CityArts:Tower Songs and Ballymun Music Programme present: A New Day
31 Jan 2009
“I want to stand tall like the towers with all their strength and power"
210 primary and secondary school students in Ballymun will showcase a brand new suite of 4 pieces called A New Day, composed in collaboration with Daragh O'Toole, at The Helix on February 3rd. The children will be under the baton of RTÉ Concert Orchestra Principal Conductor David Brophy.
The show is part of Tower Songs, a long-term citywide project from CityArts, which explores collective and personal narratives of place with communities undergoing major urban regeneration initiatives across the city.
More details about A New Day, CityArts:Tower Songs and Ballymun Music Programme are included below.
Programme
Tuesday February 3rd at The Helix, 8pm
The premiere of A New Day, by Dublin composer Daragh O'Toole, with lyrics by three local teenagers. This optimistic piece, inspired by Ballymun's future, will be performed by a choir of 160 children and teenagers from 7 local schools and RTÉ Cór na nÓg, accompanied by an orchestra made up of 50 local primary school children along with members of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, conducted by David Brophy. Tickets are priced €11.00.
Residents from Dolphin House and Fatima Mansions will come to Ballymun for a special night of voice, sound and song to celebrate the memory, experience and aspirations of tower block communities across Dublin, as they currently undergo dramatic changes. They will perform songs created in collaboration with singer songwriter Sean Millar as part of Tower Songs in 2005 and 2006.
Also performing on the night will be a group of older people from Ballymun, who composed the song Leaving Ballymun in collaboration with Sean Millar in 2007. They will be joined onstage by the Ballymun Gospel Choir.
About CityArts and Tower Songs
CityArts is an organisation committed to a policy of participatory arts practice in contemporary society and as such, CityArts' programme of work is created in collaboration with communities of place and or interest, realised in context at various locations across the city of Dublin.
This programme marks the beginning of City Song Lines the second phase of Tower Songs, a long term citywide project, led by CityArts.
Tower Songs is a long-term citywide project led by CityArts, which works through voice, sound and song to explore the collective and personal narratives of communities undergoing major urban regeneration initiatives. Since 2005, Tower Songs has produced work with residents in Dolphin House, Fatima Mansions and Ballymun, creating a number of songs and three documentaries, by Fergus Tighe, Aoibheann O' Sullivan and Terry Blake. Artists who have worked on the project include songwriter Sean Millar, composers George Higgs and Daragh O'Toole, artist Ailbhe Murphy and musician Brian Fleming.
About Ballymun Music Programme
This project, under the auspices of the DIT Community Links department has established a musical infrastructure, which has enabled children to develop their potential and participate in a musical life both in and beyond Ballymun. To date, more than 600 children have passed through the recorder programme. The Ballymun Music Programme, under Director Ron Cooney, now teaches most of the instruments of the orchestra. In February, Bishop Tutu will officially open the new dedicated rehearsal room for the group in Ballymun.
David Brophy appears by kind permission of the Director-General of RTÉ, and the services of the RTÉ musicians and singers were provided by RTÉ in support of this project.
