‘Music is nothing really without somebody there to listen to it': Caoimhin Ó Raghallaigh and Cormac Begley Livestream from NCH This Evening

Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and Cormac Begley (Photo: Other Voices)

‘Music is nothing really without somebody there to listen to it': Caoimhin Ó Raghallaigh and Cormac Begley Livestream from NCH This Evening

Concert will be streamed at 8pm tonight; listen back to Ó Raghallaigh’s interview on RTÉ Radio 1 in which he previews the concert.

As part of the National Concert Hall’s Imagining Ireland series, a concert by fiddle-player Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and concertina player Cormac Begley will be livestreamed tonight. The traditional musicians will perform both solo and as a duo.  The livestream will only be available to ticket holders.

In an interview with Seán Rocks on Arena on RTÉ Radio 1 last Friday, Ó Raghallaigh discussed the upcoming performance. ‘Music is nothing really without somebody there to listen to it….. It’s very hard  to find any reason to make music when there’s no audience’, he said of the experience of not being able to perform live since the pandemic began. With live streaming, he said ‘the fact that you are connecting with real people in real time, makes a world of difference’. 

Ó Raghallaigh and Begley have previously performed together as part of the Other Voices series. The fiddle-player first got to know Begley through touring and performing with his father, accordion player Brendan. Commenting on Begley’s playing, he said: 

Cormac is just a really exciting musician, I remember a couple of years ago at the Willie Clancy Week… Cormac played and… the energy in the room, he just built and built and built the energy – people were kind of going crazy! It was really a special thing to witness and I’ve seen him do that again and again. 

Previous concerts in the Imagining Ireland series include the world premiere of Jennifer Walshe’s Ireland: A Dataset, and a concert by hip hop artists Denise Chaila, God Knows and MuRli. On 3 October, Rhiannon Giddens will perform with Francesco Turrisi.

The concert tonight will be live streamed at 8pm and will be available for ticket holders to view online for 24 hours only. Tickets cost €7 and are available to purchase here: https://bit.ly/3kRZHVU

Listen to Ó Raghallaigh’s interview on RTÉ Radio 1 below. 

Published on 30 September 2020

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