Dear Reader –
This is what music can do! Two different examples below…
Last week’s answers:
Answer to the questions in last week’s letter:
1 - 0
2 - Not many, but enough for most of the audience not to notice!
**All hyperlinks in bold.
The Big Thing
I had a great chat with journalist Sinéad Farrell last week in advance of the Connacht Final between Sligo and Galway (see What’s New section). She brought me back to my school days and we chatted a bit about Liz Keighary. Liz was my music teacher and went into battle with the powers that be in the music department in the school every time the school concert came around in order to get my slightly unusual choices included!
And you don’t have to be Sigmund Freud to see how experiences such as that may have influenced the Teenage Theme Night programme we have built up here in Sligo over the last number of years. No such battles for the Class of 2023 - and they have a fantastic setlist picked and almost ready to go. It was all hands on deck in Summerhill College last Saturday as over 70 of them gathered to run through their performances with the help of tutors Sinéad Conway, Niamh Crowley and Aileen Concannon (below).
Teenage Theme Night #29 (Musicals!) takes place in the Hawk’s Well Theatre in less than two weeks, and you can still snap up tickets here.
Where else but Sligo?
The last session of our Music Club took place last Wednesday evening in Strandhill.
It marked the end of the fourth season of the club and each one has been better than the last. The atmosphere in the room was amazing last week and each performance was fantastic in it’s own way. We have over 20 members of the club and each month they are grouped with different people and tasked to come up with a song and an arrangement of said song to suit the group.
Here’s some of the feedback I have received since…
“Thank you for a truly wonderful season of confidence building and friendship making. Your space has allowed energy to flow, effort to be appreciated and most of all great songs to be enjoyed”.
“Thank you so much for the music club. You have no idea how much it means to me to be part of something like this. It has brought so much to my life recently! I am over the moon with it and all it brings. I only wish it wasn't such a long break until the next one”.
The next season of the club will begin in September. Email me to register your interest.
What’s New?
CONNACHT FINAL INTERVIEW: Here’s the piece I mentioned above. Published last Sat in the42.ie. You may need a subscription to read.
SLIGO U-20s IN AN ALL-IRELAND FINAL: And it’s no fluke - they belong there. This Saturday at 1.30pm in Cavan. Amazing stuff. Best of luck lads…
KINGS OF COOL: I had a wonderful evening in Ballyshannon last Thursday with Michael, Jason, Stephen, Percy, Farrah and Damien as The Kings of Cool launched their debut album. They had the Abbey Theatre rocking with a brilliant set of their own tunes mixed with cleverly chosen covers. Check out a vid of the finale here…
Finally…
One of the highlights from last Wednesday’s Music Club session…
Questions:
Difficulty Level 2 - In what key is this song? Tricker than usual this week…
Difficulty Level 4 - There is an interesting 7-note piano riff at 1:43. Using solfa (doh-re-mi) or numbers, can you name the 7 notes?
Till next time - Kieran.
