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The IAYO National Chamber Music Workshops
IAYO has been a long-time advocate of the benefits of chamber music and has run a chamber music weekend course for fourteen years. Chamber music increases players’ standard and ability to play their instrument in ensembles as well as having lots of fun and making new friends.
The workshops are weekend residential courses for junior strings, woodwind and brass which took place this year in Kenmare on the weekend of 17th and 18th October 2015. A piano trio from the Mallow and Kinsale centres attended the workshops this year. They don't have a name yet but from left to right is Selena McCarthy (Violin), Caoimhe Cronin (Cello) and Eva Crowley (Piano). They are taught by Lisa O’Brien, Yvonne McCarthy and Ruth O’Shea.
Meitheal Irish Traditional Summer School
This summer, I was given an amazing opportunity to attend Meitheal Summer School where I got to spend a week living and breathing traditional Irish music in Limerick surrounded by amazing musicians of my age being taught by incredible tutors.
Meitheal is an intensive traditional music camp which takes place for a week every summer. The week was packed with classes including masterclass taught by Liam O’Brien and Dr. Tim Collins, orchestra taught by Dr. Ryan Molloy, arrangement which was taught by Séan O’Meara and composition taught by Dr. Ryan Molloy. It was a privilege to be tutored by these amazing musicians.
From Monday to Thursday we had one orchestra class, two master classes, one composition class and one arrangement class. After our last class each day, the evening activities would vary.
On Monday after arrangement, the tutors performed for us. A solo competition then took place and after that, we got to play a table quiz which was based around traditional music questions.
On Tuesday after arrangement, we had an extra orchestra practice, the solo final took place and then we all came together to enjoy a well-earned music session!
On Wednesday, we had an arrangement recital. A group contest then took place and then we took part In what is called 'Anything Goes'. 'Anything Goes' is basically a talent show run by a few older students where we get to perform our hidden talents. We all enjoyed listening to some Sean Nós singing, some lilting, some instrumental performances, while also watching some brush dancing, set dancing, which I took part in and also some Irish dancing. 'Awards' such as best dressed, longest hair, best hair were also presented after we all took part in an anonymous questionnaire.
On Thursday, we had a composition recital where we got to perform the pieces we composed in class. There was also a composition competition available to those who had previously written their own pieces. We had a class recital where we performed tunes we learned in our masterclass. We got to enjoy a trad disco which was a disco based on traditional music and afterwards we got to enjoy some pizza after much dancing!
Friday was a little bit different! We had orchestra and arrangement practice ahead of our big performance at the Lime Tree Theatre. We were then split into two different groups for the sound check. Then we enjoyed our last meal together. We all travelled to the Theatre and had a group orchestra sound check. During this time we also got recorded to take part in the 'Virtual Orchestra' which will be played in Sligo during the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann 2015. Each arrangement group performed their pieces which they had been practicing in class. The tutors performed a number of pieces together showing off there exceptional talent and skills. We then performed our orchestra pieces to a packed theatre followed by a set of reels played with the tutors.
The orchestral piece 'Meithealated Spirits' was composed, directed, performed and conducted by Dr. Ryan Molloy whom I also had the pleasure of being part of his composition class.
As being part of the Meitheal orchestra 2015, I will be performing in the University Concert Hall, Limerick, In October as part of the Irish World Academy Concert.
Many students also received awards such as Meitheal Scholarships for Meitheal 2016, performances at Music Festivals around Ireland and also a place in the Comhaltas Tour, appearances on Fleadh TV, gigs at the Fleadh and scholarships to the Gaeltacht 2016.
Overall, I had an amazing experience at Meitheal 2015. I got to meet some great people and made new friends along the way. I got taught by skilled and talented tutors and I would like to thank my parents Siobhan and David Twomey, my teacher Noreen O'Connor and the principal of the County Cork School of Music, Carol Daly for giving me this wonderful opportunity and, as I have already started saving, I will return next year. Niamh Twomey
Mallow News
Trip to Croatia
Aine and Liam Kelleher from the Mallow centre travelled to Croatia in July as part of a larger group from Cuisle Avondhu. The trip consisted of groups from four countries, Croatia, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ireland. Every night one of the four groups organised a presentation with games and dances from their area. We all learned new tunes, songs and dances from each group. We stayed in Lovran which was very hot but luckily there was a beach nearby. We performed in the square in Lovran with our new friends and enjoyed the music of an amazing orchestra as well. Soon our trip was at an end and we said goodbye to Croatia and our new friends. Aine Kelleher
Trip to Italy
For a week in August, Mallow students Joshua Sheahan, Eoghan O’Leary- Fitzpatrick and Colin Roche joined 7 other musicians from Cuisle Avondhu to travel to Pescina in Italy to perform with Orchestra Di Fiata I Leoncini D’Abbruzzo.
We were greeted with a warm musical welcome which was nicely surprising. On our second day we met the Mayor of Pescina. On the days that followed, we travelled to neighbouring towns, performing with our Italian friends, eating delicious Italian food with our hosts and taking on the Italians in soccer! We were welcomed at the Music ‘conservatorio’ in L’Aquila and on our second last day we were blown away by the Orchestra D’Abbruzzo’s unexpected rendition of ‘Amhrán na bhFiann’ at our final concert. They invited us up on stage to join them singing our anthem as they played. It was a memorable night and one of the best musical experiences we have been part of to date. Joshua & Eoghan
Tom’s Tales
A young lady pianist had announced a recital (in Berlin) advertising herself (in the hope of attracting a larger audience) as a ‘pupil of Franz Liszt’. As she had never laid eyes upon him in her life, she was horrified to read in the paper on the morning of her concert that Liszt himself had arrived in the city. The only thing to be done was to make a clean breast of it; she went to his hotel and asked for an interview. When she was shown in she confessed with many tears, and asked for absolution. Liszt asked her the name of the pieces she was going to play, chose one and made her sit down at the piano and play it. Then he gave her some hints about her performance, and dismissed her with a pat on the cheek, and remark, ‘Now, my dear, you can call yourself a pupil of Liszt.’
Sarah Murphy's tattoo experience after facing breast cancer and early menopause
by Catherine Shanahan.
This is an excerpt from the Feel Good supplement of the Irish Examiner
“My whole life I wanted a tattoo, I have always loved body art. Initially I was going for something discreet, pretty, behind the ear, a small pink ribbon. But then I thought ‘no, this is what I want’.”
Our own Sarah Murphy has been through the wars in the last few years. She recently got a bold defiant tattoo on her arm, a rebellious response to the cancer that stopped her in her tracks.
Her own discovery that she had a tumour has a familiar ring. She was towelling off post-shower when she thought “hang on there, I’m actually feeling a lump”.
“From that moment I knew in my heart that it was cancer. Call it women’s intuition, but I just knew.” Sarah says. That was December 2011.
Anxious not to spoil the family Christmas she did nothing about the lump until the New Year. On January 4, she went to her GP who made an immediate appointment with a consultant surgical oncologist at the Bon Secours Hospital in Cork.
She went with her mum to the Bons on January 9 where she says the “running on the hampster wheel began”. She was sent for a mammogram, then an ultrasound, followed by a needle biopsy. Further biopsies were taken from under her arm. She had to wait a week for the results.
“That was one tough week to put down. I wanted to prepare mum and dad for the possibility that it was cancer, but I didn’t know how.
“So the week more or less went like this: They would say ‘It’ll be great to get the results and put it all behind us’ and I would say ‘Yeah, it will, but let’s not discount entirely the possibility of bad news’. We were all worried, but in true Irish fashion, none of us really had the words.”
It was business as usual for Sarah during that week. A music teacher with the Cork Educational and Training Board School of Music, she teaches violin to students in Carrigaline and Glanmire.
On January 16, Sarah received the bad news. Her main concern was for her mum. “I could see that the actual words came as a huge shock. She was scheduled to have a lumpectomy on January 19.
Once the surgery results were back, a treatment plan would be formulated. The consultant said I’d have one really horrible year of treatment but then I would return to my life. So the prognosis was really quite good to my ears,” she says.
The cancer diagnosis brought some immediate changes. Sarah packed up and moved back home. She also told her friends. “Some handled it well and others didn’t,” she says.
Family support was invaluable, she says, from the black humour of younger brother Mark which she says sustained her throughout, to the surprise trip home from California by older brother Neil, to sister Ruth who came home from Boston for her first day of chemo and her sister Rachel who was there to offer support closer to home. Her parents were outstanding: her mother went out of her way to make meals tempting “and really researched the area of diet while on chemo”, while “Dad became the juicing king”.
Surgery went well. A week after she was told there were “clear margins” (no cancer) in the area around the tumour but a little evidence of activity in the lymph nodes, necessitating chemotherapy and radiotherapy. “At that stage I was just so glad that I didn’t have to have any more surgery that everything else sounded fine to me. Of course it was a little trickier in reality.”
In fact, it was substantially trickier. Her oncologist, acutely aware of the need to preserve full-arm mobility to allow Sarah carry on teaching violin, “really researched” her case, she says, because chemo can cause peripheral neuropathy leading to numbness and pins and needles, and he was anxious to avoid that. He did a terrific job, Sarah says. She continues to teach violin.
There were many challenges on her treatment journey: the sickness brought on by the drugs, the crushing fatigue and the hair loss. She took the hair loss in her stride and found the process of choosing a wig “quite fascinating”. She decided to have her head shaved as soon as her hair started to fall out “to take some of the control back”.
She had 18 sessions of radiotherapy at Cork University Hospital which she describes as “a walk in the park” compared to chemo. She also started taking tamoxifen. It amplified the cruellest of the chemo side-effects, a chemically induced menopause.
“So there were all the usual things like mood swings and bloody hot flushes”, Sarah says, but also the devastating end to dreams of ever having a family. “Of course I would have loved to have had a family but I’m here. I tend not to dwell on it too much; it is out of my control now.”
Sarah has just over two years to go before receiving the final all-clear (it takes five years). Her biggest regret is not going for counselling. She coped well while treatment was ongoing but struggled when that “safety net” was taken away. “People say to you ‘you’re back to normal now’, but you’re not. It’s almost like you’re going through a grieving process, for what you were before the cancer got you. You’re supposed to feel you’ve been given a second chance but I didn’t feel it. The spectre of re-occurrence looms over you and it can be quite overwhelming.”
She felt guilt that her parents, in their 70s, had to witness their daughter “lying on the couch, bald, sweating, pasty-faced”. There were some lingering physical side effects such as slight cognitive dysfunction, a little joint pain and slight nerve damage.
Nonetheless, in January this year, Sarah says she “turned a corner” psychologically. “I actually feel happy now and I’m a much better person. I see and appreciate every small thing.”
Clonakilty Brass Band
Photos are from Clonakilty Brass Band’s annual concert which was held in Dunmore House Hotel during the summer.
Students of Maria Mulcahy from the Ballincollig Centre at their summer concert.
Upcoming events
CAOS ensemble is a brand new “pop-up” music ensemble experience for any instrument, any level, and any age. We encourage cross-generational participation and welcome individual musicians, family combinations, and anyone with an interest in creative and spontaneous music-making to join in.
Under the expert guidance of composer, saxophonist and educator, Nick Roth, and following on from a hugely successful partnership with the Dublin Dance Festival in May, CAOS will collaborate with Cork Film Festival on 14th November 2015 to create and improvise soundtracks to scenes and footage specially selected by the Festival. Email education@nch.ie for booking
Saturday 14th November 2015, Triskel Arts Centre, Cork:
Rehearsal 1 – 4pm; Performance at 5pm
Participant fee: €15
Performance tickets: €5 available from Triskel Arts Centre, Cork
Martin Hayes and Denis Cahill in concert on Friday 13th November 8.30pm at the Ionad Culturtha, Baile Mhúirne. Further information from 026 – 45733 and at www.ionadculturtha.ie, on Saturday 14th November at 8 pm at the Inkwell Theatre, Minane Bridge - further information at www.tractonarts.org and at the Grainstore at Ballymaloe on Sunday 15th November at 8 pm - further information at www.thegrainstoreatballymaloe.com
Abbeystrewry Church, Skibbereen presents ‘For the Love of Singing’, the premiere of a work by Marian Ingoldsby, commissioned by Music Network featuring Benjamin Appl, baritone, and Gary Matthewman, piano in concert on Sunday 15 November at 3 pm - further information at www.barrahanemusic.ie
As part of the 150th Anniversary of the Church of St. Mary and St. John, Ballincollig, Cantairí Mhuscraí, will sing John Rutter’s Requiem, with Chamber Orchestra on Sunday 22nd November, 2015 at 7.30pm. The profits from this concert will support Marymount Hospice.
The Awards Ceremony will take place on Saturday 12th December at 3pm. The venue is Coláiste Choilm, Ballincollig.
The Ballincollig Intermediate Band is looking forward to its Christmas concert in December with the senior band. It will take place on Sunday December 13th in the Culturlann, Colaiste Choilm at 5pm. All are welcome.
Cork ETB, Cork City Council, Cork County Council present Aiseirí 1916 - featuring Mary Hegarty & Joe Corbett with Cork ETB Youth Orchestra & Pulses of Tradition.
A Special Event on St. Patrick’s Day 2016 which will poignantly remember this important event in Irish History. In Rebel Song and Verse, Cork’s finest raconteurs will honour The Men of Ireland, Mná na hÉireann and the Irish children who lost their lives in the 1916 Rising. It promises to be an informative, engaging and fitting centenary remembrance. Sat, 17 Mar, 8pm €20
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