RESONATE: Music Network Artist Residencies presented in partnership with glór, Ionad Cultúrtha, National Opera House, Regional Cultural Centre, The Dock, and Triskel Arts Centre.
Today, 16th June, Music Network proudly announces six new musicians taking the helm for the second edition of RESONATE. The programme brings some of Ireland’s most established professional musicians to six cultural spaces across Ireland between July and October.
The initiative awards each musician €8,000 to support and facilitate the making of new work and creative partnerships. RESONATE provides the artists with the time and space to cultivate new sounds which may never have been brought to life otherwise. Audiences will have opportunities to enjoy the new material created through live concert performances in November and via online video content shared on social media platforms shortly afterwards.
An overview of each RESONATE: Music Network Artist Residency follows:
Mezzo-soprano Naomi Louisa O’Connell, an artist widely praised for her versatility on operatic, theatrical and recital stages, will develop a song cycle for voice, piano, and live electronics with pianist Gary Beecher and composer Emma O’Halloran while in residence at glór, Ennis. Taking inspiration from their shared backgrounds, they will explore various musical styles and forms drawing on classical, cabaret, folk and pop music influences to create an exciting new work.
The Longing is a collaborative traditional singing project between renowned singer Pauline Scanlon from Dingle and Armagh singer and multi-instrumentalist Barry Kerr. Focusing on traditional songs where feelings of longing for home, freedom, love, acceptance and peace are central themes, they will create beautiful, contemporary arrangements culminating in a performance in Ionad Cultúrtha, Baile Mhúirne, with singer and harpist Síle Denvir and percussionist Eamon Murray.
Concertina player Niall Vallely will collaborate with Kate Ellis on cello and Kenneth Edge on soprano saxophone at the National Opera House, Wexford, composing and performing a new series of pieces entitled Bearna which translates as a gap or space. The trio will explore the musical concepts offered by spaces that exist in between different genres of music and people’s varied musical perspectives.
Irish-Dutch singer and guitarist Patrick Stefan Groenland will join forces with the excellent group Navá at Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny to create new songs with Irish, Persian & African folk influences. With a shared a love of global music, the artists will build on recent, successful instrumental performances, adding vocals to complement their considerable multi-string sound palette.
Highly regarded for her imaginative and dramatic interpretations of new music, soprano Elizabeth Hilliard will work with composer Gráinne Mulvey to create a new, comic work for voice and tape. Inspired by “spam” – those ads for medical products that seem to appear in the middle of random text on the internet – it will be presented alongside existing work during their finale performance at The Dock, Carrick-On-Shannon.
Classical violinist Patrick Rafter will work alongside artist and composer Sam Perkin at Triskel Arts Centre, Cork, to create Freedom In Performance. Motivated by a common desire to push the boundaries of performance practice and challenge what is widely considered to be the accepted concert format, they will experiment with gesture and movement, making these elements central to the final performance.
Sharon Rollston, CEO of Music Network, commented: “There was a strong response to the RESONATE 2022 call for applications, resulting in six high calibre musicians working in a range of musical genres being awarded. We would like to congratulate all 6 musicians and look forward to following their progress over the coming months. We also want to acknowledge all applicants’ time and effort in applying for this opportunity.’’
In 2021, RESONATE produced six beautiful performances from guitarist Eamon Sweeney, violinist Larissa O’Grady, composer and improviser Philip Christie, feisty fiddler & bilingual singer Clare Sands, singer songwriter Emma Langford and uilleann piper David Power.
Music Network is funded by the Arts Council. Music Network is a national music touring and development organisation whose mission is to make high quality live music available and accessible to people throughout Ireland.
Each of the six RESONATE panels comprised a representative from Music Network, the venue and an external, independent panellist nominated by the venue. Panel meetings were chaired by each venue representative.
Mezzo-soprano Naomi Louisa O’Connell, an artist widely praised for her versatility on operatic, theatrical and recital stages, will develop a song cycle for voice, piano, and live electronics with pianist Gary Beecher and composer Emma O’Halloran while in residence at glór, Ennis.
Hailed by The New York Times as “radiant,” Naomi made her professional debut in 2012 starring on the West End in Terrence McNally’s play Master Class. Her work encompasses both theatrical and operatic repertoire, ranging from plays to operas, from recitals and cabarets to sound sculptures and virtual reality performances.
Sought after for her interpretations of contemporary opera, she recently created the role of Mrs Van Buren in Intimate Apparel at Lincoln Center Theater, which will be released on PBS Great Performances this autumn. Notable roles include Monteverdi’s Poppea (Oper Frankfurt), Mozart’s Cherubino (Welsh National Opera, Atlanta Opera), Offenbach’s La Périchole (Garsington Opera), and Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande — both Maeterlinck’s play and Debussy’s opera — with the Cincinnati Symphony.
Lauded by The New York Times as “a natural in the recital format” for her Carnegie Hall debut recital Witches, Bitches & Women in Britches at Weill Recital Hall, she performs regularly in concerts internationally. A keen performer of chamber music, her nuanced performance of Ravel’s Mallarmé songs at the Marlboro Music Festival was applauded by the Boston Globe as “outstanding.”
A graduate of The Juilliard School and the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Naomi was brought up in the Burren and studied in Ireland with Archie Simpson and Mary Brennan. Upcoming performances include engagements with LA Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Irish National Opera, Hong Kong’s ‘Intimate of Creativity’ Festival, and New York’s Prototype Festival.
