Dead or Alive….?

Following on from last year’s Malice In Blunderland, Director Tony Barry and the Cúchulainn Players again provide a light-hearted commentary on the state of affairs in contemporary Ireland with their production of Skullduggery which will be staged in the Táin Theatre, Town Hall, Dundalk from Thursday February 16th to Saturday February 18^th.

It features the ‘residents’ of Kilmactranny Passage Grave who are all dead……or are they..?

Casting a jaundiced eye on those who today perpetuate the greed of the last decade or so, the ‘residents’ themselves have come to grips with what they have done during their lives above ground, acknowledge their mistakes and then prepare to move on to the next level of their existence.

A motley crew from across the ages, they rattle around underground to foot-tapping music and hilarious dance and dialogue routines providing for audiences a great antidote to the austerity blues.

A lively mix of Cúchulainn Players veterans, talented newcomers, terrific newly-composed music from Tony’s sons Éamonn, Ruairí and Fionán, and award-winning dancers from Funky Feet ( all under the watchful eyes and ears of choreographer Stacey Murnaghan and Chorus Mistress Liz McConnon ) will ensure a sparkling night’s entertainment.

Don’t miss this opportunity to get a welcome dose of therapeutic medicine.

A stage show of Irish music, song and dance, Seisiún features the authentic traditional entertainment as enjoyed by generations of Irish people. One of the longest-running Summer shows of its kind ? over 30 years. Seisiún still gets comments from its visitors that this is what we really came to Ireland to experience.

This Comhaltas show entertains its audiences with a variety of Irish traditional music, song and dance which is followed by light refreshments ? tea and scones. The Seisiún concludes with an informal traditional session where the visitors are encouraged to participate if they so wish during this part of the night audiences join in dances such as the Siege of Ennis and the Walls of Limerick and a song or two. Visiting artists are also welcome to perform.

Seisiún is not just a concert but also a unique traditional cultural experience enabling visitors from both Ireland and overseas to enjoy a taste of the real Ireland.

I hope to see you very soon!

Kay Webster
Reachtaire
Oriel Centre, Dundalk Gaol
Carrickmacross Rd
Dundalk
Co. Louth
Ph  042 9328887  Fax 042 9328873
www.orielcentre.ie

Gary Beecher
Beethoven: Sonata no.10, op.14 no.2
Chopin: Ballade No. 3, op. 47
Poulenc: Toccata from ‘Trois Pieces’

Daniel Kearney
Tchaikovsky – Dumka Op.59
Debussy: Estampes.

Sean Rooney
JS Bach: Toccata in c minor
Ravel: Pavane for a dead princess
Chopin: Ballade no 4 in f minor

The three pianists are on the William Finlay Programme for Gifted Young Pianists organised by the Dublin International Piano Competition. Sean Rooney is from Newry and is studying under John O’Conor at the RIAM. Garry Beecher and Daniel Kearney are studing under Jan ?áp at the Cork School of Music.

If you come at 1.30pm Thomas will provide lunch (in the garden if it is fine) with as much as possible grown at Anaverna.

For tickets (e10, students e5, lunch e20) please email verelc@gmail.com or ring 042 9380836. You can pay at the door but please reserve your tickets in advance.

The next concert will be on Friday 26th August. Nicholas Ellis (clarinet) and David McNulty (piano) will play music by Mozart, John Ireland, Rachmaninov, Poulenc, Schumann and Tchaikovsky and on September 9th Opera Theatre Company will perform Mozart’s Bastien and Bastienne

www.anaverna.com

The 2011 Pipeworks Festival takes place in three centres around Ireland, from 17–25 June. The central portion of the festival will be in Dundalk, Co Louth, from 20–22 June, with the support of CreateLouth, the Arts Service of Louth Local Authorities. It will feature the superb Willis organ of St Patrick’s Cathedral, one of the finest organs of its type in the world, and lovingly curated and made available to the festival by cathedral organist Brendan McCourt. It will bring to Dundalk competitors and recitalists from every corner of the globe.
This year Pipeworks will bring the stunning English vocal ensemble Stile Antico to Ireland for the first time. Described by The New York Times as ‘an ensemble of breathtaking freshness, vitality and balance’, they sing without a conductor, and specialize in music from the renaissance and early baroque eras.
Stile Antico perform on Monday 20th June, 20.15, St Nicholas’ Church (The Green Church), €20/€15

At the core of every Pipeworks Festival is the Dublin International Organ Competition. This year fourteen quarter finalists, encompassing ten different nationalities, have been selected from the highest number of entries ever. The quarterfinal B round will take place in Dundalk, bringing these fine young players from all over the globe to Dundalk, along with the members of the distinguished international jury.

The International Organ festival will take place on Monday 20th June, 10.40 & 14.25, St Patrick’s Cathedral. The event is free.

The award-winning Dundalk ensemble Clermont Chorale, under the direction of Ronan Dennedy, will make an appearance in the festival, in a lunchtime recital offering a wide range of music from ancient to modern, sacred and secular. Clermont Chorale will perform on Tuesday 21st June, 13.15, St Nicholas Church (The Green Church). This is a free entry.

Jury member, Jon Laukvik (Norway) will both give a recital and a masterclass in Dundalk. Laukvik is Professor of Organ at the Musik Staatlichen Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart, and also at Oslo’s Norges Musikkhøgskole. In the course of his stellar career he has won many major international competitions, and now gives recitals and serves on competition juries all over the world.jon Laukvik will give the recital on Tuesday 21st June, 20.00, St Patrick’s Cathedral, €15/€10.

Masterclasses for Ireland’s finest young organ students will be given by two jury members in St Patrick’s Cathedral, offering an opportunity to avail of the world’s most insightful teaching and scholarship. Places for participants are awarded as scholarships (details available at directorpipeworks@gmail.com), and for observers (€10) at the door.

Further events include Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin: The Art of Improvisation Tuesday 21st June 15.00 and  Jon Laukvik: Romantic Performance Practice I: Liszt and his contemporaries Wednesday 22nd June 10.30.

For further information on this exciting collaboration between Pipeworks and CreateLouth, please contact: Mark Duley, festival director, as above or Denis Darcy, Arts Office, Dundalk Town Council Tel: 042 9392950 denis.darcy@dundalktown.ie

Chamber works by Medyulyanova, Nadarejshvili, Part, Tavener, Vrebalov & Yanovsky, The Carducci Quartet; Dublin Guitar Quartet; Patricia Rozario, Eamonn Dougan, Joachim Roewer, Malachy Robinson etc
Louth Contemporary Music Society LCMS 1001 65:29 mins BBC Music Direct £11.99  or alternatively available from www.louthcms.org/path

Except for the extract from Nadarejshvili’s quartet all these pieces are receiving their premiere recording (Part’s Summa is realised by guitar quartet here), and all are rooted in ancient folk traditions.

Yanovsky’s piece is inspired by the Chang, a traditional Uzbeki stringed instrument. To evoke this, the quartet uses plucking and percussive techniques, vividly conjuring visions of folk-dances surviving from time immemorial, but the opening materialises from ethereal notes which gradually give way to more corporeal, though no less mysterious, sounds. The Carducci Quartet also performs the third movement of Nadarejshvili’s quartet, a threnody drawing on Georgian folk sources that evolves from restrained pizzicato gestures above a quiet drone to an outcry about the experiences of Georgia under Stalinism.

Part’s Face to Face for soprano, baritone, clarinet, viola and bass contains some of his bleakest ever music but, by the end of its brief span, this meditation on St Paul’s ‘through a glass darkly’ epistle is imbued with the A major light of understanding. Tavener’s Samaveda effectively, features the tampura and flute to surround Patricia Rozario’s voice with intimations of eternal wisdom. Rozario is also featured to impressive effect on Epistle.

Medyulyanova’s Eternal Peace, beautifully’ sung by Doreen Curran, is a comparatively, lush piece of neo-Romanticism, contrasting dramatically with Vrebalov’s Spell, a mesmerising piece for violin interacting with live electronics and pre-recorded choral fragments. Barry Witherden PERFORMANCE ***** RECORDING *****