Irish Times Music in the Classroom University Concert Hall Limerick


 
 

Emmanuel Lawlor and Conductor Gearoid Grant








 

4th class in the foyer

Principal Power waves us off  ' Be good!

Birds eye view of UCH

Tea for Two              most prominent instrument  / audience  conduct orchestra
Hebrides Overture    Mendelssohn    themes ABC  Ballet
Walk the World          actions
Swine Lake                Tchaikowsky
007 James Bond         For Your Eyers Only/

Ms Barry meets double bass player Seamus Doyle

                                      Goldfinger
Midsummer Night's Dream   Mendelssohn    with ballet
Overture to William Tell      Rossini
Fame
Toreadors March       complete with actions
Mary Poppins selection


The Irish times Music In The Classroom concert was in UCH last week. I'm  involved in classroom music now for a decade or so but this  was my  first experience of this popular  concert series aimed at young audiences. It is running for 21 years and is a wonderful venture. Sometimes events which promise to be fun are  anything but.  On this occasion, the promise was delivered on and it was great fun and I really enjoyed it   as did my young string students.    www.irishtimes.com

waiting for the concert to begin

I was very good and did my homework acquainting myself with the excellent accompanying CD and useful notes. I joined  my 4th class violin  group Blazing Bows  from Scoil Chriost Ri for the noon concert at UCH Limerick. In all over 50 students  from Ennis attended, While the classes went for a quick trot around the college campus with their class teachers, I had a coffee in the spacious lounge.   I was delighted to catch up with double bass player and conductor of St Agnes Orchestra, Seamus Doyle.

We had seats in the side balcony which gave a great view of the action. The performance relied heavily of the slapstick comedy between conductor Gearoid Grant, tenor Emmanuel Lawlor and Peter Sweeney and it was well honed and was genuinely funny. The visual element with the ballet dancers was  charming  and I particularly enjoyed the Bees Wedding .    The key element of success was the element of audience particpation and linking some actions to the orchestral programme. There was a good range of  music in the programme and there was lots of ideas for teachers to carry into their classes .

Recognise him? Peter Sweeney minus his tutu and Jan Stafford

Great!  I look forward to attending another one.  I think we are so accustomed now to a visual element and I thought the ballet element was a charming addition to the programme. It might be fun to see the concert orchestra playing along to a short silent movie .

http://www.blazingbows.blogspot.com/ 

St Agnes Orchestra Director Seamus Doyle  greets Blazing Bows