Old City/New Music, the Contemporary Music Centre’s music trail in Temple Bar, ran throughout June 2006.

Once neglected and down-at-heel, the Temple Bar area where CMC is based is now the focus of Dublin’s cosmopolitan café society. Redeveloped in the 1990s as the ‘cultural quarter’, few who stroll through this lively network of small streets today realize that they are following a street pattern largely unchanged for hundreds of years.

To mark the Centre’s 20th anniversary and make the link between its role as a technologically-advanced facility for new music and the historic ‘Old City’ district of Dublin in which it is located, three outdoor sound installations were specially commissioned.

The pieces, all electro-acoustic in nature, are by Irish composers Siobhán Cleary, Ailis Ní Ríain and Seán Taylor and were commissioned in association with Temple Bar Cultural Trust's 2006 Diversions Festival with funding from Dublin City Council. The composers were selected by an independent artistic panel following an open submission.

Mr John O'Donoghue, TD, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, officially launched the music trail on 13 June 2006, during an Open Day in the Contemporary Music Centre.

'We are delighted to extend our 2006 Diversions Festival to the Old City area of Temple Bar with this exciting commissions project', said Gráinne Millar, Head of Cultural Development with Temple Bar Cultural Trust, one of the project sponsors. 'We are very pleased to be working with the Contemporary Music Centre, one of our local arts organisations here in Dublin’s Cultural Quarter.'

CMC Director Eve O'Kelly said, 'We want you to use your ears, not your eyes. You won’t see anything, but from the streets of 2006 you’ll hear a soundscape travelling back down the centuries to the Old City of Dublin...'

The installations were located at Essex Street West (outside Cultivate), Fishamble Street (at the Handel Arch) and in the Contemporary Music Centre’s own rear courtyard (ring the doorbell!). They were heard every day from 1 – 30 June 2006 at the following times: Monday to Friday, 1.00 pm - 6.30pm; Saturday and Sunday,12.00 pm - 3.00pm.

Posted: 30 May 2006