A group of traditional musicians from all over Ulster will be chosen today to take part in a course designed to give them the skills they need to become professional performers.
Some 15 places are available on the year-long course, Northern Rhythms, which will be based in the Donegal village of Falcarragh. Auditions were held yesterday in Derry and young musicians from nearly all the Ulster counties were represented.
The focus will be on the traditional music of Ulster, and according to Ms Aine Ni Mhaonaigh, music development officer with as Udaras na Gaeltachta in Donegal, the emphasis will be on a practical approach. She expects half the participants, most of whom will be aged between 20 and 30, to come from north of the Border. Some of the funding has come from the EU's special programme for peace and reconciliation and it is intended to stage "cross-cultural" performances with various groups in Northern Ireland such as Orange fife bands.
"A lot of the tunes would come from the same source. There would just be different styles of playing it or different versions. Instead of taking the normal linear viewpoint, we want to encompass all the cultural backgrounds of music in Ulster," says Ms Ni Mhaonaigh. In this way reconciliation will be promoted. "The general view in music circles is that there is no politics, but of course there is always a little bit. We want to break that down and show people that Ulster music is just Ulster music, and it is not necessarily factional." It is also intended to forge links with Scotland and Nova Scotia, where the style of playing is similar to that in Ulster. Ms Ni Mhaonaigh says the Northern style has not received as much attention as those from other parts of Ireland.
The course is based on a model designed by Brian O hUiginn of Ballyfermot Senior College. In addition to instrument/vocal tuition and master classes, students will be taught the practicalities of recording, setting up sound rigs, and contract law. A CD of the best music from the course will be produced and marketed.
For many of the young people currently unemployed it represents a great opportunity, while also injecting a new batch of session players into the pubs of Falcarragh and Gweedore.