By Dan Walsh
The Festival of Ferns is a two-day festival on Sunday and Monday next weekend – which is the June Bank Holiday – and it opens with a unique concert, a world premiere performance in the beautiful setting of St. Eden’s Cathedral, Ferns, on Sunday starting at 7.30pm.
Featuring The Allabair Trio with vocalist Melanie O’Reilly, guitarist David Creevy and uilleann piper Brewen Favreau, with guest local choir the Chord On Blues, the concert will premiere a new song cycle composed by Melanie alongside O’Carolan pieces and other favourites.
This is very much a community driven project where local group the Ferns Heritage Project, with the help of funding from the Ancient Connections programme, commissioned the piece and introduced a unique approach to the process.
The concept of the song cycle was inspired by the stories and connection between St. Aidan (St. Maodoc) of Ferns and St. David in Wales. The approach to composing the song cycle was unusual in that it involved Melanie conducting workshops in both St. David’s and Ferns over the past year. This was an authentic process of research and development in rehearsal and something new to Melanie’s method of composing.
“When contacted by the Ferns Heritage Project, the concept excited me because I had already been working on a piece associated with St. Aidan and was excited by the prospect of delving deeper into the life of St. Aidan and his relationship with St. David”, Melanie said.
Linking the local ‘Chord On Blues’ choir with Melanie O’Reilly and The Allabair Trio was a win-win for all. Mary Moulds, leader of the choir said; “it was an incredible opportunity for our choir to work with musicians of the calibre of Melanie and The Allabair Trio. It has challenged us; it has given us confidence and it has helped us to see our potential and to continue to challenge ourselves. The overall ethos of our choir has always been to make anything we did enjoyable for everyone involved and to give people of all musical abilities a chance to shine”.
Information on how to book tickets for the concert in the Cathedral can be found on fernsvillage.ie. Details on festival events including music in local music on June 4th as well as headline events on Monday, June 5th to include a fantastic parade with giant puppets, re-enactment and outdoor performances can also be accessed on fernsvillage.ie website and social media.
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