Fiddler Martin Hayes: ‘I come to the table with whatever little bit I managed to bring off the side of the mountain’
The acclaimed musician reimagines his album Peggy’s Dream with the National Symphony Orchestra this St Patrick’s weekend
Kate Ellis
Kate Ellis of Crash Ensemble: I’ve never tried to focus on one route within music. It’s more important to see everything as a whole’
The acclaimed group’s artistic director is a natural collaborator, including on Strange Waves, her new album with the composer Ed Bennett
Ye Vagabonds: Nine Waves – A loving marriage of old and new
The Mac Gloinns are back with a brace of original songs among the traditional
Ye Vagabonds: ‘We just felt like we were total weirdos in Carlow’
The MacGloinn brothers on becoming part of the Irish folk scene
Irish composers unite for long-delayed Beethoven celebration
Ahead of an NCH concert series, artists reflect on how a musical giant shaped them
New York’s Irish Arts Center gets a new lease of life
The centre’s new home is on the site of an old tyre shop in Hell’s Kitchen
Laura Cannell and Kate Ellis: ‘We just play and see what happens’
The musicians met only once, but the spark they felt has led to a fruitful collaboration
Laura Cannell & Stewart Lee: These Feral Lands Volume 1 – A fevered collection
Cannell and Lee engage in a ricocheting, jagged-edged conversation
Martin Hayes: ‘Retirement is a terrible disaster if it’s something you love doing’
The Gloaming fiddler continues eternal musical quest with The Common Ground Ensemble
Local Honeys with a degree in Hillbilly: This week’s best rock and pop gigs
Also: Somebody’s Child, Kim Petras, Bedlam Suitcase, Polyphia, Mango x Mathman
Ordnance Survey: Relative Phase – Artist formerly known as Somadrone finds his bearings
Startling soundscapes and sublime electronica from a modern maverick
Whispers of Eastern colour from composer Barry O’Halpin
‘Advice from a Caterpillar’ is a depiction on solo bass clarinet of the conversation in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ between Alice and the caterpillar
Ropes, plants, baths and other musical instruments
Classical music highlights for this week include Kirkos’s Body Noise Work project
‘Music is made in communities’: Aaron and Bryce Dessner’s new vision
The National’s guitarists are part of People, a community of musicians creating new spaces and platforms
Women composers find a voice: The week’s best classical music
Finding a Voice festival’s all-female finale; Vanbrugh & Michael McHale; Philippe Cassard
Gig of the week – The Spike Cello Festival
The second edition of Dublin’s genre-blind alternative festival is back next week to once again challenge cello orthodoxy
Folk music is to people what pollen is to the bee
Nick Roth’s band Yurodny celebrate their 10th anniversary with a new suite ‘Wave’, coalescing traditional and modern music inspired by the jesters of Russian folklore
Irish adaption of ‘Swan Lake’ among highlights of Clonmel Junction Festival
Music and theatre lovers well catered for with eclectic mix at popular Tipperary event
‘Putting on art music in a concert hall is not good enough any more’
The ‘Crashlands’ series of concerts will see Crash Ensemble perform in beautiful, remote locations around the country
Music is a universal language – with some border checks
Of all new music, large-scale works with words travel least freely internationally
Classical music: Celine Byrne is key to Simon Walton’s Bord Gáis productions
Russian Puccini, refined Haydn and raw saxophone
Belfast opera director lands a tricky new job in Norway
Norway’s top opera job is being taken up by Annilese Miskimmon. The post comes with its own dramatic history
A glorious gamelan with a distinctive Irish accent
What attracted Iarla Ó Lionáird, Duke Special and Julie Feeney to collaborate with Cork Gamelan Ensemble?
Mash and grab
The eclectic mix you’ll hear at Kaleidoscope music nights, at Odessa in Dublin – everything from solo accordionists to saxophone quartets and baroque music – has won the attention of a growing audience of fans
Monopoly shake-up? John Wilson muscles in on NSO’s patch
It is likely to be to everyone’s benefit if the two RTÉ orchestras are allowed to compete on the same terrain
Music history is written by the victors, but they are getting harder to spot
Within the rampant fragmentation that’s been with us for so long, the victors have become much harder to identify
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