I received the lovely news, at the end of last year, that I have been awarded an Arts Council of Ireland Music Bursary to spend time exploring Art Song. This project ‘Art Song in Focus’ will give me the time and resources to build on what is already a significant part of my practice – working closely with singers and presenting new work to audiences.
The first stage of this project is already well up and running. I have been working with soprano Tríona Walsh and three of her vocal students looking at composing for voices at different stages of development (supported by the Mid West Vocal Academy). We held an informal show of work at Kilmurry Arts Centre in Limerick for an invited audience where we shared two new songs, two old songs from my catalogue rearranged for these singers and the first performance of my Pandemic Trilogy. The next event for this part of the project will take place on Culture Night in one of my favourite places in Limerick – No.2 Pery Square, the Peoples Museum of Limerick.
In the meantime I will be working with Limerick’s own songbird Eve Stafford on a new set of songs. This is a project Eve and I have been thinking about for a long time – setting a selection of her Granny’s poetry to music. It is really exciting to be working on this finally and to be sharing some of the work in Saint Mary’s Cathedral on 18th November.
One other aspect of the project has been to build on my own skills as a composer who also performs as a piano accompanist. I have been lucky enough to be receiving mentorship from American composer Ellen Mandel on all matters in composition, performing, curating, management but I am going to take her advice right this minute – Go and practice!
fionalinnane.com 