Stringschool Summercamp 2010

Pulling out all the stops at Stringschool Summer Camp

The young participants of the Cathy Desmond Stringschool Summer Camp gave a special lunchtime performance at Colaiste Muire last week. Over the course of the week long course, the participants discovered a range of musical styles and rhythms and had a chance to try out a selection of musical instruments They delighted their audience of family and friends as they demonstrated their new skills acquired within the week .

Arias and High Emotions in Clarecastle

It was a night of high emotion in Clarecastle as the local community turned out in force to bid Bon Voyage and Farewell to local young tenor Dean Power. Usually I am not a fan of these pot pourri evenings where one can spend a good proportion of the concert time applauding but this was just the right format for this particular occasion.

The repertoire was light and frothy with Dean opening the procedings with You are My Heart's Delight Lehar? He was joined by young tenors Ross Scanlon and Peter Donohue, mezzo soprano Naomi O' Connell. But the real surprise of the night was American baritone, Adrian Rosa who tells me is shortly heading to Seattle to play Mazetto in Don Giovanni. Great poise and stage presence , a treat. Katie Daly gave an Irish lullaby just the sort of gentle treatment required . The stand out moment however came towards the end of the second half with the number from Jekyll and Hyde, 'This is the Moment'. Just the right song for the occasion and the lyrics perfectly apt for the moment.

Everybody wept, the piano player ( rather wonderful Mairead Hurley) the tenor , the ladies in the front row. We continued to wallow as the group who have been singing together since teenage years sang what else but Time to Say Goodbye. One sensed it would never be quite the same again. Here is wishing him well in his new endeavours

Musical Postcards France NCH 20th July

My last trip to Dublin was to see one of the musical world's longest serving stars in Paul McCartney. By contrast this trip was to see rising star Dean Power at this premier concert venue. Alice and I came up by train and hopped on a bus at Heuston that brought us all the way to Stephen's green . The conductor saw to it that we were alerted to the right stop, a stones throw from Earlsfort Tce. Doesn't it make you feel good to meet cheerful people. On into the hall where an hour before the concert, there was a buzz with a queue forming for cancellations. We bumped into Ennis tenor Tony Murray also up to support fellow tenor.

A Night at The Opera

I had two wonderful nights at the opera in the last month and all for the price of a cinema ticket. Productions from Barcelona Opera House and Convent Garden were screened at several venues throughout the country recently. SGC Cinemas are to be commended for screening the live production of the Queen of Spades by Tchaikowsky from Gran Teatro del Liceu at Dungarvan . There is a certain frisson from the knowledge that the screening is live and some early problems with transmission of audio track were soon sorted but sadly not before most of the audience had left the auditorium.

The second evening was at the very grand surroundings of Wexford Opera House . This suffered from the absence of subtitles , quite a serious impediment to following the nuances of the plot. The screening was not live which meant two acts could be screened back to back which was a little too much . Thomas Hampson was particularly wonderful as Germot pere and Renee Fleming looked and sounded convincing as La Traviata from Covent Garden

La Jolla Chamber Chorus from San Diego at Glór

Opportunities to hear top notch choral singing in Ennis aren't that frequent despite the town's healthy choral scene. Last Saturday afternoon's programme offered by the La Jolla Chamber Chorus from San Diego will surely rank as one of the musical highlights of this year's musical calendar. The choir, which was over 50 strong, performed for free to the audience that assembled in Glór.

Choirs and antiphons

On Tues, I was on the road early to mke the most of a day at the annual Irish Church Music Summer School held in the leafy NUI Maynooth campus. An annual event which usually clashes with the Willie Clancy Summer School, both schools seemed to have been running successfully pretty much along the lines of the original formula for four decades.

Set Dancing in Dooley's

On Monday we called into Dooley's where a lively set dancing session was in full swing. Fear a Ti Martin Forristal, greeted everyone and kept everything moving along nicely, not that this crowd needed any encouragement to take to the floor. One note and they were on their feet. We met Claus Cantwell, my husbands first employer as owner of Cantwell's Music Shop who proved that age is no impediment to piano playing. Martin strikes me as being a wonderful enthusiast and he spoke to me a little about the teaching set up in the Waterford branch. He tells me he has taken up the accordion in his retirement and enjoys having time to practice.

Powers Bar session

Photo Gerry Power guitar supremo

Pub sessions in Dunmore East

What a consummate professional singer Richie Roberts is . I dropped into Hayes pub in Dunmore where he was entertaining a coach party form Globus Tours in his own inimitable way . Richie combines a great set of songs and gags that seems to strike a chord with his audience. Although the routine is well honed, Richie makes it sound fresh each time

Jane and I joined Matt and Sean and friends in Powers bar on Tuesday night . It is always a pleasure to play with guitarist Gerry Power who relishes a Latin American rhythm . Great Fun ! Jane was a wow playing an extended set on clarinet. Eat your heart out Woody Allen!

Conducting training with maestro Robert Houlihan

I spent last weekend on the lovely UL campus honing my conducting skills with international conductor Bobby Houlihan. The campus looks really splendid at this time of year and it was a pleasure to inhabit the futuristic Irish Chamber Orchestra building for a few days . The architecture of the various buildings looks quite adventurous even if the gold wall of the Taj Micheál looks a tad ott. There was lots going on on campus with the Irish Youth Choir, the Blas Summer School and NYOI Camerata all active on campus
The course was run by the Irish Association of Youth Orchestras and the participants came from all parts of the country and were at varying levels committment and ability. Bobby Houlihan did a good job adapting his approach to the different levels. A quartet was engaged and we augmented the ensemble on our own instruments, which I enjoyed very much as I do not so much regular orchestral playing these days. Particularly hard wrorking was pianist Rhoda Dullea

So what did I learn. Too much flicking. Try to reduce the frame as you increase speed . Think of transferring the beat. We learned basic patterns for subdividing beat , very useful.