Author: Press Officer

IMRO members are invited to apply for one of fifteen places at an upcoming workshop – where participants bring their unfinished songs or songs-in-progress for constructive feedback by the other group participants in a supportive atmosphere, for the purposes of learning.

DATE: Saturday 17th November 2012

TIME: 9.30am to 5.30pm

VENUE: Dublin City Centre – venue to be confirmed

Attendance is FREE but BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL and considered on a first come first served basis.

Please contact Carolyn or Enda with your contact phone number at starsandwishesireland@nullgmail.com

If you can’t come to Dublin but are interested in a future workshop in your area email starsandwishesireland@nullgmail.com

The Stars and Wishes Ireland Songwriting Workshops were started in June 2009 on foot of an IMRO Songwriting retreat in the February of that year. The aim of these workshops is for participants to present their songs (preferrably works in progress) for the group itself to critique, for the purpose of learning and improving the craft of songwriting in a positive constructive way. Participants must bring 2 songs for critique by the rest of the group, using the ‘Stars and Wishes’ method, which will be outlined at the very beginning of the day. Participants must remain for the entire workshop. Songs will be submitted on the day either by CD, or participants should bring their own guitar / keyboard to present their song. Lyrics of the 2 songs should be sent to starsandwishesireland@nullgmail.com by confirmed participants as word or .pdf formats, or else participants can bring their lyrics on memory stick / A4 pages on the day for viewing by others within the group, in order to get the most from the feedback.

Critically acclaimed songwriter and performer Carol Keogh has launched a crowd-sourcing campaign on the Irish website Fundit.ie. The campaign, if successful, will crystallise Keogh’s long-held ambition to record her debut album, ‘Mongrel City’, with her backing band The City Fathers. Crowd-sourcing has become an increasingly viable way for artists to fund projects through pre-sales of work and other rewards. People can visit the project page, view an explanatory video and choose the reward that appeals to them and which best suits their budget. The Irish-based Fundit follows a growing trend set by the US-based Kickstarter and the UK’s Pledgemusic.

As well as the opportunity to pre-purchase the finished album in several formats, Keogh’s reward packages include handwritten lyrics booklets, tailor-made cover versions chosen by the funder and acoustic renditions of songs from her back catalogue with previous bands The Plague Monkeys, The Tycho Brahe and Autamata. Keogh is also a gifted painter and funders can choose to buy bespoke oil paintings created for the individual. Top end rewards include a private live performance and Keogh will even exploit her culinary skills to cook a meal as part of an exclusive evening’s entertainment!

Carol Keogh has been writing and performing since the mid-90s with the aforementioned bands, as well making notable guest appearances on recent albums by Jerry Fish and Sharon Shannon. For the past few years she has been developing the songs for Mongrel City, many of which relate to her home town of Dublin, the mongrel city of the album’s title. Her backing band, The City Fathers, is comprised of multi-instrumentalist and composer Colin J Morris, bass-player and fellow songwriter Elton Mullally (formerly frontman with Brando), guitarist Martin Moran and former Frames drummer Dave Hingerty.

Check out Carol’s Fundit page at  http://www.fundit.ie/project/mongrel-city-debut-album-by-carol-keogh 

The first in a trilogy of EPs from the duo will be released on 2nd November in the build up to the unveiling of their debut album early in 2013. The three EPs will each reveal a fraction of cover artwork, with an extra piece being revealed with each new release until the entire image finally comes together as the completed album artwork.

Versives are an electronic duo based on the south coast of Ireland. Currently picking up airplay across the USA. Their music has drawn comparisons to the likes of New Order, Depeche Mode, and The Pet Shop Boys. Writing almost exclusively on acoustic guitar and piano has ensured the strength of Versives songwriting. While their studio recordings and live set is very much electronic the strength of the underlying songwriting is what makes Versives stand out from the masses.

The innovative and imaginative contemporary music series, NewSoundWorlds, curated by the composer Siobhán Cleary travels to Paris to take part in the tenth anniversary celebrations at the Centre Culturel Irlandais.  The festival is held in collaboration with the Contemporary Music Centre Ireland and made possible through funding from Culture Ireland.

The festival includes performances given by the Vanbrugh Quartet and pianist Hugh Tinney (25 October), violinist Catherine Leonard and Hugh Tinney (26 October), and the NewSoundWorlds Ensemble (27 October).

Featured composers include Elaine Agnew, Gerald Barry, Enda Bates, Siobhán Cleary, Raymond Deane, Donnacha Dennehy, Benjamin Dwyer, David Fennessy, Dave Flynn, Andrew Hamilton, Gráinne Mulvey, Garrett Sholdice, Jennifer Walshe and Ian Wilson.

“The Contemporary Music Centre is very excited about the works of so many Irish composers being performed over three days in Paris.  It’s a special experience for any Irish composer to feature in the anniversary programme at the Centre Culturel Irlandais and at the Irish Embassy.  We’re grateful to both hosts for creating this showcase of Irish works and we have no doubt that the innovative programming we have all come to enjoy with Siobhan’s NewSoundWorlds series will be well received by Parisian new music enthusiasts.” Evonne Ferguson, Director, Contemporary Music Centre Ireland

NewSoundWorlds Festival in Paris

Date:  25 – 27 October 2012

Booking: €7 per concert/ €10 for both concerts on 25 and 27 October (admission free for students/unemployed), reservation recommended

Programme:

Thursday 25 October, 7.30pm

Vanbrugh Quartet with Hugh Tinney, piano

Raymond Deane Embers

Frederick May String Quartet

Dave Flynn String Quartet No. 2 ‘The Cranning’

Siobhán Cleary Scenes from a Dongba Script

Aloys Fleishmann Quintet

Donnacha Dennehy Pluck, Stroke and Hammer

Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris

Friday 26 October (Invitation only)

Catherine Leonard, violin; Hugh Tinney, piano

Ravel Ondine

Ian Wilson From the Book of Longing

Raymond Deane Parthenia Violata

Siobhán Cleary The Whitening

Ravel Sonata in G major

Embassy of Ireland, Paris (Invitation only)

Saturday 27 October, 7.30pm

NewSoundWorlds Ensemble

(William Dowdall, flute; Paul Roe, clarinet; Nick Roth, saxophone; Izumi Kimura, piano; Joanne Quigley, violin; Cora Venus Lunny, viola; Kate Ellis, cello; Enda Bates, sound engineer)

Enda Bates Duo & Tape (violin, cello & electronics)

Gráinne Mulvey Shifting Colours (flute and tape)

Garrett Sholdice After Thomas Tallis (piano)

Gerald Barry In the asylum (piano trio)

Jennifer Walshe /AND JUMP FROM THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE

Andrew Hamilton music for losers (cello)

Benjamin Dwyer Tiento (soprano saxophone & piano)

Elaine Agnew hmmm

David Fennessy The room is the resonator (cello & electronics)

Siobhán Cleary Psychopomp (ensemble)

Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris

Further information and booking:

Centre Culturel Irlandais

5, rue des Irlandais

75005 – Paris

Tel +33 (0)1 58 52 10 30

Fax: +33 (0)1 58 52 10 99

The CCI is located beside the Panthéon in the 5th quarter.

RER B: Luxembourg station

(jardin du Luxembourg exit)

Metro: Line 10 – Cardinal Lemoine

Metro: Line 7 – Place Monge

Bus: 84, 21, 27 (nearby)

Public Parking: 22, rue Soufflot

Information on the composers involved can be found on the Contemporary Music Website: www.cmc.ie

Siobhán Cleary: http://www.cmc.ie/composers/composer.cfm?composerID=21

Vanbrugh Quartet: www.vanbrughquartet.com

Leonard & Tinney Duo: www.classicallinks.ie

Kate Ellis: www.kateelliscello.com

A music CD produced in Nashville and featuring Irish and American artists has been released to honour the significant contribution made by Irish combatants on both sides of the American Civil War.  Two of the Irish heroes celebrated on the CD are Waterford born Union General Thomas Francis Meagher who also played a major role in establishing the tricolour as Ireland’s national flag, and Confederate General Patrick Cleburne from County Cork.

The CD, entitled The 1861 Project – Volume 2: From The Famine To The Front, features Maura O’Connell, Jerry Douglas, Connie Smith, David Olney, Ben Sands, Sierra Hull, and numerous others performing songs specially composed for the project including tracks by IMRO songwriter members Ian Smith and Liam Merriman.

From The Famine To The Front is the second instalment of The 1861 Project, an ongoing series of groundbreaking releases from Nashville’s creative artists’ collective Cohesion Arts. The new CD graphically depicts the deeply moving stories of Irish immigrants during the American Civil War, through a collection of songs that draw on time-honoured Irish and American traditions to touch hearts on both sides of the Atlantic.

The CD’s producer and principal songwriter is Thomm Jutz, familiar to Irish audiences from his role as guitarist in Nanci Griffith’s band. His roots-music resume includes production and/or guitar credits with Griffith and Mary Gauthier, and Irish artists of the calibre of Liam Merriman, Tony McLaughlin and Neil White. The veteran musicians Jutz gathered around him to record Volume 2 inject Nashville heart and soul into this remarkable collection of Celtic-inspired songs, and bring real-life heroes from the past vividly into the present.

“The Irish tradition is woven tightly into so much great American culture and music,” Jutz says. “It continues to be a huge influence on me. Irish immigrants played such an integral role in the US Civil War. Some fought for the North, some fought for the South; the American conflict of brother against brother was also Irish against Irish.”

In the wake of the potato famine in the late 1840s, Ireland’s young population left for America in droves. Volume 2‘s opening track, “The American Wake,” performed by acclaimed Irish songstress Maura O’Connell with dobro master Jerry Douglas, captures the heartbreak of departure and the stark realization that those who left would likely never return home.

Jutz and his Irish and American co-writers unearthed a fascinating cast of characters and stories all but lost in the sweep of history. From folk icon Jim Rooney’s reflective, half-spoken tribute to Confederate General Patrick Cleburne, “Stonewall Of The West,” to Sierra Hull’s haunting ‘”Song Of The Mystic” and Liam Merriman’s rollicking take on “Irish Whiskey,” these songs are populated by historically important figures such as the afore-mentioned Meagher, Chaplain William Corby and Father Abram J. Ryan. 

The 1861 Project, Volume 2: From The Famine To The Front brings history brilliantly and musically alive, reviving real people, real emotions, and issues that are still relevant. It is available through www.1861project.com, CDBaby, Topspin, and iTunes.

For further information see www.1861project.com

The Happy Prince Sunday 21^st October 5pm Town Hall Theatre, Galway as part of Baboró Festival

Vincent is currently writing his Symphonies No 2 and No 3, the latter for the University of Arizona, Phoenix, USA.