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Month: November 2020

Job Opportunity at Music Generation

City of Dublin Education and Training Board (CDETB) invites applications for the following fixed term position: Music Generation Development Officer (Dublin City).

This is a five-year fixed term contract. Reference Number: MG20

A Music Generation Development Officer will be appointed by CDETB and will be responsible for managing a vocally-centred programme of performance music education on behalf of Dublin City Local Music Education Partnership.

The successful candidate will have a broad understanding of the diversity of vocal tuition – encompassing group and solo singing, rap, vocal percussion, beatboxing, spoken word, songwriting and composition – and will have the skills and experience to develop a programme that responds to the specific needs of young people in disadvantaged communities.

Music Generation Dublin City is part of Music Generation – Ireland’s National Music Education Programme, which is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships.

Application forms and full particulars on the above position can be downloaded from www.cdetb.ie. Completed application forms should be returned BY EMAIL ONLY to applications@nullcdetb.ie not later than 12 noon, Tuesday 15 December 2020. Late applications will not be accepted.

CDETB is committed to a policy of equal opportunity and encourages applications under all nine grounds of the Employment Equality Act.

Calling all Singers, Choirs & Buskers: Record your Carolathon Video & See it Beamed on to Grafton Street LED Screen

Join Dublin Simon’s Virtual Carolathon this Christmas and YULE raise not just spirits but vital funds for the most vulnerable in our society 

Dublin Simon Community is calling on all singers, choirs and buskers to submit their videos for this year’s virtual Carolathon, which will be streamed on to an LED screen on Grafton Street from 11th December at 11am to 12th December at 6pm.

The annual Carolathon usually sees a relay of choirs and singing groups performing Christmas songs on Grafton Street for 24 hours, but has gone virtual this year due to Covid-19 restrictions. A small number of volunteers will be available to take on-street donations as videos play on the screen, while contactless payment and “text to donate” options will also be available.

Those wishing to see their musical talents featured on the LED screen on Grafton Street are asked to email their videos via WeTransfer to fundraising@nulldubsimon.ie by Friday 4th December. Those would like to support Dublin Simon Community by bucket-shaking at the event are asked to email fundraising@nulldubsimon.ie directly.

“Carolathon” is a key event in the organisation’s Christmas “Sing for Simon” campaign, which usually sees over 100 groups and choirs hosting fundraising events across Dublin, Wicklow, Kildare, Meath, Louth, Cavan and Monaghan. Unfortunately, these events also cannot take place this year due to Covid-19.

The annual “Simon House of Light” event, a three-day festival of light projection and live music show at Powerscourt Townhouse Centre was due to take place from 3rd to 5th December. While the festival is also unfortunately cancelled, contactless donation machines will be in the centre for the duration of the weekend.

Please donate what you can to www.dubsimon.ie.

About Dublin Simon Community  

Dublin Simon Community provides services to almost 7,500 people in Louth, Cavan, Monaghan, Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow and Meath, who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Services range from:  

  • Outreach support to people who are rough sleeping. 
  • Emergency accommodation for those with nowhere else to go. 
  • Treatment, counselling and recovery services for people experiencing homelessness with addiction issues.
  • Long-term supported accommodation for those who need support.
  • Independent housing units for people able to live independently.
  • Tenancy support and homelessness prevention services to prevent falling into homelessness.
  • Resettlement services for people moving out of homelessness and into a home of their own.
  • Education and Employability services for people who wish to build their skillset and find stable employment.

RACHEL Announces Christmas Release in Aid of Crumlin Children’s Hospital

RACHEL is an Irish female artist from the West of Ireland. To date she has had two No.1 singles in the Irish Charts and performed in venues such as Whelans, CrowBar and The Roost.

RACHEL’s most recent single ‘Show Me’ was named ‘Track of the Week’ by RTÉ 2FM and got international airplay and media coverage.

She has been featured in Hot Press Magazine, GoldenPlec and Chordblossom and has accumulated over 20k organic streams to date on Spotify.

Rachel’s new Christmas Single, ‘Together Apart’, is in aid of Crumlin Children’s Hospital andis released Friday 4th December.

It is inspired by the heroes who work in the hospital and the children that won’t get to make it home for Christmas this year.

It was produced by Dave Skelton (Faraway Martin, Rofi James,  Eoin Maher).

Instagram: @rachelwalsh_music https://www.instagram.com/rachelwalsh_music/
Facebook: @rachelwalshmusic https://www.facebook.com/rachelwalshmusic/?ref=py_c
Twitter: @rachelwalsh_music
https://twitter.com/RachelwalshM
TikTok:  @rachelwalsh_music https://vm.tiktok.com/ZSbcRjcd/

Luunah Share ‘Take Me Dancing’ Video

Following on from the release of their self-titled debut album ‘Luunah’. Cork based indie band ‘Lunnah’ have released a music video for one of their album tracks ‘Take Me Dancing’.

‘Take Me Dancing’ is about recognising the significance of life despite the suffering, setbacks and uncertainty it often entails. This song portrays two lover’s desire to escape the monotony of everyday life. They realise there is meaning in their shared experience of the world and a loving relationship. They would rather remain lost than to lose one another. 

The music video, directed by Brian McDonnell, deals with similar themes of love and loneliness in a long term relationship. The video follows the story of two lovers, locked away, living out their dream lives vicariously through two wooden dolls, until they find the strength to go and really grab that life for themselves. 

With stunning visuals from cinematographer Jass Foley and production design from Katarzyna Horzela, the music video takes us on a beautiful journey through this serene world that the characters are living in.

Featuring electric performances from Amber Deasy and Aidan Farren, the video was shot during Covid-19 restrictions, portraying an intimate yet isolated setting that is certainly familiar to most at the moment.

Luunah is an alternative band based in Cork, Ireland. The group was formed in 2019 by singer-songwriter Sarah-Beth O’Mullane with friends while studying at the CIT Cork School of Music. She plays alongside Paul Brennan (drums), Lee Kennedy (bass), Emily Naughton (synth) and James Gormley (guitar).

Through their music, Luunah aims to capture all the colourful emotions sprawled across  the human spectrum – no matter how ambiguous or forbidden. 

‘Lunnah’ is available on all major streaming platforms now.

https://luunah.com/

The Music Publishers Association of Ireland Announce the Michael O Riordan Bursary Awards

In 1975 the Republic of Ireland Music Publishers Association of Ireland (RIMPA) was founded.

Michael O Riordan, a Cork native, was one of the founding Directors of RIMPA. Later, the Association changed its name to The Music Publishers Association of Ireland (MPAI).

Michael passed in November 2019 having spent most of his life working in the music business. Starting his career as a ‘road’ manager’ for the Dixies Showband in the 1960’s, subsequently moving on to be part of the management team behind the success of Daniel O Donnell and forming Rosette Music as the publishing vehicle for Daniel in later years.

In Michael’s memory, the current MPAI Board has instituted the Michael O Riordan Bursary Awards. This grant is aimed at young, up and coming music professionals who have showed an exceptional interest and ability in the area of music publishing. A ‘Best in Class’, so to speak. It is hoped that the bursaries will be awarded annually within the music publishing community.

The overall purpose of each Michael O Riordan Bursary Award is to help equip a young industry professional to fulfil their potential within the publishing industry. The bursaries will enable the winners to fund training to support their career ambitions.

The Awards will be structured as follows:

MPAI members will be invited to nominate rising stars from within the publishing community.  A selection panel will choose 2 winners based on (i) their proven determination to pursue a career in music publishing and (ii) the quality of their contributions to date.

To each winner an award of €500 of funding will be made for approved music publishing training events chosen by the winners.  These can include MPA UK NXT-Gen membership, online courses, and events.

In addition, for the runners-up, MPAI will award 5 Nxt-Gen memberships.

The call for nominations will be made on 1 December 2020.  The closing date for nominations will be 31 December 2020. Nominations should be emailed to the MPAI Secretary and the selection panel will convene and announce the 2021 winners by 31 January. The winners will be invited to an MPAI Board meeting to be congratulated and presented with their prizes.

In conducting the selection process, the MPAI affirms its commitment to diversity and inclusiveness. All members (including new additions to the publishing community) will be entitled to nominate rising stars provided their membership subscriptions are paid before 31 December.

MPAI hope is that these awards will provide a timely form of support for some outstanding younger members of the publishing community this year, when they might otherwise struggle to fund training during the Covid crisis.

MPAI acknowledge their colleagues at MPA (UK) for their assistance with this new initiative.

https://twitter.com/MPAIreland

Debut Release Announced from The Davies Brothers

‘Heroes And Villains’ is the first official single release for identical twins and singer-songwriter duo The Davies Brothers. Recorded live at Monique studios in December 2019 in County Cork, producer Christian Best has perfectly captured the integrity of this raw and honest piece. 

The upcoming year promises to be an exciting one for The Davies Brothers, whose creativity flows easily at home in North West Clare, inspiring music and lyrics conveying experience beyond their years. Over the past couple of years, they have enjoyed performing original sets in pioneering music venues across the country, including Kenny’s bar Co. Clare, Coughlan’s, Co. Cork, The Roisin Dubh, Co. Galway and Mike the pies, Co. Kerry, as well as supporting well known Irish acts such as Mick Flannery and Hudson Taylor and a headline slot on the main stage of the IMRO short-listed Doolin Folk Festival. 

Eoin and Brian Davies are identical twin singer-songwriters from County Clare, Ireland. Writing and performing as The Davies Brothers, their raw, honest songs, natural harmonic blends and intuitive on-stage chemistry will captivate any audience. 

Hailing from a small corner of the country that boasts a large, thriving music scene, The Davies Brothers have been majorly influenced by many artists that have close connections to the North West Clare area, such as Luka Bloom, Mick Flannery, The Walls, SON (Susan O’Neill), Steo Wall, Sara Ryan and many more. Their creativity flows easily, inspired by a somewhat rough and wild way of rural living, a difficult upbringing, relationships, loss and a unique perspective on life garnered from their time living in cork city. 

They are currently gearing up for their first studio single release, ‘Heroes And Villains’ live at Monique Studios, due to be released on the 4th of December 2020 and eagerly anticipating their E.P. release in spring 2021.

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Slash Program – open call for songwriters

Slash is a European learn­ing pro­gram ded­ic­ated to 9 emer­ging profession­al song­writers-pro­du­cers from all over Europe, who wish to step up their career. 

The main goals of this pro­gram is to sup­port creation in this new con­text and to provide con­crete and prac­tic­al tools to solve issues, detect new oppor­tun­it­ies and deal with day-to-day life.

The program : 

  • three 6-days workshops in Lisbon (PT), Aarhus (DK) and Nantes (FR) (TBC) 
  • an individual coaching program (online) 
  • inspiring meetings with professionals from cultural & creative industries
  • a creating residency with the mentors 

The themes addressed will be actual, innovative and practical : designing a SLASH musician brand based on storytelling, marketing and operational direct-to-fan strategy, monetizing the artist’s music, discovering future issues of music (connected speakers, blockchain, artificial intelligence, algorithm…), understanding the entire author’s right and copyright value chain and composing in a binaural approach, etc.

The program also includes networking opportunities on international festivals and showcases. (TBC)

The learning program is completely free. Travel, housing and catering, coaching and workshops expenses are covered by the program. 
This program has been created and is curated by Trempolino and Sacem. It is co-founded by the European Union through its Music Move Europe program. 

Application before December 6th >> www.slash-program.eu

Michelle Daly Shares ‘In My Dreams’

‘In My Dreams’, the 2nd release from Michelle Daly’s debut album, is available from today, November 27th 2020 on all digital platforms.

A soundtrack worthy piece, with tarantino-esque guitars and sultry vocals. It sees the Berlin-based, Irish vocalist and songwriter venturing down soulful new pathways and portraying a trip hop influence. A video for the self-penned single, produced and directed by Alexander Schank will also receive it’s debut outing.  Described by The Guardian as “honey-toned”, vocalist and songwriter Michelle Daly’s versatility ranges from soul and jazz to opera.

The upcoming album was recorded and produced by Charis Karantzas at Jazzanova Recording Studio, Berlin. It is Daly’s latest collaboration with long-time writing partner, Australian composer, Michael Edwards – whose writing credits include work with Morcheeba and the soundtracks for Game of Thrones, Calvary and Layer Cake. This partnership makes up the majority of the album tracks while other tracks including ‘In My Dreams’  were written by Daly while London-based, prior to her move to Berlin. The debut single and album title track ‘January Skies’ was released in January 2020 and has since been aired on RTE Radio 1. The album’s rescheduled release is planned for early 2021.

Her debut recording, Melodramas EP (2014) was featured on Jazz Radio Berlin/Europa and Daly has performed sold out dates at The Ellington, Berlin (Jazz Radio Berlin) and the National Concert Hall Dublin. A regular on the opera stage, Michelle has performed as a soloist at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and more recently created the female lead in the World Premier of Yasutaki Inamori’s ‘Wir Aus Glas’ for Deutsche Oper Berlin. Other Collaborations include vocals on the critically acclaimed ‘These New Puritans’ album ‘Inside the Rose’ and Michelle is also working on new material with Beirut-born, electronic musician/Techno DJ, Nur Jaber.

Michelle is currently working on a collection of covers. The first, recorded remotely during lockdown, is a collaboration with musicians and producers based in Dublin, Paris and Berlin. This offering will be a cover of Massive Attack’s trip hop classic ‘Unfinished Sympathy’.

Dates for the rescheduled album launch gigs in Berlin and Dublin will be announced in due course.

‘In My Dreams’ isavailable for download and streaming on all digital platforms now.

Mick Flannery and SON Win Best Original Folk Track at RTÉ Folk Awards

Powerhouse vocalist SON (aka Susan O’Neill) and acclaimed singer-songwriter Mick Flannery have won ‘Best Original Folk Track of The Year’ for their duet, ‘Baby Talk’, at the third Annual prestigious RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards, which took place on the airwaves last night.

Speaking about the win, Mick said: “I’m very grateful for this award. I’m fond of this song so it feels good to know that it’s been received well and I’m grateful for all the publicity it has received.

I was delighted that Susan O’Neill liked it, and was willing to sing it, as I feel her voice makes it what it is. The song was produced and arranged by Tony Buchen in Los Angeles, and since then Susan and I have recorded a full album of duets with Tony producing. I’m very much looking forward to it’s release. Working with Susan, Tony, Christian Best, and all involved has made the last year pass much more easily than it might have. I’m very grateful for this. Sincere thanks to my manager Sheena Keane also, it was Sheena’s idea that Susan and I would work well together and she was very right, true to form.

Since recording the song proper there has also been a recorded event with the Cork Opera Orchestra, arranged by Cormac McCarthy and conducted by John O’Brien. I’m also very happy that this recording exists as I feel it showcases Cormac’s wealth of talent. Thank you again to all involved.”

Susan added: “It’s been really class to be a part of the recording of Baby Talk with Mick Flannery, Christian Best, Tony Buchen and Sheena Keene.

Thank you Mick for asking me to sing on it and to RTE Radio 1 for acknowledging it. Feeling very grateful.”

Flannery’s songs are fluent in expressing layered aspects of the human condition, its flaws, triumphs, and general uncertainty. The sum is greater than the parts when matched with SON, who’s soulful, husky vocals are on full display, resulting in an affecting ballad of he said, she said.

With ‘Baby Talk’, when they each sing “real is in the feeling,” it’s felt here tenfold, through the moving performances of both artists. The song was produced by revered Australian Producer, Tony Buchen (Courtney Barnett), it was recorded between Los Angeles and Ireland.

There’s something exciting about seeing a chart-topping artist at the top of his craft, with his familiar heavy-hearted approach to the verse, met by a fresh-faced, wise beyond her years new talent, that makes the song so compelling.

Mick Flannery and SON have recently finished recording an album of duets, which will be released Summer 2021.

Stream/download ‘Baby Talk’: https://shor.by/WKxL

Follow Mick Flannery online:

Facebook
Twitter
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Youtube
Spotify
https://www.mickflannery.com/

Follow Susan O’Neill (SON) online:

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Youtube
https://son.ie/

New Single from Paul Casey

Derry guitarist Paul Casey has released the new single ‘When I Fell In Love With You’ on all digital platforms.

Written and produced by the Derry musician at his Cable Junction Studio, it’s “a song about the joy of love.”

The track features Liam Bradley (drums), John McCullough (piano), and Damien McGeehan (fiddle) alongside Casey’s melodic guitar licks and electric solos.

A modern love song, Casey’s candid lyrics are ever-present, with the opening, “You were my only friend”, posing more questions than answers from the off.

More recently, Casey filmed and directed the acclaimed ‘In The Days Before Rock ‘N’ Roll’ video as part of Hot Press’ ‘Rave On, Van Morrison!’ initiative. 

The beautifully shot mini-film features Casey on guitar, vocal and production duties, along with the legendary Terry Hooley and an all-star cast of musicians and radio presenters. 

‘When I Fell In Love With You’ on all digital platforms.

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