FEBRUARY 2026
Dear friends,
January was full of snow and ice in Canada and Iceland (Check out my Violin/electronics piece ‘Things the ice held onto’at my Patreon Page) and now I’m back home in the green and rain of Ireland. I’ve been reading a beautiful book about how ideas of home and landscape have shaped the music made by certain composers, and having been away in wider, whiter, colder places lately I can certainly see how this is the case. If you listen to the violin piece above I hope you’ll feel it too!
January and February is usually my time for dreaming and planning music projects to take place across the year. I’ve some exciting things coming up in 2026, including working with composer Benji Bower on a big new show for the Ballydehob Jazz Festival in May, collaborating again with choreographer Helga Deasy on a project exploring trees and the language we use around them in science, ecology, mythology, dance and music, and I’ve just submitted an application to help fund a new project I’m working on bringing classical musicians into healthcare settings and dementia wards to collaboratively create interactive scores together. I’ll keep you posted! This is a hugely exciting and rewarding part of the work I do as a musician, and over the last years I’ve focused more and more on learning and practicing music-making with dementia patients. It’s an incredible experience to make music with people who love and need it in such a bodily, visceral, healing way - and to witness what gifts it is able to give them is always so humbling.
SAMHAIN MUSIC-FIRE FINALE IN CLONAKILTY
I’m sharing two videos with you from music projects I was involved in last year in this incredibly dynamic and creative community that I’m lucky to live in. The Samhain Festival in Clonakilty celebrates the ancient Celtic tradition of honouring the darker half of the year, halfway between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice, it's older than halloween and holds a real richness of tradition. In my town here we have a dynamic group of artists who curate a weeklong festival, ending in the parade and fire-show which a lot of the community get involved in. I worked with my friend the composer Clodagh Simmonds as she led a choir made up of three community choirs in 3 pieces she had written as the fire show commenced. The singer Liam Ó Maonlaí was involved, as well as a band of drummers, and my son on percussion and gong. (Look for the little fox!)
BAREFOOT BAROQUE SUMMER TOUR
Barefoot Baroque is a tour we do every summer, bringing baroque music to some of the islands and towns of West Cork, Ireland. It’s deliberately curated to be accessible and informal, as you’ll see from this little film which I made from footage I took during our 2025 tour. We plan to tour again this summer so I’ll keep you posted on dates.
FEBRUARY BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
I found some great reading time while away in January.
‘Between Two Kingdoms’ is an incredible memoir by Suleika Jaouad which I was recommended by a friend before I left, and then magically found in a charity shop. Its a story of chronic illness, and the difficult dynamics of being a carer and being cared for. It’s honest and life-giving and at times totally devastating. I recommend it for it’s wise insights as we all navigate this life at times as carers and at other times needing care.
‘The Connection Cure’ caught my eye in the local library as I have been involved a little bit in the new movement of ‘social prescribing’ as another element of the medical system. Ever since the advent of AI, I’ve really tried to focus my work and my creativity on nurturing human connection, as I feel it’s something we’re losing to this new technology. This book is an in-depth study on just how powerful connection and creativity can be and how they are an important element in our collective thriving and wellbeing.
Spending a month in the snow, meant no bike-riding, so to keep fit I hopped onto the running machine in the family home basement and started racking up kms! I wasn’t much of a runner before, but I’ve very quickly grown to love it, and have been taking part in the local ‘Parkrun’ events since returning home. The title of this book caught my eye! ‘Eat like a pig, run like a horse’. It’s a study of many different animals and how they move. It shows across the animal kingdom that exercise is the key to health, even more than diet. And it’s definitely motivated me to keep moving!
Enjoy the beginning of spring,
Justin
PS. If you’re in my area next Sunday 1st March 6pm, call into my spiritual home of DeBarra’s Folk Club for a special edition of Abair Amhran with the Vespertine Quintet. You’ll learn to sing some traditional songs in Irish and then sing them in arrangements I made for strings and piano.