Cork 2005: The long-running story of the Gamelan Residency and Easter Concert has taken on the appearance of what is becoming known as a Joe Gavin Special: a financial operation mounted by the City Manager or his aides to rescue a worthwhile cause otherwise rejected or ineligible under the several headings of Cork 2005, writes Mary Leland
Donors who must remain anonymous (in order to inhibit any surge of applications) have been found to support the Gamelan Residency which begins at Triskel today. The month of workshops is led by Beverly Whyte, Musical Director of Open Arts in Belfast, collaborating with Cork Music Works, founded by music broadcaster Evelyn Grant and music therapist Judith Brereton.
Married to cellist Gerry Kelly, a prominent activist in the campaign to ensure the building of the new School of Music, and herself a tireless organiser, Evelyn Grant applied to Cork 2005 first for a commissioning and performance grant of €20,000, and received €9,000.
The refusal of the subsequent proposal for a programme of workshops and a concert based on the Javanese gamelan performed by clients of local disability organisations left her undaunted, because it was then hoped to qualify for funding under the Special Events programme and even to constitute the Special Event for Easter.
When this hope was also dashed, negotiations under the Lagan to the Lee scheme uniting the city councils of Cork and Belfast were begun with the proposal billed as "Rivers of Sound" . While Grant says the proposal was a case of not letting lack of money get in the way of creative thinking, she was always aware that there was strong support for the scheme at City Hall which, for example, will not charge for the use of the concert hall.
"So far, all the local participating organisations are funding themselves, largely through benefits in kind," she says.
The Arts Council of Northern Ireland is to meet half the travel and accommodation costs of the visit to Cork of the Open Arts choral group, and now City Hall has confirmed that it has found sponsors willing to make up the shortfall. But from where the spokesman would not say.
And no-one seems to know where Special Events supremo Martin Barrett is. All Cork 2005 would say is that he is now Special Events Consultant (his original designation was Director) while his popular assistant, special events co-ordinator Bertie Buckley, has left.
All the same, "Rivers of Sound" will be a very special event: John Spillane is a guest performer, music has been commissioned (thanks to Cork 2005) from Johnny McCarthy, sound-beam technology and multi-media elements are part of the design, aided by the Cork Pops Orchestra (another Grant enterprise) and preceded by the month-long residency programme from today at the Triskel Arts Centre.
"Integration was always important to me," says Grant of her determination to celebrate the musical creativity of disabled people. "but I didn't expect such a re-enrichment, or such potential creativity not only from people with learning disabilities but also among their carers. When I saw what Open Arts did for the Special Olympics in Dublin, I felt that we had to be able to put on a very big performance for Cork 2005. And that's what we intend to do."
