An ensemble including students of the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) and musicians with intellectual disabilities has created a new work that has been included in the National Library of Ireland’s (NLI) National Collection.

Led by composer Karen Power, the ensemble comprises a group of five musicians living with intellectual disabilities – Adrian Conaghan, Ailis Colgan, Rory Donnelly, Alannah Kelly and David Banfield – and five RIAM composition students – Jack Doyle, Aoife Goodison-Lawlor, Rohan Harron, Max Matthews and Aoife O’Donovan. Their new work, Sounding the Hidden at the NLI, was inspired by the library and its sounds, using acoustic instruments, tablets as digital instruments and field recordings. 

‘The composition is based on the audible and inaudible sounds of the magnificent NLI space,’ said Power. ‘Our aim was to offer time and space for people of differing abilities to create on equal footing, to try to break with assumptions about what we all think music is and can be. What better way to achieve this than by beginning with listening and specifically placing focus on a living and culturally significant place – the NLI.’

To create the work, the members of the ensemble spent a day sourcing and recording sounds from the library during its regular opening hours. The group then came together after recording to co-create a piece of music in response to the recorded sounds, incorporating the recordings into the final composition. The piece was then premiered by the group at the NLI earlier this month. 

Commenting on the project, Director of RIAM Deborah Kelleher said:

Our work with our shared ensemble for the Sounding the Hidden at the NLI project has challenged how we approach what we do across institutions and disciplines when it comes to making music together… At its heart, this work is about co-creation, deep listening and the unfailing creativity of the human – the musicians themselves are the composers and collaborators, and they work on every aspect of the piece together.

‘We understand that this composed piece, co-created by a diverse group of talented musicians, is the first of its kind to be added to a National Library Collection possibly anywhere in the world,’ she added.

Dr Audrey Whitty, Director of the National Library of Ireland, said:

People think of a library as a silent place, and yet this group of composers have weaved together a soundscape from the hum of constant activity inside and outside our historic walls.

There is something very meaningful and beautiful about the work produced by this group of musicians, and we could not be prouder to accept it as part of our National Collections so it can be accessed for years to come.

The NLI’s National Collection includes over twelve million items that preserve Ireland’s heritage and culture including books, manuscripts, newspapers, photographs, prints, maps, drawings, ephemera, music and digital media. The library is open free of charge to all those who wish to consult the collections. 

For further information on the Sounding the Hidden at the NLI project, visit www.riam.ie.

Subscribe to our newsletter.