The Irish Youth Choir seeks singers aged between 18 and 28 to undertake intensive training and professional development. Applicants must be available from Saturday 23rd June to Sunday 1st July inclusive.

Irish Youth Choir – 30 years on song
The Irish Youth Choir (IYC) is delighted to announce an eclectic programme of choral singing for its 2012 special birthday season including a newly commissioned choral work by trailblazing young composer Jonathan Nangle. Under the expert artistic direction of Greg Beardsell, Irish Youth Choir continues to go from strength to strength with 97 members in total last year. Greg Beardsell is building a reputation as one of the most exciting choral conductors in the UK, and has conducted The Irish Youth Choir since 2008.

NOW! The Irish Youth Choir now seeks singers aged between 18 and 28 to undertake intensive training and professional development. Applicants must be available from Saturday 23rd June to Sunday 1st July inclusive. An Application form is provided and further information is available from www.irishyouthchoir.ie Auditions will take place in Sligo on 4 February 2012 with Owen Gilhooley who is currently on tour with OTC’s production of The Magic Flute (Hawks Well Theatre 3 February).

Every summer The Irish Youth Choir comes together for a week of intense rehearsals but this year has the added appeal of the newly commissioned Jonathan Nangle work (see www.jonathannangle.ie) The summer rehearsal course will be delivered by Artistic Director, Greg Beardsell and a team of Irish tutors and vocal coaches.

Young singers from County Sligo who successfully audition for the choir may be eligible to apply to Sligo County Council Arts Grants & Bursaries Scheme 2012 to enable participation in the summer training programme and concerts. Application forms and further details will be available from Rhona McGrath, Sligo County Council Arts Service, County Hall, Riverside, Sligo 071 911 1131 rmcgrath@sligococo.ie website www.sligoarts.ie.

The Irish Youth Chamber Choir will perform on 10 March 2012 in the Canis Major, The Clarion Hotel, Sligo as part of Con Brio’s Sligo Music Series.

Niamh Crowley, violin; Isabelle Herold, flute; Elisabeth Goell, soprano; Sligo Baroque Orchestra €10 (children/students free)

The music industry as a whole faces precarious times, and in such a climate, there is always a danger for less commercial genres to be marginalized to the point of near extinction. It is imperative that we do not let that happen to our traditional music industry, whose roots are so deeply ingrained in our culture and whose heritage paved the way for international success for many artists, not only from within that genre, but from across the musical spectrum

In bringing this sector of the industry together, we seek to explore and establish practices to help ensure that Ireland can continue to successfully produce and export its traditional music to all corners of the globe.

The day will consist of a series of discussion panels covering a range of subjects affecting the industry as it is today, with specific emphasis on how those issues relate to those working within traditional or folk music. The panels, consisting of industry experts, will be aimed to inform, educate and inspire debate on crucial issues. In the ever changing face of the music industry, there is always new information to acquire for newcomers and seasoned professionals alike.

Trad Music in the Digital Age.

A comprehensive discussion around the current digital landscape of the music industry, and its potential future, and in particular how this relates to those working within the fields of traditional and folk music. This panel will discuss the various aspects in which the digital era impacts on our business, including marketing, promotion, retailing, streaming, licensing, copyright protection and social media.

Trad Music at Home.

The panel will look at how traditional music is treated at home in Ireland and ways to maintain and strengthen its significance and opportunities here. What support is available and what support should be available from a cultural, media and industry perspective? Is there still a commercial market for a traditional music act in Ireland?

Trad Music Abroad.

This panel looks at the huge appetite for Irish traditional music across the globe and will discuss ways to maintain and strengthen the demand for our music internationally. What are the best routes for exporting traditional music worldwide, either through retail, marketing, promotion or touring? Are we making the most out of the international market available to us?

Trad Music and Money.

As well as the cultural significance that our traditional music provides, it is important for its future that it remains a commercially viable genre of music. This panel will discuss ways to maintain and strengthen the commercial aspect of our industry. It will look at what available sources there are for funding new projects in the traditional music field as well as the various revenue income streams available to a traditional music artist.

For ticket information please go to;

http://entertainment.ticketsolve.com/shows/126520779/events

www.templebartrad.com

The Hawk’s Well Theatre turned 30 on the 12th of January 2012! Here at the Hawk’s Well we are in celebratory mode. We are celebrating 30 years of fantastic performances from professional and local theatre companies, bands, musicians, comedians and performers. The party to celebrate will take place on Saturday 21st following the final performance of Druid’s Big Maggie. Druid were the first theatre company to perform at the Hawk’s Well when the theatre opened in 1982 with their production of Much Ado About Nothing and we are delighted to have them back to help us celebrate.

On Saturday 21st January at 6.30pm the exhibition ’30 years at the Hawk’s Well’ will be opened. The staff of the theatre have been busy travelling down memory lane and compiling this exhibition of photographs, old programmes and memorabilia from the performances which the theatre has hosted over the decades. The exhibition opens on Saturday 21st and will be on display in the foyer of the theatre for a month.

Garry Hynes, Artistic Director of Druid is the special guest of the theatre on Saturday night and will mark the occasion with a few words at 7pm along with speeches from Gerry McCanny, Chairperson of the Hawk’s Well Theatre, Marie O’Byrne, Director of the theatre, Val Balance from the Arts Council and the Mayor Rosaleen O’Grady.

Following the sold out performance of Big Maggie the Hawk’s Well will open its doors to the public to celebrate 30 years of performance with music from Sligo band Anything Goes in the foyer from 10.30 til late.

As part of the celebrations the Hawk’s Well logo was redesigned by Sligo designer Daragh Stewart whose Mother Pauline Stewart designed the original logo 30 years ago. The theatre’s new website will also be launched on the night.

Celebrations will continue throughout the year with a special Birthday gig every month. The Birthday gig for January is of course Big Maggie followed by Sligo Musical Society’s production of Big Maggie in February, Millennium Forum Productions ‘Carthaginians’ by Frank McGuinness in March and the Kilfenora Céilí Band in April.

Join us every thursday night at Barry’s Public House, Grange at 10pm.
All musicians/ singers welcome for the fireside session.

www.facebook.com/Barryspublichouse

Celtic Connections in Scotland (the largest winter festival in Europe hosting over 2,100 musicians, 300 events, 20 venues over 18 days) hosts a Sligo Live night on Wednesday, 25th January 2012 at St. Andrews In The Square. The Sligo Live showcase, which is now an annual and unique event at Celtic Connections, is part of a partnership between the two festivals where the Scottish festival and the Irish event promote each other in their respective markets.

Marking the second year of Celtic Connections’ partnership with the Sligo Live Festival is another triple bill curated from Ireland’s traditional heartland – and one of its most exciting contemporary hotbeds – reuniting the fabled partnership of pioneering accordionist Máirtin O’Connor with guitarist, singer and fiddler Seamie O’Dowd, as heard on O’Connor’s 2005 album “The Road West”. Aptly-named indie-popsters The Gorgeous Colours channel blues, folk, jazz, soul rock, indie and electronic influences into “a perfect package” of feelgood, danceable and all-round gorgeous sounds” (State.ie). While O’Connor himself has hailed young Sligo natives and Danny Kyle Award winners The JPTrio as “the new cutting edge of fused traditional music”.

Sligo Live is one of the most exciting festivals to emerge in recent times on the international calendar of events.

In a quirky coincidence, the two festival artistic directors are both accordion players with top international acts; Shane Mitchell from the traditional music group Dervish is the Artistic Director of Sligo Live, and Donald Shaw who performs with Scotland’s top traditional act Capercaillie, is Artistic Director of Celtic Connections.

Celtic Connections Artistic Director Donald Shaw said; “We are delighted with our successful partnership with Sligo Live in Ireland. The artistic vision and ethos of Sligo Live is similar to that of Celtic Connections, and we believe this partnership will raise the profile of Sligo Live in Scotland whilst increasing the size of Irish audiences to Celtic Connections, Europe’s largest festival of its type”.

Sligo Live Producer, Rory O’Connor added, “This is a very exciting venture for Sligo Live. The Scottish strand of our 2011 programme, made possible by Creative Scotland, was a huge success; really adding to the vibrancy of Sligo Live in 2011 and introduced a raft of superb Scottish acts to a new audience.

Celtic Connections takes place in Glasgow from 19th January to 5th February 2012, for full festival details see; www.celticconnections.com. Sligo Live will take place over the Irish October bank holiday weekend from 24th until 29th October 2012. Full details and announcements soon see www.sligolive.ie A limited number of early bird weekend tickets for all Sligo Live shows at last year’s price of €95 are available from www.sligolive.ie and the Hawk’s Well Theatre (phone 00 353 71 916 1526). Special hotel special offers are also available.

Visitors have the opportunity to combine the Festival’s music and craic with many of the year round activities Sligo has to offer; Ireland’s best Surfing beaches, Hill and Forest walks, Seaweed baths, Boating, Fishing, Sailing, Camping, Golf, Music Archives, and an array of activities to tantalise young minds. Knock Ireland West Airport has a convenient network of flights from Edinburgh, Stansted, Liverpool, Manchester, Luton, Bristol, East Midlands, Gatwick and Birmingham. Ireland West is only 45 minutes from Sligo.

JAPE PLAYS THE MODEL JAN 21^ST 2012

AS PART OF IRISH TOUR

Fresh from delighting international audiences with their energetic live show, Jape is set to embark on a nationwide Irish tour in January and February 2012, following the success of 2011′s critically acclaimed album Ocean of Frequency (featuring current single Scorpio), released on music/is/for/losers.

The album has received much critical acclaim being named Irish album of the year by The Sunday Times and lisyted one of Ireland’s top albums for 2011 by The Irish Independent.

Using an innovative mix of live instruments, hardware samplers and sequencers, the band knits together an eclectic blend of meticulously crafted lyrics and electronic rhythms that flit comfortably across a myriad of genres.

Since winning the Choice Music Prize in 2008 for the critically acclaimed ‘Ritual’, Jape has toured extensively and quietly produced an array of new material, culminating in the release of the career-defining 4th album, Ocean of Frequency, on September 30th, 2011.

Jape began making music in 2003. Originally started as the solo project of Richard Egan (The Redneck Manifesto, VisionAir), the band has evolved over the years into one of the most exciting live acts in the country, not to mention releasing 3 critically acclaimed albums to date

Jape will perform at The Model on Saturday, 21st January at 8 pm. Tickets are 15 / 12 and available at www.themodel.ie.

Music Network Presents, ‘The Teetotallers’ Début Tour, Featuring Acclaimed Fiddler Martin Hayes with Kevin Crawford (flute, whistles, bodhrán), and John Doyle (vocals, guitar, bouzouki, mandola) at Hawk’s Well Theatre, Temple Street, Sligo on Sunday 22nd January.

‘If someone told me about a new trio comprising Martin Hayes, Kevin Crawford, and John Doyle, I would have replied: keep dreaming. Yet that’s exactly what we have: a dream team made real’.

Earle Hitchner, Irish Echo

Be among the first to hear the newly formed trad supergroup, The Teetotallers, made up of TG4 Gradam Ceoil Traditional Musician of the Year, Martin Hayes, on fiddle, acclaimed flute player Kevin Crawford from Lúnasa, and Grammy award nominee and guitar maestro John Doyle in what is sure to be one of the musical highlights of 2012 at Hawk’s Well Theatre, Temple Street, Sligo on Sunday 22nd January at 8PM. Tickets priced €15 are available at Tel. 071 9161518 / www.hawkswell.com. This concert is promoted by Music Network and the Hawk’s Well Theatre.

Music Network tours provide a wonderful opportunity to see some of the world’s foremost musicians at affordable prices in venues around Ireland, and are presented in association with RTÉ lyric fm.  Music Network is funded by the Arts Council. Further information from (01) 671 9429 or www.musicnetwork.ie.

Where to start? One of the most important Irish musicians of his generation, fiddler Martin Hayes had picked up six all-Ireland championships by the age of 19 before setting off on an musical odyssey that has brought his lyrical east Clare sound into the worlds of jazz, film, theatre and modern dance.

Virtuoso multi-instrumentalist Kevin Crawford has been a key member of two of Ireland’s most celebrated instrumental bands, Moving Cloud and Lúnasa. Awash with plaudits for his solo albums, the former Irish Echo Artist of the Year has also collaborated with the likes of Grianán, Raise the Rafters, Joe Derrane, Natalie Merchant, Susan McKeown and Sean Tyrrell.

Dubliner John Doyle’s filigree finger-picking guitar style is the perfect foil for the understated mastery of Hayes and Crawford. A founding member of Irish-American band Solas and recently bandleader for the Joan Baez band, Doyle received a Grammy nomination in 2009 for his collaboration with Chicago fiddler Liz Carroll, Double Play. And did we mention Doyle’s tenor vocals and cracking bouzouki and mandolin playing? Simply unmissable.
Martin Hayes, fiddle, viola
Kevin Crawford, flute, whistles, bodhrán
John Doyle, vocals, guitar, bouzouki, mandola

Sunday 22nd January, Sligo
Hawk’s Well Theatre, 8 pm
Tickets €15
Booking Tel. No. 071 9161518 / www.hawkswell.com
Promoted by Hawk’s Well Theatre

This special double bill performance also has a Sligo/Leitrim connection as Joyced! is written by Dromahair based Donal O’Kelly and performed by his daughter Katie while Songs of Joyce features Sligo native Darina Gallager, whose father Lionel was one of the original Board Members of the Hawk’s Well Theatre.

Joyced! Directed by Sorcha Fox shows us James Joyce as you’ve never seen him before and includes a whirlwind love affair, gunfire, music, rejection, flight and boater hats!

Joyced! looks back at 1904 through the eyes of JoJo, a stallholder in Dublin’s Rathmines Market, with a dangerous obsession for all things Joycean. JoJo careers like a person possessed through the full gamut of 1904 James Joyce: – his battles with his mad dad, his bronze medal win for singing in the Feis, a crazed night of gunfire in the Sandycove Tower, his rescue from Monto mayhem by the man who became Bloom and his passion for Nora Barnacle and their fabled walk on 16th June.

It is a chaotic, exciting, whirlwind odyssey through the people, events and year that would later become famous in Ulysses.

It’s just been announced that Katie O’Kelly’s solo show Joyced! has won a bursary award for the prestigious Hendrick’s Horseless Carriage venue in the Brighton Fringe Festival May 2012. Only three awards were handed out, and it means that Katie’s show will run for ten performances in the third largest fringe festival in the world, and will be reviewed in all the major British papers. It’s a major achievement for an Irish artist to win this award.

Songs of Joyce is a musical extravaganza of songs drawn from the life and works of James Joyce. Sinead Murphy and Sligo native Darina Gallagher bring their own particular earthy brand of harmonies to some of the best-loved popular songs of the early 20th century – from bawdy street ballads and sea shanties to music hall hits and folksongs. Including the cheeky `Seaside Girls’, the nostalgic `Love’s Old Sweet Song’, the pertinent `The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo’ and the beauty of Michael Balfe’s `I Dreamt That I Dwelt in Marble Halls’. This delightful production has toured to critical acclaim throughout Ireland and internationally to the UK, USA and Russia.
“A Joycean feast of music hall memories” “delightful” “ ”
Anne Madden, The Belfast Telegraph

“comic joy – with a real sense of joie de vivre.”
Alan Chadwick, Scottish Herald

“a rare insight into the contemporary popular music that haunted James Joyce’s imagination “
Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman

“a very pleasant saunter into the world of Edwardian music hall”
London Mail on Sunday

The price of this special double bill performance is €15 and €12 concession. A special early bird rate of €10 is available if you book your tickets before the 9th of January! Book online at www.hawkswell.com or phone the Hawk’s Well Box Office on 071 916 1518.

Sat 31 Dec. 9pm 12
Performance by Seamie O’Dowd and Guests
Booking and Info: www.themodel.ie / 071 – 914 1405
Tickets on sale now!

Seamie O’Dowd, along with Cathy Jordan, Rick Epping, Aminah Hughes, Seamie Mc Gowan, Donal Cunnane, Tommy Kivlehan and special guest Rory O’Dowd, will present what promises to be a wonderfully varied and enjoyable night of acoustic and electric music for New Year’s Eve. Performing in The Model, this special collective will provide a range of driving, acoustic blues to poetic, evocative folk balladry; rootsy American old time to Irish traditional; and a climactic conclusion of electric rock and blues from some of the finest musicians around.

These performers have come together for this once-off event to ring in 2012 in a musical feast of styles and Sligo talent.
Seamie O’Dowd began honing his musical trade on the local scene in Sligo during the 1980s and subsequently brought his music around the globe through his work with Mairtin O’Connor and Cathal Hayden, world renowned trad band Dervish, traditional piping legend Liam O’Flynn, Australian guitar legend Tommy Emmanuel and many others.

Cathy Jordan has been a leading light in Sligo’s music scene since her arrival from Roscommon many years ago. She achieved international status as the singer with Dervish while still in her twenties and has collaborated with countless musicians in numerous concerts and projects worldwide over the last twenty years.

Rick Epping is quite simply a musical volcano. A world-class harmonica player, he has also been one of Hohner’s main designers of instruments for years. A pioneer of the exploration of musical common ground between Ireland and America many years before it came into vogue, Rick has performed, worked, and jammed with everyone from Stevie Wonder to Joe Cooley. His transatlantic musical knowledge and instinct are a lynchpin in the Unwanted trio, featuring himself, Cathy Jordan and Seamie O’Dowd.

Singer- songwriter, Aminah Hughes hails from Western Australia and has become an increasingly familiar face in Ireland. She has worked and recorded with No Crows, Tony Reidy, Thom Moore and Seamie O’Dowd. She also guested with Tommy Emmanuel in Belfast’s Waterfront hall last year. She has been extensively involved in the music, literary and film making worlds of her native land.

Seamie Mc Gowan recorded guitar parts many years ago on Those Nervous Animals’ legendary national hit. “My Friend John” that are still being requested on national radio a quarter of a century on. Seamie’s experience as a musician is wide ranging and his guitar playing and singing complement any band he has played with perfectly.

Donal Cunnane and Tommy Kivlehan, two prominent musicians that have long since established their places in the folklore of the Sligo equivalent of LA’s “Wrecking Crew” group of top session musicians that boasts names like James Blennerhasset, Francie Lehenan, Gerry Grennan, Brendan Emmett, Dave Carty, Tom Jameson, the late Fin Corrigan and many others, have provided the pulse for many of the top local bands for years, including The Hennigans Blues Band, Absolute Zero and many more.

Special guest for the night will be Rory O’Dowd. Not yet twenty years old, Rory has been steadily carving out a reputation among his generation and beyond as a musician very much on his own terms. Alongside Dean Mahon, Paul Reynolds and Paddy Carr, aka Test For Echo, he performed at last year’s Sligo’s Got Talent competitions in which they were not only runners up but the last band of musicians to exit the competition.