Art Scape Deirdre FalveyAnne-Sophie Mutter is clearly a fan of the National Concert Hall, where she has performed regularly over the past 20 years. In an unusual development, the virtuoso violinist is to donate her concert fee from her March 8th performance to the NCH's education fund. While Mutter has done other benefit concerts, mainly for her own foundation, this is her first in Dublin, and the first concert of its kind for the NCH.
When she was here with the London Philharmonic Orchestra last March, Mutter suggested to NCH director Judith Woodworth that she'd like to contribute towards education. She does a lot of work with her own foundation sponsoring talented musicians and giving them performance opportunities (for this concert she will be playing JS Bach's double violin concerto with Mikhail Ovrutsky, who got the Europäischer Förderpreis of the Foundation of Pro Europa on Mutter's recommendation; he was also granted a stipend by the Anne-Sophie Mutter Circle of Friends Foundation in 2004).
In a programme note for the concert Mutter writes that she is proud and grateful to help "provide opportunities for talented children from disadvantaged backgrounds, as well as for music tuition and the purchase of instruments . . . Not only does afford discipline in balance with passion but it strengthens the bond between different cultures. Through the language of music, children communicate and learn to appreciate early on the different heritage of songs and cultures".
The fees for Mutter and the Trondheim Soloists chamber orchestra, totalling about €65,000-€75,000, go towards a fund to support the NCH's education and community outreach. The NCH says it will be the first of many benefit concerts and events over the coming years to raise funds for the the education department as part of the redevelopment programme for Earlsfort Terrace.
Council cash buoys up artists
Late last year, the Arts Council renewed its interest in the primary market for Irish art by, particularly, younger professional visual artists, writes Aidan Dunne. Some 45 pieces were acquired for its collection at a cost of close to €500,000. Enough, one would think, to bring a smile to the face of many an artist and, in announcing the purchases, the council appropriately displayed one of them, John Gerrard's Portrait to Smile Once a Year at its Merrion Square headquarters on Thursday.
Gerrard is one of the most highly regarded young Irish artists, well on the way to establishing an international reputation. His photographic Portrait, with a nod to the Mona Lisa, is programmed to literally smile just once every year. In its choice of works, the council cast its net wide, buying pieces by Gerard Byrne (who represents Ireland at the Venice Biennale this year), Paul Doran (winner of the AIB Art Prize), Anne Cleary and Denis Connolly (whose joint work RVB is an outstanding video projection work of novelistic ambition) and Dorothy Cross.
With pieces by Siobhán Hapaska, Brendan Earley, Eoghan McTigue, Michael Coleman, Mark Joyce, Fergus Martin and Martin & Hobbs, Paul Mosse, Amy O'Riordan, Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Diana Copperwhite, Elizabeth Magill, Mark O'Kelly, Stephen Loughman, Margaret Corcoran, Gary Coyle, Martin Healy, Cecily Brennan, Tom Molloy, Stephen Brandes and more, it amounts to a substantial cross section of current Irish art. Throughout its history, the council has gone through acquisitive and non-acquisitive phases - the latter phases substantially taken up with the question of what you do with a collection once you've built it up. But as most artists will tell you, the best form of patronage is to buy their work.
Students invade Siamsa Tíre
As Trinity College's drama course nears its end, graduating folk theatre students at the Institute for Technology Tralee are forging straight ahead with Amú: Lost in a Changing World, which will be premiered next Friday at Siamsa Tíre, writes Michael Seaver. Performing under the company name Diversions, their reflection on loneliness in modern society draws on regional step dance and music styles, as well as local events such as the small Fine Gael meeting in Tralee in 1990 that began the political process of decriminalising suicide.
Daily classes in the Siamsa Tíre building allow the students constant interaction with Siamsa's core company, which contains some alumni. But the four-year BA in Folk Studies is not a feeder school and this year's graduates will pursue studies or careers in folk dance, contemporary dance, theatre sound and event management in Ireland and Britain. "Maybe we have learnt the Siamsa style, but if anything the course leaves us hungry for other forms," says cast member Sarah Walsh, adding that Amú will reflect the cast's fluency in multiple genres.
Meanwhile, Siamsa Tíre is seeking a new CEO to replace Marianne Kennedy, who will be leaving in March to take up a post as bainisteoir ealaíne stáitse with NUI Galway at the Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge in Carraroe. Details at www.theatreforumireland.com.
... The Dublin County Choir has just returned from singing in New York's Carnegie Hall - it was the only Irish choir invited for the first Big Apple performance of The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace, joining choirs from Britain and the US in a chorus of more than 250 voices under the baton of American conductor Jonathan Griffith. The composer of the work, Karl Jenkins, was also invited and glowed suitably following a standing ovation on the night. Jenkins, whose works include the popular Adiemus, is slowly gaining popularity in the US and has just released a CD with Kiri Te Kanawa. He's now working on his own interpretation of Stabat Mater and has been commissioned by the Welsh National Opera to produce a work based on a Welsh legend; it is hoped the opera will be performed in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff in two years.
Meanwhile the Dublin County Choir is back rehearsing for a spring performance of Bach's St John Passion under the eye of conductor Colin Block, who went to Carnegie with the choir and joined the chorus for the first time in over 20 years.
A touch of double-jobbing is coming up for Project artistic director Willie White, who has also been appointed as artistic director for Dublin Youth Theatre for 2007 in a non-executive programming capacity. White, a Loose Canon and Irish Theatre Magazine founder who has also worked at RTÉ, latterly on The View, will oversee DYT's workshop curriculum and annual events. He has invited Brokentalkers Theatre's Gary Keegan and Feidlim Cannon to direct DYT's 30th anniversary show, at an off-site location this summer. White has worked with DYT a few times and commented "each time I have been enormously impressed by their energy and resourcefulness. I look forward to matching up those who have a long-standing involvement with DYT as well as some new faces to make 2007 as exciting and enjoyable as possible".
And Opera Theatre Company has appointed Bernard Clarkson as chief executive. Clarkson was general manager of Diversions dance company, based at Dance House in the Wales Millennium Centre, and before that worked with the Electric Theatre in Guildford, Swan Theatre in Worcester and Grand Theatre and Opera House in Leeds. He starts with OTC - which is currently celebrating 21 years of touring opera - in April, taking over from interim chief executive Randall Shannon.
Arts "leaders" take note: applications for the third Jerome Hynes Fellowship for Future Cultural Leaders, which aims to develop outstanding cultural leaders for Ireland, should be in by February 19th. The fellowship is an initiative of the UK-based Clore Leadership Programme, and is looking for "exceptional individuals who have the potential to play a significant role across a wide range of cultural activity". The fellow will take part in a year-long programme, the total value of which is about €70,000 (€50,000 from the Arts Council and £15,000 from Clore).
Current fellow Fiona Kearney (director of Cork's Glucksman Gallery) said the fellowship gave her "the ability to advance my knowledge and experience among an inspiring group of peers and has guided me with both the big picture of visionary thinking, and the necessary detail of management skills". The first Arts Council/Clore fellow was dancer and choreographer Fearghus Ó Conchúir. The new fellow will be announced in June. Information from the Clore Leadership Programme on 0044-2074209430.