213K

For Immediate Release

The Contemporary Music Centre presents a Music Theatre piece for May Salon

9 May 2011

The Contemporary Music Centre's forthcoming new music::new Ireland salon at 6pm, on Wednesday 25th May 2011, in the Kevin Barry Room of the National Concert Hall wraps up the Centre's pre-Summer salon series. The series then resumes in Sep 2011.

The Centre's May salon is an exciting development of the salon format and involves a music theatre piece based on the diaries of Sir Ernest Shackleton and the poetry of Bill Manhire. Entitled 'Where a single footprint lasts a thousand years' it is a music theatre piece composed and devised by Irish composer Michael Holohan, and performed by Donal Kelly (actor/playwright), Simon O'Dwyer (musician), Breifne Holohan (musician) and Michael Holohan (musician).

The salon will involve a reworking and developing of the piece which to date has been performed to capacity audiences, earlier this year in the Rotunda Pillar Room, Parnell Square, Dublin and the Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda and at the Athy Community Arts Centre, Shackleton Autumn Summer School in 2010. The work was originally commissioned by the National Concert Hall to commemorate the Centenary of a lecture given by Sir. Ernest Shackleton on the14th Dec 1909 in the Aula Maxima of the National University, Earlsfort Terrace (now the National Concert Hall).

The texts in the work are adapted from the personal diaries of Shackleton and the poetic extracts are by the New Zealand poet Bill Manhire who once spent some time himself in the Antarctic. The composer attempts to evoke the eerie sound word of the Antarctic mostly by means of acoustic instruments.

The new music::new Ireland salon series aims to encourage newcomers and enthusiasts alike to engage with the music of Irish Composers. Each performance takes place in an informal atmosphere with dialogue encouraged between composers, performers and audience. This is the Centre's eight series and this year to celebrate 25 years of the Contemporary Music Centre and as part of a series of events planned for 2011, the salons will take place across the year on the last Wednesday of each month, apart from the summer months (June, July and August).

Born in Dublin Michael Holohan was educated at University College Dublin, the Dublin College of Music and Queen's University, Belfast. His music has been performed both in Ireland and abroad, and has been broadcast by RTÉ, BBC and other international networks. He has collaborated regularly with well known Irish poets such as Seamus Heaney, Richard Murphy, Dermot Healy and Paul Durcan. 'Running Beast', his collaboration with the playwright Donal O' Kelly toured Ireland and Europe extensively during 2007 as part of the government's 400th Commemoration of the Flight of the Earls. He is a former chairman of The Association of Irish Composers and the Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda. In 1999 he was elected to Aosdána, Ireland's state-sponsored academy of creative artists.

The Contemporary Music Centre is Ireland's national archive and resource centre for new music. The Centre is supported by the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. The Centre would like to thank the National Concert Hall for the use of the Kevin Barry Room for the salon series.

Admission is free for the new music::new Ireland salon but booking is strongly recommended. To book please contact the National Concert Hall on tel: 01 4170000 or email: info@nch.ie. For further information on the performers and composer involved contact Karen Hennessy, Promotion Manager, The Contemporary Music Centre, 19 Fishamble Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 8, tel: 01-673 1922 or email: khennessy@cmc.ie web site: www.cmc.ie

Notes For Editors

new music::new Ireland salon
25 May 2011, Kevin Barry Room, National Concert Hall, Dublin 2

6pm - 7pm The Contemporary Music Centre new music::new Ireland salon event
Where a single footprint lasts a thousand years
Michael Holohan (composer/musician); Donal O'Kelly (actor/playwright); Simon O'Dwyer (musician) and Breifne Holohan (musician)

Admission Free Booking Recommended Tel: 01 4170000 Email: info@nch.ie www.nch.ie

Next new music::new Ireland salon 28 Sep 2011