Dear friends,
Its been a really lovely few weeks of concerts - with our Barefoot Baroque tour playing shows all around West Cork (nice pic above taken by my pal Camilla Griehsel our wonderful Alto singer) and then Monday this week saw the big premiere performance of my work ‘Children of Lir’ to a sold out audience at the Skibbereen Arts Festival. It was a magical evening, with incredible heartfelt performances by dear ensemble Eva Coyle, Katy Salvidge, Tess Leak, Tadhg Peel-Walsh, Jan Leak and the most beautiful contemporary dance from Rosie Leak. All held to honour the memory of the late Robert Harris who commissioned the work back in 2019. As his wife Finola said in her speech, ‘It is so so sad that Robert is not here to hear the premiere performance of this wonderful music, but what a way to celebrate him!’ I am still reeling from the reaction from the audience, young and old, who gave 2 standing ovations, many with tears in their eyes. As a composer of music, this is such a wonderful gift.
The ensemble at the Children of Lir premiere on Monday night.
WATCH CHILDREN OF LIR FILM
Download ‘Children of Lir’ here. All proceeds go to support Amici Dance Company, where Rosie is an associate member.
AUGUST BOOK RECOMMENDATION
I read Jenny Odell’s keynote talk from the EYEO festival in 2017 and was immediately struck by how important her thesis was in an age of mass distraction and the new attention economy. Doing nothing in her eyes means doing things that don’t have a financial incentive, or productivity increase, but enrich us in much deeper ways - things like rediscovering listening to birds, sitting in common spaces, and getting to know, and care for, your neighbours. Things that may seem banal suddenly take a power as a strong act of resistance against the strong prevailing currents of big tech and media which are taking over more and more of our lives. She is an artist, teacher and writer and I would recommend this book to anyone who feels that more and more of their time and headspace seems to be being hijacked by external economic forces.
I hope you have lots of lovely ‘nothing’ time this summer.
Justin