NEWS & PRESS INFORMATION

PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS - 01/08/07

Irish Music - Karen Casey

Karen returns home to Waterford to play the Imagine Arts Fest. “I am planning to start in the next few weeks with the new band on an album of traditional songs. It will be produced by my good friend Donald Shaw and hopefully will be released at the end of this year”
Hear Karen Casey with her band at Garter Lane Theatre on Sunday 28th Oct.

Jazz Music – Martin Taylor

“Martin Taylor is one of the most awesome solo guitar players in the history of the instrument. He's unbelievable” - Pat Metheny
Described as "THE acoustic guitarist of his generation" by America's Acoustic Guitar Magazine, Martin Taylor has established a unique career as an internationally acclaimed guitarist, and his inimitable style has seen him recognised as the world's foremost exponent of solo jazz guitar playing.
Although completely self taught, he has enjoyed a musical career spanning over 30 years, dazzling audiences with his solo shows, which combine virtuosity, emotion and humour, with a strong stage presence.
Martin Taylor plays his only Irish gig this year @ The Church, Patrick St., Sun 4th Nov.

Choral Music - The Swingle Singers

The Swingle Singers is an a cappella group, based in London, UK; made up of eight young singers who continue a fine singing tradition that was started over forty years ago. The Swingle Singers provide an exciting mix of music from the group which has toured the world with their 'a capella' shows including classical, opera, jazz , film and TV standards. The Swingles make their debut in Waterford and is a must for lovers of choral music. They perform in the ideal setting of Christchurch Cathedral after their recent London Prom debut!
"Pappano conducted his orchestra and the excellent Swingle Singers in a brilliant visceral performance" Richard Morrison, The Times
"The Swingle Singers pitched those mysteriously lovely chords with laser-like precision...on a purely musical level this performance was a triumph" Ivan Hewett, The Telegraph
**** 4 STARS - Nick Kimberley, Evening Standard
"...the Swingle Singers sounded fabulous - their use of microtones was especially effective" - MusicOMH.com
The Swingle Singers, Fri. 26th Oct. at Christchurch Cathedral.

Irish Trad Music - Liam O'Flynn with Paddy Glacken

Liam O’Flynn was a member of Planxty the legendary group that brought Irish trad to a new level.. He has worked with the Everly Brothers, Enya, Kate Bush, Nigel Kennedy and Mark Knopfler. He has also worked on film scores, including "A River Runs Through It" and "Kidnapped". He was adventurous enough to work with avant-garde composer John Cage, but his most natural alliance was with neo-romantic composer Shaun Davey. The Bothy Band were natural successors to the original Planxty, and one of its members, Matt Molloy, who subsequently joined The Chieftains, played with The Chieftains' fiddler Seán Keane on O'Flynn's album, The Piper's Call, which was performed in the 1999 Proms season at the Royal Albert Hall. He has also worked on projects with Seamus Heaney, mixing poetry with music. Liam is joined on this tour by legendary fiddler Paddy Glacken.
Liam O’Flynn and Paddy Glacken @ The Church, Patrick St., Sat. 3rd Nov

Literature - Linton Kwesi Johnson

LKJ is known and revered as the world's first reggae poet. He has released 13 albums in his thirty year recording history. He has published five collections of his work. David Bowie described his album FORCES OF VICTORY 'A Carib-Brit contribution to the history of rap. This man writes some of the most moving poetry to be found in popular music. The quite achingly sad SONNY'S LETTAH (ANTI-SUS POEM) is alone worth the price of admission. Although not sung but spoken word set against a superb band, this must be one of the most important reggae records of all time’.
LKJ reads with special guest local legend Louis Quinlan on Tuesday 30th Oct.

Film - French Film Festival

Featuring five new French releases they will include comedy, politics, thriller and this tribute to Edith Piaf featuring a stunning performance by Marion Cotillard as the "little sparrow" who lived, loved and sang with no regrets. A huge hit in France and winner of five Césars, La Vie en Rose arrives on these shores with its uniquely Gallic blend of onstage triumph, backstage tragedy and tempestuous melodrama intact. Directed by Olivier Dahan and co-starring Gérard Depardieu the film delivers far more than the standard biopic. Jumping with emotional, if not sequential, logic among pivotal periods in Piaf's life—from her Balzacian childhood as the daughter of a circus acrobat and alcoholic prostitute, her upbringing in a brothel and her discovery by nightclub owner Louis Leplée to her passionate affair with boxer Marcel Cedan, years of drug addiction and a hallucinatory final night in Grasse—the film indulges its heroine’s unquenchable thirst for life, love and experience.
French Film Festival runs from Sunday 28th Oct to Thursday 1st Nov. at Storm Cinema, Poleberry.

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