The University of Durham hosts the first International Conference on Irish Music and Musicians in July.
The First International Conference on Irish Music and Musicians takes place from Monday 12 to Thursday 15 July 2010, hosted by the Music Department at the University of Durham.
Over last two decades there has been a steady growth of scholarship on Irish music, and especially on Ireland's tradition of western art music, which remained comparatively unexplored and undocumented until recent years. This is the first international conference which is devoted exclusively to the subject of Irish music and musicians and presents a unique opportunity for researchers in the field to meet at an international scholarly forum. The conference is being run in conjunction with a major three-year research project on Irish music being carried out at the University of Durham by Prof Jeremy Dibble, Dr Patrick Zuk and Dr Alasdair Jamieson, which is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council of Great Britain.
The keynote speakers at the conference will be Prof Harry White, Lewis Foreman and Séamas de Barra, all of whom have made distinguished contributions to scholarship on Irish and British music. The programme of events includes vocal and chamber music recitals featuring a wide range of music by Irish composers, which will be presented as part of a mini-festival of Irish music organised by MUSICON, Durham University's professional concert series. Also featured is a book launch by the Irish Ambassador to Great Britain, His Excellency Bobby McDonagh, of new publications on Irish music.
Over the four days of the conference, nearly 80 delegates will present individual papers, lecture-recitals and panels on topics pertaining to Irish music and musicians of all historical periods from prehistory to the present. The scope of the event is very broad and extends to traditional music, popular musics and jazz as well as the Irish tradition of western art music. While the primary focus of the conference is on the development of music in Ireland, important subsidiary themes include:
- the contribution of Irish musicians to musical life in Britain and elsewhere
- the contribution of foreign musicians to the development of musical life in Ireland
- foreign musicians (such as Arnold Bax and E. J. Moeran) who had close links with Ireland.
The conference will also feature a special session commemorating the eminent Irish composer, musicologist and educator Aloys Fleischmann (1910-1992), marking the centenary of his birth in 1910.