Benjamin Dwyer Lecture and Concerts

Benjamin Dwyer's new multimedia piece Umbilical will premiere on 4 November, and Dwyer will give a lecture at the Royal Irish Academy on 26 October ahead of the premiere.

Irish composer and guitarist Benjamin Dwyer will give a lecture at the Royal Irish Academy of Music on his new chamber piece, Umbilical. Entitled ‘Excavating the Irrational - Music, Narrative and Tragedy’, the lecture will take place tomorrow, Wednesday 26 October, between 11.00 a.m. and 12.30 p.m. in the Recital Room of the Royal Irish Academy of Music.

Umbilical is a multimedia work written for amplified ensemble, Butoh dancer and video. It is a re-working of the Oedipus myth, told from the perspective of Jocasta, Oedipus’ mother and lover. The music was written for an ensemble of Baroque violin, Baroque double bass and harpsichord, and specifically for performers Maya Homburger, Barry Guy and David Adams, respectively, whilst the theatrical and multimedia elements are a collaboration between Dwyer and renowned Butoh dancer Sayoko Onizhi, Irish video artist and photographer David Farrell, archivist Michael Dwyer and theorist Tina Kinsella.

Umbilical will have its world premiere at Rua Red in Tallaght, Co. Dublin, on 4 November, and will be performed again on 5 November. Its musical parts will be heard in these occasions in a specially recorded version.

Following on from the multi-media presentation of the work at Rua Red, Scenes from Umbilical will be performed on 6 November at 12.00 p.m. in the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin. Scenes from Umbilical is a musical suite comprised of the musical score of the multimedia version of Umbilical. Homburger, Guy and Adams will perform the piece live in this concert.

Admission is free to the concert at the Hugh Lane Gallery. Booking can be made with Rua Red for the multimedia events.

www.ruared.ie

Sayoko Onizhi in a publicity still for Umbilical

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Published on 25 October 2011

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