The Olllam, Irish National Opera, Wajahat Khan for Galway International Arts Festival

Wajahat Khan

The Olllam, Irish National Opera, Wajahat Khan for Galway International Arts Festival

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The Galway International Arts Festival begins on Monday 16 July and this year features the first performance by the new Irish National Opera in Galway, a reforming of the innovative traditional music band The Olllam, a new group collaboration between Indian sarode player Wajahat Kahn and musician and composer Peadar Ó Riada, plus a wide range of dance, folk, pop and rock acts.

The Olllam, which features John McSherry and Tyler Duncan on pipes and whistles, Joe Dart on bass (from the US funk band Vulfpeck) and Mike Shimmin on drums, released their first album in 2012. Produced by multi-instrumental Duncan, who has worked across jazz, electronic music and pop, the album is a rare mix of all genres. The band performs at Róisín Dubh on 17 July.

Following Powder Her Face and The Marriage of Figaro, Irish National Opera brings its third production, Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, to Galway. Running from 23 to 29 July at the Town Hall Theatre, the cast features Sharon Carty, Sarah Power and Emma Nash. Reviews of INO in its first six months have already remarked on the ‘dynamic, fresh and popular performances’. Orfeo ed Euridice, sung in Italian with English subtitles, will be directed and choreographed by Emma Martin and the Irish Baroque Orchestra will be conducted by Peter Whelan.

Wajahat Khan, son of renowned Indian musician Imrat Kahn and nephew of Ustad Vilayat Khan, will join Peadar Ó Riada and a group of instrumentalists from Irish and Indian traditions on 17 July for an exploratory collaboration. This late-evening concert takes place at St Nicholas’ Church.

For the full music and opera line-up in Galway, see below, or visit www.giaf.ie.

Published on 8 June 2018

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