MusicTown 2017 | Full day to day programme announced

The full programme for MusicTown 2017 has been announced today, including appearances from Chelsea Wolfe and Katie Kim.

MusicTown 2017 will take place across several venues around Dublin City from April 7th to April 17th providing an wide array of musical and cultural events.

This year’s MusicTown festival programme has been confirmed and will include performances from Katie Kim, Crash Ensemble, Craig David, Chelsea Wolfe, Bronagh Gallagher and more. See below for the full programme and ticket details below.

MusicTown 2017 Day to Day – Breakdown:

Friday 7 April

Common Ground presents The Quiet Tree, an intimate traditional music performance specifically designed for young children (aged 3-6) and their families. This delightful music, storytelling, and puppetry performance takes children and accompanying adults on an adventure through the forest where they will explore musical instruments, sing, dance, and help Ornaith the owl, Sorley the snail, and Faolán the frog bring the little oak tree to life through music. The Quiet Tree is brought to you by musician Thomas Johnston, Ceol Connected and Common Ground with the generous support of Richmond Barracks.

• Fri 7 April / 14.30 – Richmond Barracks former St Michael’s Estate Inchicore Dublin 8

Tickets €7 per family (1 adult X 2 children aged 3 – 6years) from www.eventbrite.ie

BRONAGH GALLAGHER at Whelan’s.  Bronagh’s acclaimed new album ‘Gather Your Greatness’ is her third album of original material. A strong personal statement and expressly honest, the record is the second of Bronagh’s to be self-produced, determined to make the sound of the recording live up to the emotional heart of the lyric. The live show is a masterclass demonstration of why Bronagh is rightly regarded as not just one of our most celebrated actresses but also one of the great soul voices in Ireland… “Swaggering like Carole King in her golden years” – *** Q

• Fri 7 April / 20.00 – Whelan’s, Wexford Street, Dublin 2 – Tickets €15 from www.whelanslive.com

SAMANTHA CRAIN at Whelan’s. You Had Me at Goodbye, the fifth full length studio album from Samantha Crain, finds the literary tendencies of her songwriting allowing room for a wink and a nod. This wildly original album stands as the authoritative statement thus far from an uncommonly insightful and intrepid musician. Crain, who recently turned 30, has often been pegged an “old soul” by reviewers and music writers, beginning at her first release at the age of 19. Coming of age, for Crain, probably seems counterintuitive to longtime fans—flame coloured hair, increasingly comical stage banter, and, most notably, a new embrace of something previously absent in her catalogue so far: the pop song.

• Fri 7 April / 20.00 – Whelan’s Upstairs, Wexford Street, Dublin 2 – Tickets €15 from www.whelanslive.com

BRADY/IRVINE: A TRIBUTE at Liberty Hall Theatre. Forty years ago, following the decline of Planxty and The Johnstons, Paul Brady and Andy Irvine went into the studio to explore a fresh new collaboration. What came next was one of the most influential and iconic albums of folk song ever recorded on the island of Ireland. As a testament to the album’s lasting influence, MusicTown sees Dublin’s young, up and coming folk singers perform songs from the timeless record forty years after the fact. Line-up includes: Radie Peat and Ian Lynch of Lynched, Ye Vagabonds, Lisa O’Neill, Landless, John Flynn, Paddy Cummins and Macdara Yeates of Skipper’s Alley, Danny Diamond (Slow Moving Clouds, Mórga), Hajime Takahashi (Liam O’Brien, The Friel Sisters), and Saileog Ní Cheannabháin.

• Fri 7 April / 20.00 – Liberty Hall Theatre, Eden Quay, Dublin – tickets €24 from www.ticketmaster.ie

CRAIG DAVID at 3Arena. Having sold over 15 million albums, achieving 16 Top Ten hits and multi-platinum status in more than 20 countries, taking over festival stages around the world, selling out headline tours in seconds, to securing a residency at the iconic Ibiza Rocks Hotel …It’s official, Craig David is back and in a big way! Craig announces the UK & Ireland leg of his World Tour and his biggest arena tour in 15 years. He took over Glastonbury’s Sonic Stage, bringing over 25k people to the tent and achieving the record for the biggest crowd at the stage in Glastonbury history. Craig has also spent his summer in Ibiza with his residency at Ibiza Rocks Hotel.

• Fri 7 April / 18:30 – 3 Arena, North Wall Quay, Dublin 1 – tickets €33.50/€49.65/€60.45 from www.ticketmaster.ie

SOUNDS OF THE SQUARE showcases a living culture of music making in a unique and historic Dublin venue: the CIE Hall/Inchicore Sports and Social Club, which has been part of Dublin’s cultural fabric since the nineteenth century, and where musicians, singers, and other performers regularly come together to make live music. This evening will include an eclectic range of music from hip-hop artist Temper-Mental MissElayneous, song duo Peter Byrne and Conor Mahony, and one or two other surprises of large and small degree. Sounds of the Square is also a participatory event, open to all for an impromptu session, Dublin style.

• Fri 7 April / 20:30 – CIE Hall, Inchicore Sports and Social Club, Inchicore, Kilmainham, Dublin 8 – tickets €10/ €5 available on the door

Saturday 8 April

KATIE KIM AND CRASH ENSEMBLE: SALT INTERVENTIONS. Katie has a long history of collaborations with a selection of Irish and international artists, this collaboration with Crash Ensemble builds on Katie’s collaborative nature but approaches it in a different manner concentrating on her newly finished third album ‘Salt’ which was released October of 2016 to critical acclaim. This performance offers an insight into Katie’s record giving the audience special arrangements composed by Dublin born composer Seán Clancy for Crash Ensemble, Ireland’s leading new music group.

• Sat 8 April / 20:00 – The Grand Social, 35 Liffey Street Lower – tickets €15 from www.eventbrite.com

 

KEVIN ROWLAND (DJ SET). Kevin Rowland legendary frontman and artistic visionary of Dexys Midnight Runners will be guest of honour in The Grand Social on Saturday 8 April. One of the true, certifiable geniuses of British pop, Kevin is also a highly respected DJ. Presenting his own uniquely brilliant interpretation of the modern DJ set, Kevin expresses a deep love of known and neglected gems, thrillingly finding gaps within verses to occasionally add his own emotive vocals, he revels in the chance to underline the profound lyrics of overlooked singles. It’s a style that’s at once moving and truly inspiring. Special guest is Dublin DJ legend Dandelion.

• Sat 8 April / 23:00 – The Grand Social, 35 Liffey Street Lower – tickets €10 from www.tickets.ie

 

Bottlenote and the Irish Film Institute presents SOUNDS OF SILENTS is a silent film programme drawn from collections at the IFI Irish Film Archive. This year’s selection of films has a distinct German inflection and includes a captivating array of Irish social, cultural and political life as represented in newsreels, ethnographic films and early documentaries from the early days of cinema to the 1950s. The programme will be accompanied by a series of improvised scores performed by six leading musicians working between the fields of Irish traditional, improvised and electronic music. Shane Latimer, Seán MacErlaine and Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh will be joined by three musicians from the Ruhr area of Germany: Saxophonists Julius Gabriel and Florian Walter and electronic artist Achim Zepezauer.

• Sat 8 April / 14:00 / 20:30 – The Irish Film Institute, Eustace Street, Dublin 2 – tickets €10-€12 from www.ifi.ie or IFI box office

Legends of Irish Music & Song, THE FUREYS return to Vicar St for another great night of Irish Music, Songs and stories. Hear them sing their timeless classics including ‘I Will Love You’, ‘When You Were Sweet 16’, ‘The Green Fields of France’, ‘The Old Man’, ‘Red Rose Café’, ‘From Clare to Here’, ‘Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway’, ‘Leaving Nancy’, ‘Steal Away’, plus songs from their latest album ‘The Times They Are A Changing.’

• Sat 8 April / 19:30 – Vicar Street, Thomas Street, Dublin 8 – tickets €30 from www.ticketmaster.ie

Francesca Placanica & Maynooth University Presents LA VOIX HUMAINE & OTHER VOICES featuring: Soprano Francesca Placanica, Piano: Aileen Cahill, Shane Byrne: Digital Sets. A fully staged production of Francis Poulenc’s one-performer opera La Voix humaine in an evening of classical music performance and digital arts. The production is part of Francesca Placanica’s artistic research project hosted at Maynooth University and supported by the Irish Research Council. This production of La Voix humaine, for soprano, piano and digital sets contextualizes female sensibilities across visual arts and music throughout the twentieth-century, as imagined by Cocteau and Poulenc and embodied by their first muse and demiurge Denise Duval. The second half of the evening will feature known and lesser known pieces from the operatic and chamber vocal repertoire.

• Sat 8 April / 20:00 – Lutheran Hall, 23 Adelaide Road, St Finian’s Church – tickets €10 – €15 from www.eventbrite.ie

HONEYBLOOD at Whelan’s, the debut Dublin performance from the Scottish indie-pop duo of Stina Marie Claire Tweeddale (vocals and guitar) and Cat Myers (vocals and drums) whose second album Babes Never Die excited critics and gently dented the charts. “Sounds like Taylor Swift’s ‘We’re Never Getting Back Together’ performed by two Scottish goth-girls doing an impression of the Jesus and Mary Chain in a tomb.”

• Sat 8 April / 20:00 – Whelan’s, Wexford Street, Dublin – tickets €14 from www.ticketmaster.ie

A free, fun participatory contemporary music event for children (aged 6-10) OUR TUNES will take place on Sat 8 April at the Contemporary Music Centre.  No musical expertise is required for this event, presented by Adrian Mantu, cellist with ConTempo Quartet and will include composer Karen Power and several musicians.

• Sat 8 April / 10 – 13:00 (6 to 8 year olds) / 14:00 – 17:00 (8-10 year olds) – Contemporary Music Centre, 19 Fishamble Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 8 – tickets from www.eventbrite.ie  free admission events

 

Dublin International Choral Festival Concert. In this first concert of the official Dublin International Choral Festival, we celebrate choral music in all its forms and performed by choirs of all ages. All the way from Connecticut, USA, we welcome the highly-regarded Guilford High School Voices and Guilford High School Concert Choir. Under the musical direction of Kevin Buno, they will regale Dublin audiences with choral works from the classical and contemporary repertoires. They will be joined by Dublin’s Cameron Singers under the direction of Róisín Nic Athlaoich. Based in Raheny, this energetic choir of mature singers will perform a mixed repertoire and madrigals and modern pieces.

• Sat 8 April / 20:00 – St. Patrick’s Cathedral, St. Patrick’s Close, Dublin 8 – tickets €5 from www.eventbrite.ie

DUBLIN LIVE MUSIC TRAIL AT MUSICTOWN. Presented by First Music Contact in partnership with Dublin City Council and Visit Dublin these events will be day-time pop-up gigs featuring many of Dublin’s finest musicians. The acts performing at this year’s Live Music Trails will be Saramai, Maria Kelly, Damola, Train Room, Barq, Peppy, Cult Called Man, Young Earth, The Fontaines, Comrade Hat,Patrick Freeman, Tiz Mc Namara, Naoise Roo, Vulpynes, Brian Casey, Miles Graham, Aik J, Majia Sofia and Clarence Winter. These performances will take place in various pop-up venues such as Dublin Ink,  Irish Design Shop and the Tourist Information Office on Suffolk Street, to name a few.

• Sat 8 April & Sun 9 April / 12:00 – 17:00 – various venues – free admission events

 

Sunday 9 April

DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL CHORAL FESTIVAL – CLOSING GALA CONCERT. One of the aims of the Dublin International Choir Festival is to provide a uniquely Irish experience to visiting choirs and to forge connections between the participants. In this concert, participating choirs will present works from their repertoire. But we up the ante as all choirs will join as one and perform two choruses from Handel’s Messiah: For Unto Us a Child Is Born and the glorious Hallelujah. The choirs will also perform Ripples in the Rockpools from the Granuaile Suite by Shaun Davey. The orchestra and choirs will be conducted by Ireland’s own extraordinary David Brophy.

• Sun 9 April / 20:00 – St. Patrick’s Cathedral, St. Patrick’s Close, Dublin 8 – tickets €10 from www.eventbrite.ie

Royal Irish Academy of Music PERCUSSION DAY. A day-long percussion extravaganza at the RIAM featuring workshops, masterclasses, an array of pop-up performances and highly-charged collaborative concerts by percussionists from Ireland and special musical guests.

• Sun 9  April / 12:00 – 18:00 – Royal Irish Academy of Music, 36 Westland Row, Dublin 2 – tickets from www.riam.ie free admission event

 

CAMUS JAZZ – Seven Musical Steps to Albert Camus by Tommy Halferty, performed by the Tommy Halferty Ensemble. Tommy Halferty was inspired by his interest in Albert Camus, the Franco Algerian writer, to compose a suite of jazz music based on seven of Camus’ stories. The suite is performed by The Tommy Halferty Ensemble with Tommy Halferty (guitar), Michael Buckley (saxophones and flute), Aleka Potinga (voice), Izumi Kimura (piano), Dave Redmond (double bass), Kevin Brady (drums), Cora Venus Lunny (violin), Una O’Kane (violin), Una NiCathainn (cello) with Hugo Halferty Drochon (narrator).

• Sun 9 April / 19:00 – No. 22, South Anne Street, Dublin 2 – tickets €45 (show & 3-course dinner) / show only €15

Royal Irish Academy of Music presents THE DUBLIN GAITIES. The historic Pillar Room of the Rotunda Hospital is the elegant setting for a concert featuring popular music and dances from Georgian Dublin – The Dublin Gaities, a term used for all forms of entertainment in Dublin in the 18th Century. Baroque specialist Claire Duff (violin), David Adams (harpsichord) and dancers Mary Collins and Steve Player, lead Academy students in a delightful programme of instrumental music, song and dance by a selection of international composers, including Handel, Geminiani and  Dubourg whose impact on Ireland’s musical legacy resonates to this day, in addition to works by Lully, Purcell and Campra. Also, ahead of this special performance, MusicTown audiences will have an opportunity to hear all about Dance and the Dublin Gaities when Mary Collins shares the wealth of her knowledge of the form during the period and the role which dance professionals played. This free admission event will take place in the Royal Irish Academy of Music on Friday, April 7^th at 6.30 pm.

• Sun 9 April / 15:00 – Pillar Room, Rotunda Hospital, Parnell Street, Dublin 1 – tickets €7/€5 from www.riam.ie

 

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD: Supernatural Encounters at the Margins of Death, created and presented by Lorcán Mac Mathúna and also featuring Martin Tourish and Éamonn Galldubh. The Egyptian Book of the Dead is the inspiration for this recital of songs concerning supernatural encounters at the approach of deaths hour – ‘the moment of truth’. The ancient Egyptian funerary text, commonly calledThe Book of the Dead – a fragment of which is exhibited in the Chester Beatty Library – is a guide for the soul of the deceased through a series of trials, to the Egyptian afterlife in the field of Rushes.

• Sun 9 April / 14:00 / 15:30 – Chester Beatty Library, Clock Tower Building, Dublin Castle, Dublin 2 – free admission event

FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT is a once-off collaboration between Young Hearts Run Free and Nialler9 especially concocted for Musictown. Drawing on our two organisation’s established history, the event will bring new and established Irish artists in different creative fields together under the shroud of mystery and with an emphasis on a unique Dublin kind of alchemy: songs, voices, words and visuals. From Darkness to Light will take place in the D-Light Studios and feature short performances from an eclectic programme of Irish artists. Drawing on the theme of secrecy, From Darkness To Light will provide no details on the performers in advance. Over the course of the night, the venue will gradually be illuminated as each artist performs. Let From Darkness To Light lead you on a journey of creativity and space. All profits from the show will go towards the Simon Community.

• Sun 9 April / 19:30 – DLight Studios, 46 North Great Clarence Street, North Strand, Dublin 1 – tickets €12-€20 fromwww.eventbrite.ie

Monday 10 April

PWR BTTM at The Workman’s Club. Formed in 2013 after guitarist Ben Hopkins and drummer Liv Bruce bonded over bringing drag culture and performance art into the D.I.Y. scene while studying at upstate New York’s Bard College, the pair set about writing and recording material for a demo. PWR BTTM’s first EP, ‘Cinderella Beauty Shop’, appeared in 2014, with its raw pop-punk and garage rock sound drawing comparisons to the likes of queercore pioneers Pansy Division and God Is My Co-Pilot. While creating a buzz with their live shows, the pair followed up their debut release with the split EP ‘Republican National Convention’ with Jawbreaker Reunion. Continuing to tour throughout 2015, the pair entered the studio to record their debut album, with the resulting Ugly Cherries appearing in the U.S. on Father/Daughter Records in September. Earning rave reviews for their take on queer punk, the album was issued the following year in the U.K. and Europe on Big Scary Monsters.

• Mon 10 April / 20:00 – The Workman’s Club, 10 Wellington Quay, Dublin 2 – tickets €13 from www.ticketmaster.ie

Following his mind-blowing show at Vicar St last year, KID INK returns to Dublin on the back of his third and latest studio album Full Speed was released last year on RCA Records. The album was supported by the hit single ‘Body Language’ featuring Usher and Tinashe. Kid Ink cruises past all boundaries. The Los Angeles rapper, producer, and performer can seamlessly slip from an irresistible hook into an impeccable verse, effortlessly bobbing and weaving between the club and the streets. There’s absolutely nobody quite like the tattooed from head-to-toe impresario. Grinding as a producer since the age of 16, he uncovered this creative highway by perfecting a personal style behind the board first. His production collaborations include everybody from Sean Diddy Combs, Sean Kingston, Nipsey Hussle, and more. That experience in the studio set the stage for him to become the versatile and vibrant force he is today.

• Mon 10 April / 19:30 – Vicar Street, Thomas Street, Dublin 2 – tickets €33.50 from www.ticketmaster.ie

Royal Irish Academy of Music presents WRITER’S CHOICE which will afford MusicTown audiences an opportunity to hear a number of musical works which have inspired, captivated or hold special meaning for a selection of Irish writers performed by prize-winning students of the Academy. Amongst the writers that RIAM have collected musical nominations from are Sebastian Barry, Anne Enright, Roddy Doyle, Jennifer Johnston and RIAM alumnus, Joseph O’Connor. The Academy is working with organisations including the American Irish Historical Society, New York and Literature Ireland in securing nominations from these and other celebrated Irish writers.

• Mon 10 April / 18:30 – Royal College of Physicians, 6 Kildare Street, Dublin 2 – tickets €8/€5 from www.riam.ie

JUST SIX DEGREES presents RICHIE EGAN (JAPE, THE REDNECK MANIFESTO). Just Six Degrees is a web project based around the idea of inspiration. It asks each participant one question: who inspires you right now? For a very special live edition created for MusicTown, Just Six Degrees will ask this question to Richie Egan (Jape, The Redneck Manifesto). On the night, he will reveal who inspires him within music spheres and they in turn will be asked the question until a connection of six people/collectives is made. Expect a tune or two, video and unique insights into a world of inspiration all stemming from Richie as a starting point.

• Mon 10 April / 20:00 – The Sugar Club, The Sugar Club, 8 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 – tickets €10 from www.eventbrite.ie

Tues 11 April

The 18th century was a golden age for music in Ireland, with leading musicians from all over Europe, including Geminiani, Dubourg, Castrucci, Arne and the celebrated Handel frequently visiting to play in concert halls and the salons of musical patrons.  This innovative musical project THE GOLDEN AGE & CELTIC TIGER DUBLIN presented by the Royal Irish Academy of Music, will see RIAM musicians, led by composer Kevin O’Connell and Early Music specialist, David Adams, explore music in the Irish capital during this period by composers including Handel, Geminiani and Carolan, and also present a number of original works by RIAM composers. Parallel themes of opulence, poverty, emigration, immigration, religion and women and children from the Golden Age and Celtic Tiger eras will be highlighted by musicians and composers alike in what is bound to be a fascinating musical evening.

• Tues 11 April / 19:00 – Royal Irish Academy of Music, 36 Westland Row, Dublin 2 – tickets from www.riam.ie free admission event

 

Dylan Tighe presents WABI-SABI SOUL: 3D LISTENING EVENT a unique immersive event which invites the audience to contemplate, in revelatory sonic and textual detail, the words and music of Dylan Tighe’s acclaimed second album Wabi-Sabi Soul. Featuring a 5.1 surround-sound mix by Sean Coleman and lyrics in bespoke 3D designed by José Miguel Jiménez this event proposes a highly innovative fusion of music, 3D and cinema surround-sound to create a new way of listening to, and seeing, new Irish music.

• Tues 11 April / 20.00 – Savoy Cinema, 17 O’Connell Street, Dublin 1 – tickets €8 + booking fee from https://dylantighewabisabisoul.eventbrite.ie

The Royal Irish Academy of Music is proud to present the charismatic violinist Daniel Rowland in masterclass entitled MEET THE MASTER. Recognised on the international scene as a highly versatile and adventurous performer, he has performed with artists as diverse as Elvis Costello, Ivry Gitlis, Heinz Holliger and Lars Vogt and is a frequent guest at many of the foremost international chamber music festivals. Daniel Rowland will work with some of the Academy’s finest young string players, sharing the enormous wealth of his experience with participants and audience alike.

• Tues 11 April / 14:00-17:00 & 18:00-21:00 – Royal Irish Academy of Music, 36 Westland Row, Dublin 2 – tickets from www.riam.ie free admission event  (also running on Wed 12 April_

Renowned songwriter, singer, true believer, ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO released Burn Something Beautiful in October 2016. Escovedo’s first solo endeavor since 2012’s highly acclaimed Big Station, is in actuality, a highly collaborative affair. Teaming with Peter Buck (R.E.M.) and Scott McCaughey (The Minus 5) to co-write the album’s songs, Escovedo also enlisted the pair to act as the project’s producers. In a trailblazing career that began with The Nuns, San Francisco’s famed punk innovators, Escovedo has earned a surplus of distinctions: No Depression magazine’s Artist of the Decade Award in 1998 and the Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Performing in 2006, just to name two.

• Tues 11 April / 20.00 – Whelan’s, Wexford Street, Dublin 2 – tickets €25 from www.whelanslive.com

OPERA THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS HANDEL’S ACIS AND GALATEA, a high point of baroque repertoire. With renowned baroque specialist Peter Whelan as Music Director, Acis and Galatea is accompanied by the dazzling Irish Baroque Orchestra and features tenor Eamonn Mulhall and soprano Susanna Fairbairn as the thwarted lovers with bass baritone Edward Grint as Polyphemus and tenor Andrew Gavin as Damon. Director Tom Creed gives the tale a contemporary twist and an updated rural setting, which will resonate deeply with the modern audience. Handel’s glorious music – full of emotion, wit and soaring melodies is both elegant and exciting and the enchanting choruses, touching arias, and comic moments in Acis and Galatea will enthral and delight. Sung in English, Acis and Galatea stage design is by Paul O’Mahony, with lighting design by Aedín Cosgrove and costume design by Catherine Fay.

• Tues 11 April / 19.30 – O’Reilly Theatre, Belvedere College, Great Denmark Street, Dublin 1 – tickets €35/€38 from www.nch.ie or 01-4170000

The breath taking third album by Montreal artist NEEMA – titled Painting My Wall Gold – overflows with the kind of wisdom, maturity, nuance and diversity that only comes from having packed a lot of living into a relatively small number of years. Drawing from her experiences studying music in Egypt, living close to the land with the northern First Nations, surviving the loss of her sister, and welcoming new life into the world, Neema teamed up with Daryl Johnson (Daniel Lanois) and Mark Howard (Tom Waits, Bob Dylan) to create a beautiful, sophisticated, globally-infused, and electronically-enhanced album of modern folk music that draws heavily on themes of acceptance and equanimity. Neema’s lyrics, poetic in their ambiguity and sprinkled with visual metaphors and spiritual allusions, transcend the personal triumphs and tragedies that gave them life, evoking instead the raw emotional essence of the situations that inspired them.

• Tues 11 April / 20:00 – Whelans, Wexford Street, Dublin 2 – tickets €15 from www.whelanslive.com

 

Wed 12 April

Royal Irish Academy of Music presents MEET THE MASTER with violinist Daniel Rowland (as above)

• Wed 12 April / 09:00-16:00 – Royal Irish Academy of Music, 36 Westland Row, Dublin 2 – tickets from www.riam.ie free admission event

 

Thurs 13 April

MUSIC TOGETHER: HEARTBEAT OF THE CITY. Music Together was established in 2006 to organise workshops for adult musicians with disabilities, leading to annual performances in Greystones Arts Festival and Brayfest. The organisation has benefited from the dedicated work of tutors in voice, percussion, electronic music and composition. With funding from Music Network’s Capital Scheme and other donations they have acquired the large stock of instruments to use in all their sessions, including Samba drums and the Aluphone designed by Evelyn Glennie. In 2009 they completed a three-month project with Irish Wheelchair Association Youth Group in West Dublin leading to a performance in Rua Red Theatre Tallaght.

• Thurs 13 April / 14:30 –  The Atrium, Trinity College, College Green, Dublin 2 – Free admission event – donations will be invited to Music Together’s Summer project

Two time Grammy-winner, singer-songwriter, JOHN PRINE, is among the English language’s premier phrase-turners. Forty-five years into a remarkable career that has drawn effusive praise from Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt, Roger Waters, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, and others who would know, Prine is a smiling, shuffling force for good. He is a Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member whose classic debut album, simply titled John Prine, is recognized as part of the Recording Academy’s Grammy Hall of Fame. Prine’s songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash, Tom T. Hall, the Everly Brothers, Carly Simon, Bette Midler, Norah Jones, George Strait, Miranda Lambert, and many others. But his genius isn’t found in his resume, it’s found in the brilliance of lyrics from his large catalogue of songs.

• Thurs 13 April / 19:00 – Bord Gais Energy Theatre, Grand Canal Square, Docklands, Dublin 2 – tickets €44.05/€ 54.65 fromwww.ticketmaster.ie

With her stunning seventh album Version Of Me released in October 2016, Melanie C has announced her return to Dublin. Version Of Me is a richly textured, lushly atmospheric, deeply personal album which lays bare her life over beats, shimmering synths, striking percussion and strings.  It’s Melanie as you’ve always known her – adventurous, honest, infectiously pop – but as you’ve never heard her before.

• Thurs 13 April / 19:30 – Vicar Street, Thomas Street, Dublin 8 – tickets €39.50 from www.ticketmaster.ie

 

Dublin City Council & Our Lady’s Choral Society presents MESSIAH ON THE STREET. Celebrating the 275th Anniversary of the World Premiere of Messiah in Mr Neal’s Musick Hall in Fishamble Street April 13, 1742, Our Lady’s Choral Society perform excerpts from Messiah with The Dublin Handelian Orchestra and tenor soloist Peter O’Reilly. The performance will be conducted by the acclaimed Proinnsías Ó Duinn in an outdoor setting live on Fishamble Street to commemorate one of the city’s most historical music events.

• Thurs 13 April / 13:00 – Fishamble Street, Dublin 8 –  Free admission event

 

YUSSEF KAMAAL – FUTURE JAZZ SERIES. Yussef Kamaal are shaped by the sound of London. Growing up in the city, they frame jazz within the bass-saturated, pirate radio broadcasts of the UK capital. The pair, made up of Yussef Dayes and Kamaal Williams (aka Henry Wu), have had little in the way of formal training. Instead, their musical tastes – and approach to playing – are indebted to Thelonious Monk’s piano as much as the drum programming of Kaidi Tatham. Comprised of keyboardist/producer Kamaal Williams and drummer Yussef Dayes, the duo are rhythmic improvisation incarnate. Taking their cues from ‘70s jazz-funk refracted through the bass-heavy sounds of London club culture, the pair have recently released their debut LP, Black Focus. Jazz is best experienced live and with Black Focus Yussef Kamaal have captured the unpredictable and at times fragmented intensity of the live experience on wax. This is the kind of record that inspires new listeners to explore unfamiliar sounds and musical histories; the kind of record that bodes very well for the future of British jazz.

• Thurs 13 April / 19:30 – The Sugar Club, 8 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 – tickets €20 from www.sugarclubtickets.com

GLOBE is a world music concert that combines virtuoso individual performances and the combination of different instrumentation from around the world. The show features world-class performers, who trade and fuse their music and singing skills to achieve extraordinarily original, exquisite and powerful soundscapes. Globe brings forth new connections between musicians from Ireland and other countries celebrated for rhythm and music. Irish music wears its globalism lightly, and from the earliest imports of American recordings at the turn of the 20th century to the current assimilation of European influences by contemporary artists, our tradition has comfortably renewed itself from diverse sources from North America and Scandinavia to the Iberian Peninsula and The Balkans.

• Thurs 13 April / 19:30 –  Smock Alley Theatre, 6/7 Exchange Street Lower, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 – tickets €18/ €20 fromhttps://smockalley.ticketsolve.com/#/show

 

Following on from exhilarating performances at the World Bodhrán Championship Kerry, Electric Picnic, Uisneach Festival of Fires, Eargail Arts Festival and Feile na Bealtaine, LIAM Ó MAONLAÍ AND RÓNÁN Ó SNODAIGH are teaming up again. With a common musical background two of Dublin’s best known gaeilgóirs come together to mix their unique blends of trad, rock, folk, soul and world music. Both separately known as musical shamans, they have a common experience of the world stage through their bands Hot House Flowers, Kíla and Dead Can Dance (Rónán) and their level of musicianship is second to none. This is a unique opportunity to see the two ex Colaiste Eoin pupils reunite on Dublin stage to perform a joint set. Special Guest on the night will be David Keenan.

• Thurs 13 April / 20:00 – The Bowery, 196 Rathmines Road Lower, Dublin 6 – tickets €22.50 from www.thebowery.ie

 

Fri 14 April

Ardú Vocal Ensemble presents MISERERE – A CHORAL MASTERPIECE FOR GOOD FRIDAY. Established in 2013, Ardú Vocal Ensemble have pioneered the genre of modern a cappella in Ireland, performing to sold out audiences at Hugh Lane Gallery, National Maritime Museum, The Button Factory, Freemasons’ Hall and Unitarian Church. Ardú have also performed at the London A Cappella Festival and Edinburgh Fringe Festival and in 2015 released their debut full-length album. This year Ardú have taken up a position of artists in residence at An Táin Theatre, Co. Louth. Les Petits Chanteurs de Strasbourg comprises three children and youth choirs and a male voice choir, with a total of 90 to 100 singers. Boys and girls are admitted from 7 to 18 years of age. Founded in September 2001, the choir has a twofold mission: running a high-quality children’s and youth choir and educating young singers.

Miserere will be performed by Ardu Vocal Ensemble, the Ardu Apprentices and 30 singers from the French choir. This 360 degree immersive performance is not to be missed.

• Fri 14 April / 18:30 – City Hall, Dame Street, Dublin 2 tickets €20 from www.ardumusic.com

 

Sat 15 April

WEYES BLOOD at The Workman’s Club. The music is immediate and warm with intimate feeling. This disarming nearness draws out emotion from the album’s sound in evocative, bold color. The lyrics serve not to obscure and mystify, but to perform, reveal, and take the listener inside. This is the folk music of the near future. Natalie Mering, the being behind Weyes Blood, sings sublimely on Front Row. Her delivery is a trained low gloss, polished with the charm of speech. Mering embeds her song in a harmonic gauze of arpeggiated piano, acoustic guitar, druggy horns, and outer space electronics. Mering, together with co-producer Chris Cohen and some special guests, contrasts live band intimacy with the post-modern electric sheen of A.M. radio atmospherics. The experimental flourishes sparkle amid the succinct, thoughtful arrangements.

• Sat 15 April / 20:00 – The Workman’s Club, 10 Wellington Quay, Dublin 2 – tickets €13 from www.ticketmaster.ie

FICINO ENSEMBLE was formed by Artistic Director Nathan Sherman in 2012 as a flexible chamber music group that performs all the great music for small ensembles, ranging from string trios to works written for larger ensembles.  Ficino Ensemble’s aim is to perform works that appeal to a discerning audience whilst championing lesser known works that deserve to be appreciated. They performed a highly successful chamber music series at the National Concert Hall in August 2016. Most recently, they played an all-Beethoven concert at the Music for Galway Emily Anderson Memorial Concert in the newly re-named Emily Anderson Concert Hall at the Aula Maxima, a performance which was recorded for live broadcast on RTÉ Lyric FM. Their concerts have been described as exciting and intimate with a high calibre of ensemble playing. The members of the group are recognized in Ireland and abroad as soloists and chamber musicians.

Philip Glass: String Quartet No 3 (Mishima)

William Walton: String Quartet in A minor

Johannes Brahms: Clarinet Quintet op. 115

• Sat 15 April / 20:00 – Chapel Royal, Dublin Castle, Dame Street, Dublin 2 – tickets €15 + booking fee from www.eventbrite.ie

One of Ireland’s national treasures MARY BLACK is one of the great interpreters of both traditional and modern song. Hailing from a famously musical family, she went to achieve incredible success in her solo career, melding styles and genres with a series of multi-platinum albums not least of all 1989’s No Frontiers. Mary was also part of the hugely successful A Woman’s Heart compilation series with sister Frances Black, Dolores Keane, Sharon Shannon, Maura O’Connell and Eleanor McEvoy. For this concert she will be accompanied by her world famous band of musicians: Bill Shanley (guitar), Pat Crowley (piano and accordion), Nick Scott (double bass) and Richie Buckley (saxophone).

• Sat 15 April / 19:30 – Vicar Street, Thomas Street, Dublin 8 – tickets €35 from www.ticketmaster.ie

Sleep paralysis plagues singer-songwriter CHELSEA WOLFE, and that strange intersection of the conscious and the unconscious has inadvertently manifested itself within her work. But until now, Wolfe’s trials and tribulations with the boundaries between dreams and reality have only been a subconscious influence on her work. With her fifth album, Abyss, she deliberately confronts those boundaries and crafts a score to that realm she describes as the “hazy afterlife… an inverted thunderstorm… the dark backward… the abyss of time… Sleep and dream issues have followed me my whole life,” remarks Wolfe as she revisits notes from the writing and recording sessions. In a way, these issues have become a part of Chelsea Wolfe’s identity, for whom the notion of sleep as an escape has been subverted. Abyss captures this dichotomy, this battle between the soothing and the upsetting, and demonstrates why Chelsea Wolfe has become one of the most intriguing songwriters of the decade. Special guest on the night is acclaimed Cork artist WIFE, the solo project of Irish musician and singer James Kelly, formerly of the group Altar of Plagues.

• Sat 15 April / 20:00 – Whelans, Wexford Street, Dublin 2 – tickets €20 from www.ticketmaster.ie

Like his mythological namesake, DAEDELUS – otherwise known as Alfred Darlington – is an inventor, a creator of sonic labyrinths combining sounds from an eclectic palette into an innovative genre all his own. The LA producer is one of the most inventive working in the electronic field today with an already fantastic body with releases on seminal labels such as Plug Research, Anticon, Mush Records, Brainfeeder, Ninja Tune and Dublab right up to last year’s Labyrinths LP on his own imprint Magical Properties. Look out for special guests to be added to this bill.

• Sat 15 April / 20:00 – The Sugar Club, 8 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 –  tickets €15 from www.sugarclubtickets.com

 

Sun 16 April

Last year saw the release of the fourth album from Rockford, Illinois virtuoso guitarist and songwriter RYLEY WALKER, entitled Golden Sings That Have Been Sung. “Through those fingers flow many woody and august antecedents: difficult homegrown masters like John Martyn or Bert Jansch, wayward American travellers like John Fahey, more canonical voices like Tim Buckley; the jazzy post-rockers of his adopted Chicago. Later in the set he’ll cover Tim Hardin’s If I Were a Carpenter.” The Guardian ****

• Sun 16 April / 20:00 – Whelans, Wexford Street, Dublin 2 – tickets €16 from www.ticketmaster.ie

Mon 17 April

Dublin Choral Foundation presents IN YOUR EASTER BONNET. Now in its 21^st year Dublin Choral Foundation is a leader in the arts education sector, providing, on a non-denominational basis, a musical education for children hitherto only available in the cathedral choral tradition. This high quality musical experience engages almost 100 young singers each year via its two established choirs – Piccolo Lasso Children’s Choir and The Lassus Scholars.  Directed by Dr Ite O’Donovan, members of these choirs receive on-going training in vocal technique, music literacy skills, sight-singing skills and interpretation. Since the first MusicTown in 2015 Piccolo Lasso and The Lassus Scholars have delighted audiences throughout the city with their outdoor performances of Dublin songs, folk songs and songs from the movies. 2017 proves to be no exception and they will be found on Easter Monday entertaining the public and enticing them to celebrate Easter by joining in the choruses of many well-known songs on their walking tour of the city.

• Mon 17 April / 12:00 – Starting point Wolfe Tone Sq – finishing point South King Street – Free Admission Event.  Route – Wolfe Tone Sq -> Italian Quarter -> Millenium Bridge -> Temple Bar Square -> Andrew Street – > South William Street -> South King Street.