Clonmel Junction Arts Festival will honour the legacy of the late composer, musician and educator Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin at this year’s event, which takes place from 28 June to 7 July. Born in Clonmel in Co. Tipperary, Ó Súilleabháin is renowned for his interpretations of traditional repertoire on piano, his original music, and the profound impact he had on traditional music education at third level. The festival will host two concerts as well as a panel discussion.

Opening the festival on Friday 28 June is the Fidelio Trio (violinist Darragh Morgan, pianist Mary Dullea and cellist Tim Gill) who will perform four Ó Súilleabháin pieces as well as works by Carolan, Linda Buckley and Irene Buckley.

Fidelio’s association with Ó Súilleabháin goes back to the 1990s when Morgan performed at the Royal Albert Hall with the composer. Ó Súilleabháin subsequently wrote a new work, Fidelio Unsung, for the trio (a commission by RTÉ Lyric FM), provided an arrangement of his classic work Oíche Nollaig, and, a short time before he died, a version of (Must be More) Crispy! for the trio. As well as these three pieces, Dullea will perform Ó Súilleabháin’s version of ‘Port na bPúcaí’. Dullea is Artistic Director of Chamber Music on Valentia and Ó Súilleabháin performed a programme of Carolan at the 2017 festival, one of his last concerts before he died in November 2018 aged 67.

Speaking to the Journal of Music, Morgan said:

We had been working [with Ó Súilleabháin] for about twenty-five years. Right from the beginning I kept saying to him that Crispy would work really well as a piano trio – thinking about Mary’s playing style, us as a trio, and knowing and loving his piano style. … Since I was a child I was influenced by the Dolphin’s Way album. Even before I met him I was very intrigued by his musicality. … [Crispy] was just something special that we had been talking about for a long time.

As part of the concert, Morgan will also perform Exploding Stars for violin and electronics by Linda Buckley, a work that appears on Buckley’s album From Ocean’s Floor, and the Trio will play Irene Buckley’s Stray, which they commissioned. For this work they will be joined by flute player Sarah Allen of the group Flook.

Cork legacy
The following evening, Saturday 29 June, there will be a concert celebrating Ó Súilleabháin’s legacy at University College Cork (UCC). Curated by the composer’s long-time musical collaborator Mel Mercier, the concert will feature music from a number of projects created during Ó Súilleabháin’s time in Cork. Performers include accordion player Bobby Gardiner, bodhrán player Colm Murphy, uilleann piper Mary Mitchell-Ingoldsby, concertina player Niall Vallely and the reformed Rectory Céilí Band. The programme will include music from Aloys Fleischmann’s collection of 6,000 dance tunes and song airs, Sources of Irish Traditional Music c. 1600–1855 (1998), a project that Ó Súilleabháin worked on as Assistant Editor. The concert also features EKLEGO for Tape and Traditional Musicians, which Ó Súilleabháin co-created with a group of UCC students during a weekend of music-making in 1989 at Sulán Studios in Cork.

Finally, on Sunday 30 June at 1pm, there will be a panel discussion with Mercier, Helen Phelan of the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, composer Marian Ingoldsby, and fiddle player Aidan O’Donnell of Music Generation Tipperary. The panelists will discuss Ó Súilleabháin’s work as a lecturer in UCC and as the founder of Irish World Academy.

Commenting on the events, Cliona Maher, Artistic Director of Clonmel Junction Arts Festival, said:

Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin was not only a musical prodigy he was also a visionary, who transcended boundaries, leaving an indelible mark on the world of music and education. His influence resonates deeply with both those who knew him and the next generation of artists and musicians.

For the full festival programme and booking details for all events, visit https://www.junctionfestival.com. 

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