Category Archives: composers

Superbos!

Posted on 6 December 2011 by

Last night was the performance of Bach’s Magnificat and it was such fun. We met at the concert hall at 4.15 and went through the programme with the organist and the orchestra. We stood on the stage (five rows, I … Continue reading →

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Notes tremendous thundered out

Posted on 22 November 2011 by

Today is St Cecilia’s Day, the patron saint of music. It’s also the day Benjamin Britten was born. One of his compositions, the ‘Ode To Saint Cecilia’ (from whence comes the title of this blog post), is a setting for … Continue reading →

Posted in Brilliant, composers, composition, forthcoming events, New Dublin Voices and other choral singing, Technical, what I'm up to | 1 Comment

Scorn Not His Simplicity

Posted on 13 July 2011 by

My Dad was a big fan of Phil Coulter. He was at Queen’s at the same time as Phil and liked to tell us about the time Phil locked him and a bunch of other students in a room on … Continue reading →

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Ecstasy

Posted on 24 May 2011 by

John Adams gave the commencement speech at Juilliard this week, where he was being presented with an honorary doctorate (along with the amazing Herbie Hancock—if you love music, get his album ‘The Imagine Project’). It’s a great speech about being … Continue reading →

Posted in Brilliant, composers, Intellectual | Leave a comment

Cuban Landscape with Rain

Posted on 16 May 2011 by

A beautiful performance of Leo Brouwer’s ‘Cuban Landscape with Rain’ by Dublin Guitar Quartet. I came across Leo Brouwer’s work while helping catalogue guitar music at The Victorian Music Library in Melbourne in November. One afternoon I popped out for … Continue reading →

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I *Was* Glad…

Posted on 10 March 2011 by

Today I sang Hubert Parry’s anthem, ‘I Was Glad’, with St Ann’s choir for a service to mark the commencement of the newly-elected Irish parliament (Dáil Éireann). Parry was born in 1848, an explosive year in Europe, not least in … Continue reading →

Posted in composers, lovely performances, New Dublin Voices and other choral singing, reviews and reports, what I'm up to | 2 Comments

Extraordinary table drumming

Posted on 21 February 2011 by

Freya Schreurs, a friend of mine who used to sing with New Dublin Voices, posted this video on Facebook. I love it! Beautifully executed and it sounds great. The piece is by Belgian composer Thierry de Mey and is called … Continue reading →

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Steve Reich talks about composition

Posted on 21 January 2011 by

This lovely little video appeared on Twitter today. It’s by the London Sinfonietta, who are soon performing Steve Reich’s ‘Music For 18 Musicians’ with the composer. It’s really a video programme note – Reich explains the genesis and history of … Continue reading →

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Pride, Prejudice, Piano, Perfect

Posted on 1 July 2010 by

I found the big music shop in Sydney – Allan’s on Pitt Street. Downstairs: guitars, drums and such (I got three sets of Martin guitar strings for the price of two PLUS a very compressed t-shirt!). Upstairs is sheet music, … Continue reading →

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The Mornington Singers

Posted on 16 May 2010 by

I went to a concert last night by our choral neighbours, The Mornington Singers. They are conducted by the lovely Orla Flanagan and sang in the marvellous Pro-Cathedral in Dublin. It was my first time in the cathedral (the Catholic … Continue reading →

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