41 Musicians to Take Part in Kaleidoscope Nationwide Tour

Austrian yodelling fiddler Claudia Schwab, who will perform in Kaleidoscope in Carrick-on-Shannon on 23 April.

41 Musicians to Take Part in Kaleidoscope Nationwide Tour

Mike Nielsen, Neil O'Loghlen's The Cuar Trio, Claudia Schwab, Gerry O’Connor, Chatham Saxophone Quartet, ConTempo Quartet and many more will take part in the six concerts.

Kaleidoscope – the salon-style monthly concert usually based in Dublin – is undertaking a tour of Ireland this February, March and April with a diverse range of concerts. 

Each concert has a different programme that is creatively tailored to the region in which it is taking place. Overall the tour comprises 41 performers and includes work by Irish and international composers, classical, contemporary, jazz and traditional musicians. Karen Dervan, who co-curates Kaleidoscope with Lioba Petrie, describes their approach:

Typically as curators we try not to look up in case there’s a logistical ceiling up there that would halt our curatorial gallop! So this admittedly crazy approach means that we just make things happen, no matter what. It has to be this way – the performers and the audience benefit when we disregard ceilings.

The first concert takes place in Killiskey in Ashford, Co. Wicklow, tomorrow (13 February) and includes improvisations by Mike Nielsen and early music by Sonamus Ensemble and the Stickleback Singers; Limerick on 25 February will feature work by Bill Whelan, Dave Flynn and Anne-Marie O’Farrell, with performances from ConTempo Quartet, singer/accordionist Brendan Begley, piper Mick O’Brien and soprano Colette Delahunt; Belfast on 2 March features a world premiere by Greg Caffrey plus a ‘short but riotous’ work by Brian Irvine as well as Steve Reich’s New York Counterpoint – performers include the Chatham Saxophone Quartet, Elizabeth Hilliard, Laoise O’Brien and Aimee Farrell Courtney; Ennis on 15 April includes Neil O’Loghlen’s new ensemble, The Cuar Trio, which features clarinetist Matthew Berill and violinist Aoife Ní Bhriain, plus the Stickleback Singers, and ConTempo will perform a work by Gerald Barry; on 23 April in Carrick-on-Shannon, Kaleidoscope present Austrian yodelling fiddler Claudia Schwab with soprano/guitar duo Deirdre Moynihan and Alec O’Leary, plus Chatham Quartet performing the music of Ian Wilson; in Drogheda on 28 April, there will be works by Derek Ball, Boccherini and Rachel Holstead. Holstead’s work, Ardee Dances, features traditional fiddler Gerry O’Connor and violinist Marja Gaynor. 

Dervan adds:

In curating these six unique tour programmes, we pretty much started at the ‘imagine if we could do that’ point, particularly in the case of our festival programmes, Limerick and Drogheda. 

As well as the nationwide tour, Kaleidoscope also presents two concerts in the Bello Bar in Dublin (2 March and 6 April) that include a new work by Ian Wilson called Fuil is Uisce; Kate Bush songs in the Irish language; Francesco Turrisi’s Taquin Ensemble, Cassiopeia Winds, Alex Petcu, Kate Ellis, and singer Ruth McGill with pianist Niall Kinsella.

For full details on all concerts, visit http://www.kaleidoscopenight.com

Published on 12 February 2016

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