Music lovers may have been deprived of musical diversion for over a year but now, just when it seems there is no end to the enforced silence, along comes the Louth Contemporary Music Society (LCMS) with a full four days of musical excitement.
True to the defiant spirit encapsulated in their slogan “New music may be locked down again, but will not be locked out”, LCMS have come up with ‘We Sing for the Future’, a festival of specially filmed performances.
‘We Sing for the Future’, will stream online next week, from 14 – 18 April and they have some really special treats in store from abroad and from closer to home.
So, what have they got to offer?
The world premiere of a new work, ‘Lenguas de Fuego’ (Tongues of Fire) , promises fascination and utter excitement from the Irish composer, Kevin Volans , who is as ever in vigorous pursuit of freedom within his compositions.
This adventurous piece will be performed by a string quartet with flute and percussion: Mia Cooper, violin; Anna Cashell, violin; Joachim Roewer, viola; William Butt, cello; Silvija Scerbaviciute, flute; Brian Dungan, percussion; Conductor, Andrew Synnott.
Then there’s some captivating visual aspects, from a sweet piece for video -‘Six Moving Guitars’ by Fredrik Rasten – that looks at the unity of choreography and sound.
How about Sarah Hennies’ ‘Contralto’, a one-hour work for video, strings, and percussion composed that exists in between the spaces of experimental music and documentary?
Sarah Hennies will be performing “Contralto” at Louth Contemporary Music Society’s ‘We Sing for the Future’ festival.
The piece features a cast of transgender women speaking, singing, and performing vocal exercises accompanied by a dense and varied musical score that includes a variety of conventional and “non-musical” approaches to sound-making.
Or Harmonic Space Orchestra performing Marc Sabat’s ‘Gioseffo Zarlino’, a piece that unfolds cyclically, weaving voices into a fabric of strings, harp, and flute in a way that reworks sixteenth-century musical theory for our century and captures the spirit of restless innovation put forth by renaissance theorists.
The festival will close on a Cuban-inspired note, in an evening dedicated to guitarist-composer Leo Brouwer and his Caribbean modernism. Guitarist Andrey Lebedev and cellist Cecilia Bignall will play Brouwer’s Diálogos de la Isla y el Mar for cello and guitar from London’s Cafe OTO and the astonishing ‘La Ciudad de las Columnas’.
Then Drogheda guitarist Alec O’Leary and his guitar quartet will present the world premiere of Brouwer’s ‘Irish Landscape with Rain’, a piece initially written for last year’s cancelled festival. Alec will also enchant viewers with two solo works: ‘Cuban Landscape with Bells’ and the world premiere of ‘Dorian it is too late’ , a new piece in memoriam of Oscar Wilde.
Previously, LCMS has commissioned Arvo Pärt, Sir John Tavener, David Lang and Terry Riley, and has featured performances from musicians such as Philip Glass.
CLICK HERE for more information and to book tickets
