I heard this in the background earlier in a restaurant. It’s insanely beautiful.
Tag Archives: choral
Brigham Young University Singers in Dublin tomorrow
I had the pleasure of hearing a few performances from Brigham Young University Singers over the course of last weekend down in Cork at the choral festival. One piece that they decided to treat the crowd to at the closing gala concert has stuck with me since – Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, which they give an insight into in the video above. It’s an amazing piece I had never heard before and I think I can speak for many people there when I say it made hairs stand on end.
I’m delighted that they’re taking a tour around Ireland and the UK at the moment, including a concert on Tuesday night in Draiocht Theatre, Blanchardstown, in aid of the Irish Autism Alliance. The theatre’s website appears to be down at the moment but you can probably book over the phone at 01 885 2622. Really looking forward to this, hopefully see you there!
Tweetup, photowalk, Culch.ie, iPhone, Cork, renting & blight
Yeah, lot of small random things I need to throw out into the blogosphere.
First off, happy birthday to the little sister Niamh who enters the last year of her teens today. Bless.
So yesterday Rick kindly inducted me into the wonderful fold of contributors on Culch.ie – I really enjoy reading it with the variety of subjects and voices that all come to mix there, here’s hoping I can bring something worthwhile to the place.
Stu sees the ‘Pea rapist’ in the latest Bulmers product push that’s happening at http://www.embracethepear.com. Incidentally, www.embracethepair.com is still available for purchase. Just sayin’.
I finally called up Apple Care yesterday afternoon to sort out the long-dragging dodgy iPhone situation. I was delighted by their politeness & pro-active vibes, right down to the “oh no, I’m so sorry to hear it’s not working for you – that’s really awful”. Genuine or not (hard to tell with the lovely American tones!) a box arrived this morning from Apple with all the lovely packaging you’d expect from Apple and an express UPS bag for me to send off my iPhone to the iPhone doctor. Now here’s hoping it’s fixable coz I am totally lost without it.
I’m going to attempt organising a Tweet-up of sorts in and around or for the Siege of Ennis world record attempt next Sunday May 17th – those of you on the western seaboard, your help & presence is required! If anyone from anywhere else wants to head down, I can investigate digs either chez moi or in me lovely Ballyvaughan. Best email me in this case.
There’s a photowalk happening on Sunday in Drogheda. Shane Murphy has the skinny. Not looking like I’ll make the photowalk sadly but I’m certainly hoping to make the afters. Details later when I have em from the ‘organisers’.
Scoozi’s in Cork is still one of my favourite places on earth to eat – I was once again blown away by the service in there last weekend, never mind the delicious food on offer. Well done guys, you’ve got an often overlooked yet essential element of catering down to an art.
There’s 2 lovely apartments up for rent in the little complex where I live in Glasnevin, you could do a lot worse than rent one of these places. Number one and number two (sexier) on daft.ie, who seem to be allowing users to list their ‘broadband options’ on ads now.
Finally, if you’re going along to the Open Cinema event in Meeting House Square tomorrow evening courtesy of Mini, be prepared for possible nasty wet weather. And if you have potatoes, well I hope you’re spraying them for blight 
Cork International Choral Festival: my thoughts
This festival first came to my attention somehow around this time last year right after the 2008 festival had just wrapped up in Cork. That in mind I was determined not to miss out this year so I headed for Cork on Saturday to sample some of the choral action to be had in the country’s fairest city.
I went along to the Fleischmann Trophy competiton on Saturday, the major prize on offer at the festival. The calibre of performances from the choirs was amazing as was the range of people involved on stage. Personal highlights included ‘Ett liv for mig’ performed by Finnish group Chamber Choir Gallerie and ‘Elijah Rock’ by Irish choir Codetta. Gothenburg Youth Choir gave a fantastic energetic performance to end the evening including a finger-clicking version of ‘Chili Con Carne‘. For something a bit lighter and to satisfy my more jazzy & modern tendencies in all things choral I popped into the National Competition for Light, Jazz and Popular Music on Sunday afternoon where some delightful performances given. Highlights for me were ‘The Impossible Dream‘ by Portadown Male Voice Choir, ‘The Teddy Bears Picnic‘ by Moy Singers from Co.Mayo and ‘Unchained Melody‘ by City of Cork Male Voice Choir. The closing gala concert on Sunday gave many of the choirs who took part in the Fleischmann Trophy competition a chance to let their hair down & have some fun and that they did for a really awesome evening of music. Sadly the camera battery failed to hold out for long enough to capture them all. Probably the most bizarre performance of the festival for me was Warsaw School of Economics Choir with their take on ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit‘. Highlights for me were the Slovenia’s Ptuj Male Chamber Choir take on ‘Happy Together‘, Cois Claddaigh with ‘Loch Lomond‘, Codetta once again with ‘Elijah Rock‘, Cantilena Children’s Choir singing ‘Molly Malone‘, Fleischmann Trophy winners Kammerchor I Vocalisti with the hair-raising ‘Pseudo-Yoik‘ and finally Brigham Young University Singers (U.S.A.) with their jaw-dropping rendition of ‘Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine‘. I’m delighted to see they’re on tour in the UK & Ireland over the next 2 weeks. This is deserving of a blog post all by itself so watch this space
Overall, it was a fantastic experience in Cork, if too short. I’d love to have taken in more of the festival – there were so many different performances on offer over the 5 days and many of them free of charge too! At the risk of sounding cliched or corny, it really hit me how music can bring people from all walks of life & parts of the world together in a happy, warm, positive & supportive collective. There was such a buzz about City Hall for the performances, all the choirs cheering each other on & getting along famously & enjoying each others’ culture.
I’ve got a bunch of videos from the Closing Gala Concert and the National Competition for Light, Jazz and Popular Music on YouTube – apologies for the awful quality of the camera work but it’s getting a taste of the sound that matters! I can’t wait for next year
Hypertext bento box
So here we are, 1st of May, first ‘proper’ bank holiday of the year already upon us. Anyone else scared/shocked at how quick the year is passing?
A businessman in the UK by the name of Mr.Hindley has bought the cottage featured in Withnail & I and promised to restore it for fans of the film – awesome!
‘Handy’ icon set free for personal & commercial use at Webdesigner Depot
If I haven’t spammed you already, X Communications are now Facebook-ing here.
Future of Web Design is currently on in London & the very talented Sabrina Dent was up yesterday giving her talk ‘Throwing Client Collaboration Out the Window: The Stalinist Web Design Model’. She’s back blogging again which is awesome & has a post up about her FOWD experience.
Some messing on Culch.ie yesterday has resulted in the launch of a new campaign site.
I’m off to Cork tomorrow to soak up the delights of the 55th Cork International Choral Festival. I’m planning to meet some of the organisers to find out more about the history of the festival & chat about getting the event out into the great wide interweb next year with blogging & all sorts of madness. If you’re about Cork over the next few days & are free for a coffee, drop me a tweet or an email or if you have my number that works too!
Song for the day is Did Ye Get Healed by Van Morrison, have a listen & get yer fingers clickin’: http://blip.fm/~5c2cu
Happy long weekend tout le monde