The Summer Music in Galway school is busy preparing kids as young as six for a production of the opera 'Noye's Fluddle', writes Eibhir Mulqueen
ONE OF IRELAND’S most innovative summer music schools is the classical music one instigated 16 years ago in Ennis by musician Bob Creech and his daughter, Andrea. Since then it has moved, first to Killaloe, then to Limerick and, this year, to Galway.
Originally starting out as an instrumental school, it now includes choral, vocal and dance sections, offering a unique opportunity for children to first learn from professional artists and then perform alongside them. Summer Music in Galway, which has held public concerts at NUIG throughout August, will bring its musical elements together for one of this year’s highlights.
The performance of Benjamin Britten's children's opera, Noye's Fludde, under stage director Ger Rush, music director Toni Rose and choreographer Joseph Wicks, will be a combination of professional and amateur talent, involving children from the age of six to a white-bearded Canadian playing God.
"This is really the highlight of the opera programme. We have a big instrumental programme. It is a fantastic programme," says Rush. The final concert, a performance of Saint-Saëns' Carnival of the Animals, will take place on Saturday. But before all that, Monica Hannaford, a Steiner School teacher in Clare, is busy producing the papier-mâché animal heads and 44 costumes, assisted by Itziar Tatiegi from the Basque country whose two children are attending the school. Reworking previous years' costumes and sourcing new material in charity shops means the job is done on a shoestring budget.
Creech, a French horn player and former chief executive of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, points to the diminishing grants and straitened circumstances in the prevailing economic climate. “This has been a tough year to do something like this,” he says.
As artistic director of the school, he points to the “beg or borrow” aspect of the instrument programme: the same set of four rare bugles, which are an integral part of the opera, have come from the same sources as the last time they were used by the school in 2002.
This type of music school is rare in Europe, he says. “The whole programme is something that I and other people from North America are very aware of. It is really a summer school and a festival combined.”
Because Noye's Fluddeis a children's opera, other conventional "adult" instruments are dispensed with. The wind section is provided by children playing recorders and the percussion section is expanded to include a series of ship's handbells, set at different pitches. "They are quite rare now and very expensive. We have to teach the kids how to play them," says Creech.
Over the years, the music school has attracted an extraordinary range of musical talent. Among the professional musicians is Canadian violinist David Stewart. The visiting artists-in-residence are Timothy Brown, first horn with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and John Perry, professor of music at the University of Southern California Thornton School.
Also in attendance are a disparate group of students, many of whom come from abroad and stay locally.
“About 40 per cent come from outside the area and 60 per cent from within Galway and Co Clare,” Creech says.
THE VOICE OF God for Noye's Fluddeis provided by Canadian conductor Bruce Dunn. Noye is played by Richard Hayes, a student at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, and Mrs Noye is Sarah-Ellen Murphy, a Limerick primary school teacher and a contralto.
The animals are played by younger school attendants. Emma Harran (8) from Ennis plays the dove and will perform a waltz during the show. “I like it because I like singing,” she says.
The youngest participant is Osgar O’Gorman (6), also from Ennis, who plays the part of an owl. “The funniest bit of all is where you kick the boy and then you smack Noah,” he remarks to Mrs Noye.
Sara Ripall Català (14), from Spain, is attending for her second year and is a “gossip” in the production. Her mother plays in the orchestra while her father is helping with the set.
Darragh Keaveney (19) from Galway explains that her ballet teacher contacted her to tell her a dancer was required to act the part of the raven. “It’s a great thing to be doing in the summer when there is nothing else going on,” she says.
Yinglong Jiang, a member of Limerick’s Boherbuoy Brass Reed Band and UL’s orchestra, is one of the musicians who learnt to adapt to playing the bugle. “For me it took a while because it is quite different from the French horn, which I normally play,” he says.
“It is an opportunity for us to play with orchestras and other musicians and to learn a bit,” adds Michelle Hennessy, who plays trumpet with Ennis Brass Band. “We have had great fun with it,” she says of the bugle. “It is the original instrument.”
Noye's Fluddewill be performed in St Nicholas' Collegiate Church, Galway, at 8pm tonight
The Carnival of the Animalswill be performed at the Bailey Allen Hall, NUIG, at 2.30pm on Saturday.
