Southern Star Feature

THE SOUTHERN STAR SECTION 1
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 8, 2012
12 NEWS
LIFESTYLE
ALL NEW DIGITAL PROJECTORS AND SOUND SYSTEM
Friday 7th September - Thursday 13th September
Percussionist Eamonn Cagney on teaching – and learning – the joy of music
DREDD ....................................
DAILY 9.10
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THE SWEENEY ........ WED&THURS 8.50
SHADOW DANCER 15A
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TOTAL RECALL12A
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MON-THURS 8.25
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A FEW BEST MEN... FRI 8.50 SAT&SUN 9.30
18
Music
Niall
O’Driscoll
MON&TUES 8.50 WED&THURS 6.50
THE WATCH................. FRI 6.50 SAT&SUN 5.30 7.30
MON-TUES 6.50
PG
BRAVE .....................................
FRI 5.10 6.25 SAT&SUN 12.05 2.05
MON-THURS 6.25
DIARY
OF
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WIMPY
KID 3 G
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THE LORAX G.................... FRI 5.05 SAT&SUN 11.55 3.40
ICE AGE 4: CONTINENTAL DRIFT G
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15A
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Rhythm is an answer ...
Q
Céilí & Old Time
in Caheragh Community Hall
on Friday September 7th 2012
Music by Neily O’Connor. Starting at 9.30pm
Admission (incl. tea) €10
info at www.francisoneill.ie
––––––
The Captain F O’Neill Memorial Co are holding
Open Air Platform Dancing
on Sunday, Sept. 9th 2012 at the
O’Neill monument, Tralibane at 2pm
(weather permitting). Music by Tim Joe and Ann
Due to the adverse weather the old time waltz
is the only dancing competition held this year.
ALL ARE WELCOME
Dance Class
Learn to Waltz,
Foxtrot, Jive, Tango,
Quickstep
and lots more.
Beginners class starts
Fri. Sept. 14th 8.30pm
Industrial Hall
Clonakilty.
Enquiries Anne
087 2487696
The Parkway Hotel
Dunmanway, Co Cork • 023 8845236
old-school. That’s great because it means that you really
learn the music very thoroughly.’
Bring out joy
SOME time back I told you
about Music4Children – a programme aiming to introduce
and encourage children to pursue music. Inspired by her two
little boys, UCC music graduate
Dr Eva McMullan-Glossop set
up the initiative last year with
a colleague, Padraig Wallace
(also a UCC music graduate).
Through fun and game activities, instrumental and choral
performance, encompassing
different styles of music from
jazz and classical to popular
tunes, the programme enables
children to learn the fundamentals of music through play,
while also encouraging their
creativity and confidence.
Having been established in,
and continuing to run, in
Crosshaven, such is the success
of Music4Children that the initiative is also now being offered
in Cork Opera House. Running
on Saturday mornings from
September 22nd next, the
course now boasts an expanded programme including modules run by Dr Aoife Granville,
Dr Karen Power, Evelyn Quinlan, Veronica Tadman, Kevin
McNally, Eamonn Cagney (all
former UCC graduates) along
with CIT music graduate
Maeve O’Shea.
The aforementioned Eamonn Cagney, who originally
hails from Donegal but now
lives in County Cork, is a percussionist, composer and
member of UCC’s Trasna ensemble alongside the likes of
Mel Mercier, Liam Ó Maonlaí
and Niwel Tsumbu. Eamonn
will be introducing the joys of
various other music cultures to
the children through traditional, world and African music
rhythms. I spoke to him last
week.
‘Yeah, I’m from Donegal
originally,’ he laughed, before
driving home a subtle dig about
Cork’s recent football defeat at
the hands of Donegal. ‘I’ll not
say that too loudly though for
the week that’s in it!’
‘I’m a percussionist and a
composer. That’s what I do
Eamonn Cagney.
now, but going back to the start
I began on piano, learning classical music, probably when I
was about eight. I did that for
about six years and I did music
in school as well. I learned a lot
about western and classical
music in particular, but then I
gravitated towards other instruments. I started playing the
djembe, which is an African
hand drum, and that just got
me. I was 18 when I started that
and I just got really into it.’
Eamonn is a graduate of the
School of Music at UCC and to
this day he maintains links
through his involvement with
the college’s world music ensemble, Trasna, of which Mel
Mercier (head of School of Music at UCC) is the musical director. ‘I’ve had a kind of continuous involvement with UCC
since I left, and I also work with
Mel Mercier quite a bit on
soundtracks as well – we’ve
done a couple of the Corcadorca soundtracks. He’s a great
guy to have as head of the
School of Music in UCC – very
progressive.’
Saturday 8th September 2012 presents
LISA McHUGH
& BAND
Early Dancing to Danny and Mary O’Leary
%%!*"%
Tel: 023-8847313
LISA McHUGH’s latest promotional single
“Why’d Ya Come In Here”
will be among the many songs given an airing
by the vivacious Donegal singer when she appears
with her band at the Parkway Hotel
Ballet
Modern
Jazz
Hip Hop
The Annual
Sam Maguire Threshing
& Vintage Family Fun Day
Coachmanʼs Inn
Ownahincha
Bauravilla
Sunday night
Pat Costello Band
Sunday
COUNTRY STORE
Jackpot €350
Eamonn believes that
rhythm and percussion are fundamental elements in children’s musical development.
‘Definitely they are – but there’s
also the voice. I also involve the
voice and vocalising – we do
Travellers Rest
Caheragh
Sat Sept 8th ....Autumn Gold
Sat Sept 15th......Lee Sound
All functions catered for
Tel 086/2320162
Ouvane Falls
Ballylickey
Tel: 027-50056
Sunday. . . . . . . . . . . . . Teddy Crowley
Monday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bingo 8pm
in aid of Bantry Lifeboat. Jackpot €650
Tuesday afternoon . . . Lunch, ceol, craic
1pm-5pm. Everyone welcome. €10pp
Tuesday night . . . Ceili dancing 9.30pm
will be held on
Sunday 9th September at 2pm
at the Sam Maguire
Homestead Maulabracka,
Dunmanway
Now Taking Bookings for all parties
by kind permission of the Spillane family
Carrigaline GAA Pavilion
Saturday 8th September
Céilí Mór
Special guest Darren Sweetnam
Vintage tractors and cars assemble at the church at 1pm
Dog show, storytelling and side shows.
Live music and dance to Danny and Mary OʼLeary
All welcome • Proceeds in aid of CoAction Dunmanway.
DONIE NOLAN &
TAYLORS CROSS
Damhsa: 9.30pm - 1am
Táille €10 incl. Tea
Fáilte roimh chách
Kilbrittain Community Centre Ltd
AGM
West Cork IFA
County Executive
in the hall on Wednesday, September 12, 2012
at 8.30 pm
Monthly Meeting
Irish Dancing re-commencing
with Eilis Herlihy
! " ! ! "# ! Fundamental
Saturday night, September 8th
Pat Costello & Midnight Dynamos
LUNCHES SERVED DAILY 12-3pm. SUNDAYS 12-4pm
Function room available for parties
Doors open 9pm. Admission €15
OCEAN VIEW
I asked how he came to be
involved with Music4Children.
‘Eva [McMullan-Glossop] and
I – well, our paths have crossed
quite a lot on different musical
projects. She was looking for a
space in the whole roster for
something very much rhythm,
percussion and community oriented, but also something that
would be popular with kids. I’ve
been running drum circles and
workshops full time for about
eight years and part-time for
about 12 years. These are
aimed at young people, but I
do it with adults as well. African
hand drumming and the drum
circle is a real hit – literally –
with the kids. I’ve been doing it
in primary schools for quite a
while so that’s why Eva approached me.’
IRISH DANCING
Mon. Sept. 10th Abbeystrewery Hall, Skibb
Wed. Sept. 12th Leap Hall
Thurs. 13th Sept. Ballydehob Hall
Contact Eilis 086-3994338
Recommencing in
Drimoleague Hall
on Monday 17th Sept.
at 5pm. Beginners
Contact Chris Ryan
086-2346608
Parkway Hotel,
Dunmanway
Wednesday, Sept. 12th
at 8.45pm
Guest speaker
Eddie Downey
Deputy President IFA
Whist Drive
To advertise
Call us on 028 21200
Ballineen
Tuesday 11th Sept.
some singing related to the
drumming. The main thing
though, is getting that rhythm,
and getting a group to sync and
play together is fundamental.
When you’re using rhythm you
can get into it as a total body
experience. It’s about bringing
that experience to music and
then you can apply anything to
that – melody, harmony etc. –
you can apply all of that to
rhythm when you have a sense
of it, when you have it in your
bones so to speak. That’s the
way that I was trained by a
number of different African
teachers.’
‘The first half of my training
would have been very much in
western, classical music for piano, but the second half would
be through traditional African
teaching. I had a number of
teachers from different countries in Africa – Guinea, Ghana,
Congo – as well as studying traditional drumming in UCC
with Mel. I’ve been to Ghana,
which was a brilliant experience. It was the real thing and
the way music is taught is very
I asked Eamonn how he
hopes the children will benefit
from the course. ‘The main
thing is that they just enjoy music – that they see music as
something they love, and if that
comes from drumming and
rhythm then that’s great. It’s
also important that they enjoy
playing together as a group. It’s
really about loving music and
bringing out the joy. If someone
stands out as having great potential or perhaps down the
line being able to make a career
out of music then great, but
that’s not really the main thing.
The main thing is to bring out
the joy.’
Eamonn, as well as being a
percussionist, is an accomplished composer. ‘Yeah, I
write percussion-based stuff,
but also piano-based and vocalbased. I’ve got an album called
Convergence which I’d describe
as an Irish ‘world music’ album.
There’s an influence of Irish
traditional music, but there’s
influences of other kinds of music as well. I suppose world music is where lots of influences
come together really.’
One such confluence of musical cultures amounts to what
Eamonn cites as his favourite
musical experience to date.
‘Yeah – my favourite musical
experience has to be playing
with the Malian master musician Afel Bocoum. I got to play
with him in Belgium over the
course of three days for the
Irish Week of Inter-Cultural Dialogue. Basically we got to do
three concerts, and to play with
this master musician was great.
Liam Ó Maonlaí, Paddy
Keenan, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin and Mel Mercier were
there also, but for me, getting
to play with Afel Bocoum was
me getting to play with an absolute hero.’
I wondered if Eamonn tends
to write from the point of view
of rhythm or with percussion
in mind specifically. ‘Good
question...for some music it’s
all about the percussion and
rhythm. Three quarters of
what I write is coming from
rhythms, but there is always a
certain percentage that comes
from melodies – things that
come to you when you’re going
for a walk, or when you’re talking to someone and you just
have to step away from them
and record it into your phone
so you don’t forget it. It can
start from a melody or a nice
harmony, but mostly for me it
comes from rhythm.’
It’ll likely come as no surprise that when I asked Eamonn what music he’s been listening to recently, he cited a
fairly eclectic mix. ‘Tony Allen
is a great Afro-beat drummer –
I love listening to him. I’m listening to Debussy, and I’m listening to what’s called “Power
of Now” music which is all Indian and world music. I’m also
listening to two Irish groups –
Danu and Dervish. I’m bringing in all the influences!’
www.music4children.ie
Harvest Moon Festival
In the course of conversation, Eamonn happened to
mention that he’s due to play a
gig in Schull on this Friday
night, September 7th, with vocalist Camilla Griehsel and Niwel Tsumbu. This is being
staged as part of the second
Harvest Moon Music Festival
which takes place this weekend. An impressive line-up of
free gigs at various locations
around the village includes Colin Vearncombe AKA Black
with Maurice Seezer and Ciara
O’Driscoll; Dott; Gypsy Rebel
Rabble; The Calvinists; Fish go
Deep, Schullduggery, Colm
Kenefick, Mark Mac, John
Coakley, Sunday Times, and Dj
Gik; Two Tone Buffalo; 2 Storey
Caravan; Molly O’Mahony;
Noel Maguire; Mick Callaghan
and Maria Cotter and Co. The
main event of the weekend
takes place at The Marquee @
Grove House on Saturday night
and features the Céilí Allstars,
Interference and Fred. Tickets
are available on www.harvestmoonmusicfestival.com or at
the gate. Other events include
an open mic event on Saturday,
a feast of local food and crafts
at the Sunday market, outdoor
music, facepainting for kids
(and adults too) and a Sunday
afternoon Gubbeen barbecue.
Lisa McHugh for
Parkway Hotel
COUNTRY singer Lisa
McHugh appears with her
band at the Parkway Hotel,
Dunmanway on Saturday
night, September 8th.
The vivacious singer’s latest
promotional single, ‘Why’d Ya
Come In Here’, will be among
the many songs given an airing
on the night.
The 23 year old came to
prominence when she made
the finals of Glór Tíre, the TG4
TV programme. Earlier this
year, she received the Irish
Country Sound New Female
Vocalist of the Year award.
Hectic summer
She is currently bringing the
curtain down on what has been
a hectic summer itinerary during which she enhanced her
reputation as a top-flight entertainer – the only female
country artiste with a full-time
professional band on the dancing circuit.
Her band members include
acclaimed musicians like Ray
McLoughlin on piano and MD
and lead guitarist Colm McClean along with newcomers
James Blennerhassett on bass
and double bass and Robbie
Casserley from Riverdance on
drums.
Lisa, who was born in Glasgow but whose mother hails
from Donegal, has performed
at many major festivals and
events along with promotional
appearances outside Ireland in
recent weeks.
Recent UK gigs have included appearances with American
country music star Gene Watson as well as with BBC radio
presenter and entertainer Bob
Brolly.
Lisa and her band have four
mini-UK tours in their diary be-
Country singer Lisa McHugh, who will be appearing at the
Parkway Hotel in Dunmanway this Saturday night.
fore the end of this year. But in
the meantime all her energies
will be channelled into her ap-
pearance in the Parkway on
Saturday night, when she is
sure to receive a great reception.