Focus
The Importance of Ensembles to the New Music Scene
The Music Current contemporary festival was held at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin last week from 2 to 6 April and featured TAK Ensemble, Dublin Sound Lab, Black Page Orchestra, Nadar Ensemble and lovemusic collective. Adrian Smith reviews.
The Return of the Bothy Band
TG4 has broadcast a new documentary film on the reformed 1970s group The Bothy Band including interviews and a performance in Dublin. Adrian Scahill reviews.
Bringing to Light a Forgotten Anglo-Irish Composer
Harpsichordist, conductor and musicologist Bridget Cunningham has just released an album of work by the eighteenth-century Anglo-Irish composer Thomas Roseingrave. James Camien McGuiggan reviews.
Marking the Loss of Traditional Music Listening Spaces
A new film on a renowned Irish traditional music pub in Dublin, 'Brendan Gleeson’s Farewell to Hughes’s', has recently been released. Adrian Scahill reviews.
SXSW Protest is About More than Palestine
The protest by ten Irish bands at SXSW in Austin, Texas, was about the crisis in Palestine, but it is also about more than that, writes Toner Quinn.
The Erotic and the Murderous: Irish National Opera's 'Salome'
Irish National Opera's production of Richard Strauss' 'Salome' opened on 12 March at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre. Adrian Smith reviews.
Catherine Martin's Prime Opportunity to Protect Irish Music
Appointing a board member to RTÉ who has musical expertise is crucial to try and safeguard the Irish music scene, writes Toner Quinn.
A Fight for Power and Wealth: 'Possession' at the Project Arts Centre
'Possession', a new operatic work by the artist Amanda Coogan and composer Linda Buckley, based on a script by the deaf artist Teresa Deevy, ran at the Project Arts Centre from 21 to 24 February. Adrian Smith reviews.
Bringing an Irish Dimension to the Bach Cello Suites
Ailbhe McDonagh has just released a recording of the complete Bach solo Cello Suites, the first Irish cellist to do so. James Camien McGuiggan reviews.
The Forgotten Influences on Pianists and Composers of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
A new book by Gabriela Mayer, 'The Art of the Unspoken', explores how rhetoric, linguistic parallels and the singing voice were understood by pianists and composers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and how performers can interpret these aspects today. James Camien McGuiggan reviews.