A new Northern Ireland Music Archive will be launched in Belfast on 30 March.

To mark the occasion, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland presents a day of recitals, workshops and performances at Belfast Central Library where the archive is located.

Performers at the event include the Brian Irvine Ensemble, and Darragh Morgan and Mary Dullea.

Funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Music Archive is a digital database of both 20th and 21st-century Northern Irish music in the form of interviews, recordings and scores. It will be officially opened at 6.00pm on Thursday 30 March.

The archive will be housed in Belfast Central Library which, this year, celebrates 50 years as a dedicated music library and performance space.

David Quigley will perform Northern Ireland Piano Music from his new CD, beginning the day at 1.00pm.

At 2.15pm, students from the Belfast School of Music alongside composer Elaine Agnew will hold an open composition workshop.

Students from the Belfast School of Music will perform in a recital at 5.00pm.

Darragh Morgan and Mary Dullea will perform violin and piano music from Northern Ireland at 6.30pm followed by the Brian Irvine Ensemble at 7.30pm.

For further information and admission details please contact Robert Collins, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, tel. +44-(0)28-9038 5219 or email rcollins@artscouncil-ni.org

Jonathan Bailie

Posted: 27 March 2006