methods. An example which was mentioned repeatedly during the day was the Vogler Quartet residency in Sligo.

Drury also mentioned the need for an examination of sustainability in initiatives. The “igniting spark” of an individual must be complemented by support of a system (John McLachlan also highlights this in relation to once-off initiatives in contemporary music in his JMI article - unfortunately I don’t have a link). “The Irish are good at allowing things to happen but not so good at providing for things to happen”.

There is heaps of information here but believe me, there was a lot more on the day. Keep an eye on the Arts Council website for the full published report.

PS – Drury also mentioned the new public arts website should be up and running in the next few months. I’m hopeful it will be a bit more navigable than the recently released events site.

Win tix to Imagine Create with Journal of Music

The Journal of Music are offering tickets to the three-day Imagine Create festival taking place on 2nd-4th April in Derry.

The festival is based around creative applications of technology and only for I’m away that weekend I would definitely be entering the competition. Events include performances by Hot Chip, seminars includin ArtAngel and talks from industry professionals.

Sligo Flea Market

A welcome addition to the choice in quality second-hand markets, the Sligo Flea Market is hoping to be up and running this summer. With it’s many organic food producers and craft designers Sligo is the perfect place for a flea so fingers crossed.

The Sligo Flea is as yet homeless so if you know of a suitable place around Sligo email sligoflea [AT] gmail [DOT] com.

Beckett at the Haymarket

I thought about not blogging this because I’m going to book it as a surprise for someone (and if you think you might be that someone please stop reading now!) but it’s too good not to share.

Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart are now starring in Sean Mathias’ production of Waiting for Godot in London. It’s showing from now until mid-July and I’m definitely going to try to make it to London to see it. It doesn’t give the later production dates on the official site but you can book tickets for post-April dates by clicking on Book Later  in the Royal Haymarket Theatre site.