Enjoy online concerts for all tastes!

10 Sep 2020

During the lockdown we've still been working with some amazing Irish musicians to create online works and musical experiences that you can enjoy safely from home. From the interconnected, experimental improvisations of Piece by Piece, to contemporary jazz at Wood Quay Summer Sessions, to the multi-cultural and family-friendly exuberance of Hotter than July, we've been blown away by the incredibly creative, fun, meaningful, and moving work that musicians have made in this time.

The fortunate thing about recorded performances is that you can catch them later if you missed them, or revisit them now. Brighten up your evening or weekend with some wonderful musical experiences from fantastic Irish artists - there's something here to suit all tastes and ages!

Piece by Piece

In April and May Improvised Music Company and Triskel Arts Centre in Cork came together together to host a weekly sequence of online solo performances called Piece By Piece featuring newly-commissioned works from leading Irish improvisers. Each artist’s input performance would influence or inspire the next performance in this musical chain. Piece by piece, artists created new improvised work, based on the preceding work. The work which these artists created was beyond anything we had imagined, embracing a digital medium and the work of the other artists to create an interconnected musical story of the world in lockdown.

You can watch the whole series on our Youtube channel now, and learn more about the artists' thought processes HERE.

Wood Quay Summer Sessions

We were delighted to be a part of the Wood Quay Summer Sessions again in July, with the series moving online for four lunchtime concerts broadcast from Dublin City Council’s beautiful Wood Quay Venue. Wood Quay Summer Sessions is funded by Dublin City Council and presented in association with First Music Contact, Improvised Music Company, Contemporary Music Centre, & Music Network. The series kicked off with some mesmerizing contemporary jazz from quartet BigSpoon.

Hotter than July

For its 7th year in 2020, our Hotter than July Festival presented with Dublin City Council moved to an online space, celebrating inclusivity and diversity with music, story-telling, and creativity accessible to everyone from home!

Listen to the live sessions at Hotter than July for an eclectic mix of music. Enjoy high-octane Cuban salsa with Conor Guilfoyle's Havana 'che, an immersive experience of traditional Indonesian sounds with the NCH Gamelan Orchestra, Irish-Iranian fusion with Navá or the genre-blending duo of Niwel Tsumbu & Éamonn Cagney.

For younger (and older) music-lovers, we also had a series of musical story-telling from different cultures, with Irish mythology from Ríona Sally Hartman, Turkish tales from Senem Donatan Mohan and Congolese children's stories from Niwel Tsumbu. Listen to the Story-telling at Hotter than July series HERE.

Composer and inventor Ed Devane ran workshops about how instruments work and how to make your own from items around the house! Learn all about percussion instruments that click, clack, rattle and pop, and how you can make one.