Family Concert: ‘Fossils and Dreams’
Venue The Lighthouse, Cromwell Point
Installation at The Lighthouse
Winner: Seán Ó Dálaigh
We invited proposals from composers/sound artists/music creators, primarily based in Kerry and the South West for a work/installation to be performed/presented in The Lighthouse, Cromwell Point. One of the famed Great Lighthouses of Ireland, the performance space will be in the Lighthouse Keeper’s Cottage, hugging the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. Thematically this work will respond to remarkable underwater photography by Brian Stone, reflecting the coastal waters of Ireland and beyond. Brian has an enormous output of work providing a fascinating view of life under the surface of our oceans. The photography will be projected on a constant loop throughout the afternoon. This work will celebrate the work of Maude Delap, a pioneer self-taught marine biologist who made a number of significant contributions to the field, lived on Valentia from a young age until her death in 1953 and had a rare anemone, only found on Valentia Island, named after her: the Edwardsia delapiae.
The winning artist, Seán Ó Dálaigh writes:
Edge is imagined here as the liminality of the tide where land and sea meet creating a cacophony of critters for the senses, like the “heroic jumble of books, specimens, aquaria, with its pervasive low-tide smell”, described by Maude Delap’s nephew in response to his experience of her laboratory. Maude Delap was a self-taught marine biologist from Valentia Island in County Kerry, Ireland. She was the first person to successfully breed jellyfish in captivity in her homemade laboratory. The work takes the form of a sound installation with photography by Brian Stone. The soundtrack is made up of processed field recordings from on Valentia and in the surrounding waters. These undergo fragmentation and re-synthesis to create and entanglement of the under and overwater materials. The installation is a 4-hour performance where I interact with the soundtrack live using electric guitar, violin and objects.
Musical Map
A series of short performances with Q+A with the Festival Performers in a wonderful array of intimate venues throughout the Island.
Venue Danu House, Chapeltown
Bach: Suite for Solo Cello No. 4, Peter Martens
Venue Valentia Island Farmhouse Dairy
Judith Ring (featured composer) in performance and conversation
Venue Atlantic Villa, Knightstown
Young local Artists (voice), mentored by Gavan Ring, in performance
Nocturnes
Venue Church of St. John the Baptist, Knightstown
This concert, featuring music of the night, marks the 100th anniversary of the death of the remarkable Lili Boulanger, a work by the Irish pianist/composer John Field, Amir Tafreshipour’s Irish premiere and the extraordinarily powerful and timeless Verklärte Nacht.
We will also host a pre-concert talk with Iranian composer Amir Tafreshipour
Programme
Lili Boulanger: Nocturne for Violin and Piano
John Field: Nocturne in A major
Amir Mahyar Tafreshipour: Shabahang (Nocturne) (Irish Premiere)
Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) for String Sextet
PERFORMERS
Darragh Morgan (violin), Siripong Albert Tiptan (violin), Mike Kelley (viola), Martha Campbell (viola), Peter Martens (violoncello), David Edmonds (violoncello), Mary Dullea (piano)