Camarata at Carnegie: Barry Douglas brings his Orchestra to NYC

World-renowned pianist Barry Douglas speaks to Vincent Murphy, ahead of his orchestra Camerata Ireland’s performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall next weekend.

Not every group can boast having the Queen of England and the President of Ireland as its joint patrons.

But Elizabeth II and Mary McAleese have both lent their seal of approval to Barry Douglas and his collection of fine Irish musicians. Camarata Ireland has been touring the globe since it was established in 1999, showcasing talent that is something of a hidden secret in its home country.

“While it’s rightly known for things like U2, the Chieftains, theater and poetry and so on, Ireland is not that well known for classical music,” says Douglas. “I thought the standard of musicianship was so fantastic, that surely if we put a few of our Irish musicians together they could form something really fantastic.”

And that’s just what Douglas did.

Camarata Ireland is an orchestra bringing together talented musicians from the whole island of Ireland. Most of them are young, in their 20s and 30s, but it’s not a youth orchestra, and there are also several established and accomplished members. But Camarata is also about more than music. It brings together musicians from across the political divide in Northern Ireland, and from North and South of the border.

“I think that musicians and artists in general can play a very important part in building bridges between communities,” says Douglas, who was born in Belfast. “I think it’s really important that artists speak up and say all the positive things that are already there. It’s not even creating anything new, there are so many positive things that have happened, and I think we as musicians can play a small part in that as well.”

It was this ambition that caught the eye of the two heads of State, Queen Elizabeth and President McAleese. “That was an acknowledgement and an approval in a sense. They saw that we are trying to understand, trying to create a bit of harmony in a musical sense and a social sense that they approved of it. It was and still is an amazing privilege to have both of them on board.”

The orchestra enjoys a busy touring schedule and has played China, Poland, Great Britain, France, Italy and Germany. It was the first Irish classical music ensemble to play Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. They will appear at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall on March 5^th, on the first stop of its fourth US tour. They will also visit Nashville, Tennessee; Carbondale and River Forest, Illinois; Carmel, Indiana and Winter Park and Sarasota, Florida during this visit to the United States.

And Barry Douglas is planning to treat audiences to “a nice mix”.  “We didn’t go for just a solid classical program. I wanted to highlight the Irish nature of the orchestra,” he said. “We are not pretending to be the Chieftains or anything, but I think there is something we can do to express our culture in our particular kind of style.”

The program includes two John Field’s Nocturnes (#1 and #5), which were written for piano, but which Douglas has arranged for piano and orchestra. There will also two Mozart pieces – Porgi Amor from the Marriage of Figaro, and Piano Concerto No 23 in A Major. And there will also be a unique opportunity to hear Bunting’s Druid Dances. “In 1792 there was a huge harp festival in Belfast, organized by a guy called Bunting,” explains Douglas, “and he wrote down all the old Irish melodies. The harpists came from all over Ireland. I’ve incorporated five of those into a set of a suite of dances, from a lamentation to a planxty to a lullaby. I’ve orchestrated that for the orchestra as well.”

The tour also features Ireland’s internationally acclaimed soprano Celine Byrne as a guest artist, and audiences can look forward to renditions of My Lagan Love, Carrickfergus and Last Rose of Summer. Byrne has collaborated with all the modern greats like Jose Carrerras, Roberto Alagna and Andrea Bocelli. “She is fabulous. We worked together a couple of years ago with the National Symphony of Ireland for RTE Television and I was so impressed with her poise and her ability to transcend all sorts of styles,” says Douglas.

Byrne and Douglas both represent the cream of Ireland’s classical music talent. Douglas has enjoyed a major career since winning the Gold Medal at the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. He is in demand across the world and has performed with such leading orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and all the major London orchestras. The 2010-11 season includes his return to the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, and solo performances in Germany, Ireland, Britain, France, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Italy, Singapore, China, Thailand, Holland, Spain and the US. He will return to the Proms in London with the BBC Symphony Orchestra to perform the premiere of a new concerto written for him by Kevin Volans in celebration of his 50th birthday. 

Despite the hectic schedule, he remains passionately committed to Camarata Ireland, and showcasing the phenomenal talent of Ireland’s classical musicians. “The following for Irish traditional culture is very strong, and rightly so,” he says. “But I think some of these musicians deserve to be recognized by a broader public – be that an international public, Irish-American public or Irish public at home. We need to treasure our own musicians, and our own people that achieve something, and make sure they have a name abroad as well.”

Julie Feeney’s Impossibly Beautiful US Dream

Quirky and original, the award-winning  Julie Feeney is about to bring her musical styling to America for the first time, writes Vincent Murphy.

AS anyone who watched last week’s Grammys knows, the crazier the better when it comes to fashion if you’re a pop star. From Lady Gaga’s arrival inside an egg, to Ceelo Green’s feathered peacock outfit, you’ve got to have something to make yourself stand out in today’s music world.

In the case of Ireland’s Julie Feeney, who is about to embark on her debut US tour, it’s hard not to notice that she’s wearing a house on her head. A tiny multi-colored house.

“I had a tree house painted in specific colors in a garden in Galway for the photo work on my album (Pages)” explains Feeney, who hails from Athenry. “Sharon Costello Desmond painted it for me. Then when I progressed to doing live shows, I wanted that magical fairytale world brought into my live performances. So I had a replica of the house made into a hat (by Kim Gilbert, of Irish designers Attack on Humans).”

She now wears the headpiece at all her live performances. Photographers couldn’t get enough of the hat at the launch last month of Imagine Ireland in New York, and several other journalists asked me “Who’s the woman with the house on her head?” The hat was in evidence again, the following week when Julie performed a short set at Joe’s Pub at Astor Place as part of the annual performing arts showcase APAP/NYC. But the audience was taking notice of more than her choice of milliner.

Feeney, and her surprisingly large cast of supporting musicians and singers, are a fascinating live act. Her beautiful singing is combined with a captivating, sometimes manic stage presence. She’s not afraid to get out into the audience and bring the performance right to their tables. Some were bewildered, others captivated. No-one was bored.

Feeney returns to the East Village venue on March 9^th, as part of her first ever nationwide tour of the United States. “It’s fantastic,” she says, “I just feel this is going to be a great year.” Feeney will play 19 venues across the States over the next few months. 

She’s already a critical darling in her home country. Her first album 13 Songs won the Choice Music Prize in 2006, and her second Pages was also nominated in 2009. She writes, composes and produces all of her own work – releasing her last album on her own record label Mittens. She’s been invited to orchestrate and perform her own music for many orchestras, and her song “Impossibly Beautiful” was used for a high profile TV advertisement (VHI) in Ireland.

“It’s nice to be coming here a little more established, rather than a complete unknown.” she says, acknowledging that it would have been very difficult to make a mark in the US if she had tried it any sooner. “It’s nice having two albums, and to be performing a variety of different types of set-ups. Because I’ve tried all of this out before. It’s not that Ireland is practice in any way, of course, but it’s interesting now that I feel that, I’ve room to play with much more. I can pick any number of pieces to do now, whereas I wouldn’t have had that freedom if I had decided to come to America earlier.”

She thoroughly enjoyed her set at Joe’s Pub, remarking that the audience seemed to be really into what she was doing. “I’m not a typical pop artist. Because I compose for orchestras, I’m not ‘indie’ really, not a regular singer-songwriter. My audience is a bit different to that.” She’s been the South-x-Southwest rock showcase (“wonderful and amazing but a very different kind of world to mine”) before, and thinks Imagine Ireland is a better fit as a showcase for her talents. “My audience crosses into theater-goers as well as music lovers, classical as well as tradition. So this is exactly the right kind of pitching for who I am as an artist.” 

The highlight of her career so far was a 10-minute standing ovation she received at the end of a recent performance at the National Concert Hall in Dublin in front of a sell-out 1,200-strong crowd. “To fill the National Concert Hall was amazing,” she said. She’s now hoping to carry some of that enthusiasm with her across the Atlantic as he makes “a crucial step” in her career.

Julie was a professional choral singer for five years, and toured all over the world with various ensembles. But this is her first time in America with her own show. She has not released any of her music in the United States to date and is going to use her tour as a springboard. “The whole notion of releasing albums has changed so much now,” she says, “A release before meant one thing, but now it’s very different. I think the whole idea of presenting something with punch is only possible with a huge amount of money. When that isn’t there I think momentum is the most valuable thing you can have,” she says. 

Touring too is expensive, she explains, especially if you want to present your work in the way it should be. “You don’t need any luxury. You just need to be able to get there, particularly with flights and travel because America is so big.” She’s grateful to be getting support from Imagine Ireland – but is under no illusion that she herself needs to make the most of it by launching her album alongside the tour. “My launch is about leading with the ‘live’ – as opposed to the traditional model before, where an album is out on the seventh of March and there is a whole load of promotion around it. “I think it’s a great time now to be able to lead your launch with natural momentum.”

She plays FathomCreative in Washington DC on February 28^th, Club Passim in Cambridge, Mass. on March 07^th and Joe’s Pub, New York on March 9^th. After that, there are 16 more dates around the US. She’ll be releasing both “13 Songs” and “Pages”, digitally at least, in the US in the coming weeks.

Gabriel Byrne on the Irish elections and the power of art

The Irish are justifiably angry, Hollywood star Gabriel Byrne tells Vincent Murphy, but they’ll still probably elect the Usual Suspects.

“I’m not an economist but I think it’s pretty clear what happened,” Gabriel Byrne says, “The country was Madoff-ed.”

“And I think we have a natural desire for retribution.”

The Irish actor plays television’s most famous psychiatrist on HBO’s In Treatment and right now what he’s prescribing for his home country is justice.

“I think when Madoff was put in jail here, a lot of people felt there was some kind of retribution, some kind of closure,” he says.

“That doesn’t seem to be happening over there.”

It’s now over two years since the Irish government gave a blanket guarantee to the debts and liabilities of Irish banks, and details started to emerge of suspicious financial transactions at Anglo Irish Bank.

In the intervening years, bankers like Sean Fitzpatrick and David Drumm have become social pariahs in their home country, but no-one has been prosecuted.

The Garda Fraud Bureau and the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement have been investigating alleged wrongdoings at Anglo and other banks.

But no-one has yet ended up behind bars.

And unlike most other countries who have been suffering the effects of the global recession, there has not been an election until now.

Since the crisis began, Barack Obama has been elected US president and his party has suffered a ‘shellacking’ in the Mid-Terms.

In the UK, the government of Gordon Brown has been turfed-out of office to be replaced by a coalition of David Cameron’s Conservative Party and Nick Clegg’s Liberals.

But in Ireland, Brian Cowen and his government have continued in office.

There’s a real hope that if the upcoming election offers nothing else, it will offer an opportunity to draw a line in the sand – to look forward, instead of constantly looking back and pointing the finger of blame.

Byrne says he’s noticed that Irish people now seem to carry a strange guilt about the Celtic Tiger.

“I hear sometimes when I’m talking to people ‘Oh we shouldn’t have done that’ and a certain amount of shame in it,” he says.

But he says the truth is, not everybody got carried away. Not everyone partied.

“I don’t think everybody had a great time during the Celtic Tiger. I think it’s perceived that the entire country went crazy and everybody overspent.”

The election has led to loud calls for political reform in Ireland, with talk of “Reclaiming the Republic” and so forth.

“Funnily enough, they are saying the same things here,” says Byrne, “there are politicians who are saying ‘Let’s take America back’.

“But back from what, to what…I don’t know.”

Byrne sees echoes of the mood which spawned the Tea Party in the US in the Irish situation.

“There is a certain amount of anger, real anger, on the ground with the system here in the US that may or may not translate into action.

“But I think the Mid-Terms proved that Americans had a voice. And they sent the Democrats a harsh lesson.”

In Ireland, he sees a similar desire among ordinary people to let their political masters know that they are angry, and that they are too disconnected from the people.

But Byrne remains unconvinced that real change will happen.

“The truth is, from my point of view, what can actually happen? A coalition of the parties that are there already without real political reform, really fundamental political reform, I don’t know that that’s going to change anything.”

“How does one harness the legitimate anger that’s on the ground and use it to reclaim politics, to reclaim the system of government?

“Classically that’s a time when an alternative radical party could come into power, either from the right or from the left.

“And a radical shift to the right or the left in Ireland is something that I still wouldn’t rule out, but I think that unless there is a real profound change in the political system, like in Washington, then it’s just going to be more of the same.”

He smiles at me, “Is that too pessimistic a view?”

We’re not even here to talk about politics.

We’re here to talk about art.

Byrne is Ireland’s Cultural Ambassador and in that role he’s been spearheading the promotion of a year-long festival of Irish arts in the United States called “Imagine Ireland”.

It’s the biggest ever tour of Irish music, theatre, visual arts and dance in the US, taking in 40 states.

The Irish government has justified the $5m cost of the tour – saying it will open new cultural links, promote Ireland as a tourist destination and cast Ireland in a positive light at a time when we are in international headlines for all the wrong reasons.

But Byrne is unhappy at the spin being put on it.

“Economically we will recover,” he says, “But artistically we have never been set back.”

“Economically, Ireland has gotten a lot of bad press here obviously.

“But this isn’t about ‘oh now let’s tell the good news’. Irish culture consistently has always been evolving, and it will continue to do that through good times and bad.

“It’s been the story of our history, how our artists have turned great sorrows and great tribulations into amazing art.”

He knows too well that the general public may baulk at seeing millions being spent on art at a time when money is scarce.

“In and of itself, it is not going to put bread on the table, nor will it stop immigration.

“But perhaps artists can lead the way, and lead the way for politicians to reexamine the nature of the society we inhabit.

“Because art will transform a society as fast as a politician, in a more profound way I deeply believe.”

Byrne speaks of the potential of art, particularly in a recession, to offer hope and inspiration with a deep passion.

“I’m very interested in getting the message of art, and community art, across to young people, and how powerful the presence of art can be in your life, how it can break down barriers, social barriers, and can free the imagination.

“Introducing that concept into the lives of young people is one of the goals that I have.”

He says at a local level, a drama society can offer somewhere to escape the prevailing mood of depression and negativity, and offer something, for want of a better word, happy.

“I’m a huge supporter of the Irish Amateur Drama group, you know, because that combines social and artistic functions that only another organization say like the GAA can fulfill.”

“In these times especially it’s really important the people have unfettered access at least to the world of the imagination.

“Because the world of the imagination can show us ways to deal perhaps with the economic crisis we are currently going through.

“I’m not saying it’s the answer, but I’m saying it at least provides perspective”

[This article appears in this week's issue of the Irish Examiner USA]

Imagine Ireland launches in the US

Gabriel Byrne and Colum McCann

The biggest ever promotion of Irish arts in the US has been launched in New York.

Over the next 12 months 400 individual events will take place across 40 States - in an attempt to rebuild Ireland's reputation by reminding Americans of its rich cultural and artistic traditions.

Here's a radio feature I did for RTE's Morning Ireland on the launch, featuring Gabriel Byrne, Colum McCann and others.


[It was broadcast Monday January 10th, and is similar to my written blog entry on the launch, but also contains new material]


http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0110/morningireland.html