On Friday, 20 September, Culture Night, the annual nationwide bustle of cultural activity organised by the Temple Bar Culture Trust, will enter its eight year. Though most of the events do take place in Dublin, regional Culture Nights are dotted around the country, from Belfast to Kerry, and with over 190 organisations taking part in the event, choosing what to go and see can be a challenge in itself. The Journal of Music has picked out some of the most interesting music events taking place so you can spend more time out and about and less time picking your way through the packed brochures, deciding what to see. For full information, visit the Culture Night website.

Dublin

The Contemporary Music Centre, 19 Fishamble Street, Dublin 8, 5pm–10pm.
Composer Karen Power curates an evening of performances wherein ‘each piece of music unfolds throughout [the night]’. With music by Anna Murray, Marian Ingoldsby, Kerry Hagan and Rob Canning.

The Coach House, Dublin Castle, Dublin 2, 8pm–10pm.
Music Network host a performance by two former recipients of the Young Musicwide Award – the Chatham Saxophone Quartet and Lauren Kinsella’s group Thought-Fox.

Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, Dublin 2, 7pm–10pm.
The RTÉ Concert Orchestra present an open air concert including a ‘Fanfare for Culture’ commissioned from Irish composer Stephen Gardner.

Na Píobairí Uilleann, 15 Henrietta Street, Dublin 1, 6pm–11pm.
Visitors to the offices of the organisation that promotes the uilleann pipes will receive a guided tour of their Georgian building. Uilleann pipe performances will also take place.

Club na Múinteorí, 36 Parnell Square West, Dublin 1, 9.30pm–11pm.
All are welcome to An Góilín, a long-running club for unaccompanied traditional singing, which takes place most Friday nights throughout the year.

Royal Irish Academy of Music, 36 Westland Row, Dublin 2, 5pm–11pm.
Open rehearsals and performances from young musicians are on offer at the RIAM. Watch out for the sound installation in the foyer by Irish composer Jonathan Nangle.

Windmill Lane Recording Studios, 20 Ringsend Road, Dublin 4, 5pm–11pm.
Get a look at the studios where artists such as U2, the Cranberries, ACDC and the Spice Girls have recorded. Visitors can also sit in on a live performance.

The National Concert Hall, Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, 6pm–10pm.
Organist David Adams opens proceedings here with a concert of Liszt and Schumann. This is followed by performances by RTÉ Cór na nÓg and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra for more Schumann and Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony. Samba drumming sessions are also on offer.

RHA, 15 Ely Place, Dublin 2, 7.30pm.
The National Chamber Choir performs works by Irish composer Jennifer Walshe’s recent work The White Noise, a piece that requires the singers to use wind-up toys, records, fire blankets, headphones and sunglasses. Music by Steve Martland is also on the programme.

Rest of Ireland

Wheelworks ArtCart, Donegall Street, Belfast, 6pm–8pm.
The Fruit and Veg Orchestra has ‘banana brass, sweet potato strings and parsnip percussion’ sections. Anyone aged seven and upward can participate; no musical experience necessary.

TBA Speakeasy, 59 Dublin Street, Carlow, 7pm to late.
DJ Billy Ó Hanluain (who was resident DJ in Sin É in Dublin for years) plays music from the 1920s in this restored seventeenth-century coaching inn.

Rollercoaster Records, Kieran Street, Kilkenny, 7.30pm to late.
Cat Dowling performs in this small record shop. Did you know that Dave Grohl once bought records by the Pixies and Sonic Youth in this shop – described by its owner as ‘happiest little record shop in the world’ – when he was touring Ireland?

46 Port Road, Letterkenny, County Donegal, 6pm–9.15pm.
The Errigal Groove Orchestra opens an evening of music on the plaza next to An Grianán, the local arts centre. The County Donegal Youth Orchestra then performs a varied programme including an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Little Prince by Vincent Kennedy and Little John Nee. This is followed by a performance by the Donegal Intergenerational Music Ensemble, led by Irene Donnelly.

The Model, The Mall, Sligo, 9pm to late.
The Resound project brings together composer Linda Buckley, cellist Kate Ellis, musician and songwriter Laura Sheeran, multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, fiddle player and composer Adrian Hart, Chequerboard (aka. Alan Lambert), visual artist Rory Tangney and poet Billy Ramsell. The group will be performing in various spaces around the Model venue.

South Tipperary County Arts Service and County Museum, Mick Delahunty Square, Clonmel, County Tipperary, 7.30pm–9pm.
Roisín O’Grady (soprano), Eamon Sweeney (Baroque guitar) and Malachy Robinson (violone) perform music from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with a programme conceptually built around the recent find of gold coins at Carrick-on-Suir. Robinson recently featured on The Journal of Music podcast, talking about a similar early music project.

Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, 8pm to late.
The Dublin Guitar Quartet tour reaches Bray with music by the American composer Philip Glass. Group member Brian Bolger recently told The Journal of Music that hardest thing about arranging Glass’s music for guitars is ‘making a forte sound like a forte’. Read the full interview .