2014 Kilkenny Arts Festival full programme line up announced
Artistic residencies,
unexpected collaborations, surprise guests and secret garden music
create a world of artistic magic in Ireland’s medieval city this August.
Booking NOW open
Festival dates: 8-17 August 2014
(Tuesday, 17 June 2014) Today, Festival Director Eugene Downes announced the full programme for the 41st
Kilkenny Arts Festival. Running over ten days from 8-17 August 2014, the programme builds on forty years of
extraordinary creative moments. This, Eugene Downes’ first Festival, is all about artistic residencies, in-depth
collaborations and surprise guests in a programme that moves beyond conventional artform boundaries. Just as
many artists prefer not to define their work in a single genre such as classical or contemporary, jazz or folk, poetry or
song, theatre or dance, Kilkenny is where the classical, traditional and contemporary meet. It’s the tension and
fusion between these styles that give both the city and the Festival their distinctive characters, and which is being
celebrated this year.
The programme leads with two highly ambitious special projects in contrasting musical fields, Beethoven Quest and
The Marble City Sessions.
Beethoven Quest is an epic journey through the great composer’s string quartets and piano concertos. Beethoven’s
complete string quartets will be performed throughout the ten days of the Festival by the acclaimed Heath Quartet
in a series of ten lunchtime concerts, while the complete piano concertos will be performed by Barry Douglas
(piano/director) and Camerata Ireland over two evenings in the glorious acoustics of St Canice’s Cathedral. Other
Beethoven Quest events include a talk by composer Gerry Murphy on The Man Behind The Music, and The Irish
Songbook, marking the composer’s Irish connection in a concert of his settings of Irish folksongs in the stunning Long
Gallery of Kilkenny Castle.
The Marble City Sessions, co-curated by Kilkenny Arts Festival with Martin Hayes, gathers some of the finest
musicians in America and Ireland – with backgrounds in traditional, jazz, folk, contemporary, oldtime, bluegrass and
many other styles – for a week of unique, cross-genre collaborations building to an unforgettable Festival Finale
where many of the resident artists will join forces in a gala night at St Canice’s. At the heart of the Marble City
Sessions is the extraordinary new Irish-music group, The Gloaming. In addition to their St Canice’s performance on
13 August, each member of the group combines with other leading musicians for a series of intimate concerts and
pop-up gigs. Also in residence for the Sessions are some of America’s finest musicians, including jazz guitar legend
Bill Frisell, cult progressive folk singer/ instrumentalist Sam Amidon, crack New York clarinettist Doug Wieselman,
Old Time fiddler Cleek Schrey, composer and hardanger player Dan Trueman and peerless percussive dancer Nic
Gareiss.
Other major international artists in residence include former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins and Shakespeare’s Globe
Theatre Company. Described by The New York Times as ‘the most popular poet in America’, Billy Collins will take
part in a series of events including public readings and a workshop for poets. Following sold-out performances in
2012 and 2013, Shakespeare’s Globe, one of the world’s leading ensembles, will return with the only Irish
performances of their brand-new production of Much Ado About Nothing in Castle Yard, Ireland’s finest open-air
theatre setting.
Shakespeare is also at the centre of this year’s major Festival commission, the world premiere of Lear Project, a
reimagining of Shakepeare’s King Lear by Irish Modern Dance Theatre. In an exciting gender reversal, New York
modern-dance legend Valda Setterfield takes on the title role.
The Festival is delighted to present the Irish debuts of a spectrum of international artists. One of the leading
Baroque conductors in Europe, Christian Curnyn brings his Early Opera Company (UK) to Ireland for the first time
with a concert performance of Handel’s most enduringly popular opera, Acis and Galatea, with a top-flight
international cast. Other Irish firsts include the ancient polyphonic choral singing of the Basiani Ensemble (Georgia),
and explosive performance poet Kate Tempest (UK) for the Irish premiere of her new album Everybody Down. Also
on their first Irish visit will be Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino (Italy) who blend Italian and North African sounds in
an explosive Mediterranean mix of passion, energy and rhythm.
Stargaze, one of the coolest contemporary chamber orchestras in Europe, come from Berlin to perform a
spectacular gala, which will see them present three contrasting projects that explore the possibilities for
collaboration between pop and classical music. They will join forces with The Dodos, an acclaimed indie band from
San Francisco; perform the Irish premiere of a new song cycle Death Speaks by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer
David Lang, featuring Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond); and a unique performance of Terry Riley’s In C, joined
onstage by many of the Festival’s artists-in-residence for an epic feat of improvisation.
One of the greatest classical artists of the last fifty years, pianist Alfred Brendel will deliver a lecture sharing his
thoughts on a wealth of musical topics. Following the huge popularity of the giant inflatable sculpture Miracoco in
last year’s festival, UK artists Architects of Air return to Kilkenny with a new and very different luminarium –
Pentalum, a breathtaking and magical labyrinth for all ages to explore. Critically acclaimed Benjamin Bagby will give
audiences the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf as it might have been
originally performed in those candlelit Saxon halls.
Liam Ó Maonlaí will perform on extraordinary glass instruments created in a recent collaboration with Irish glass
artist Róisín de Buitléar, which is also showcased in the flagship craft exhibition in the National Craft Galley in Castle
Yard. Resonance brings together two artists whose innovative work explores the sonic qualities of glass. Róisín de
Buitléar’s Irish Incantation/Ortha is a series of glass sound objects made to create an Irish incantation, a harmony of
voice, object and Irish soul. When played by different hands and breaths of phrasing and rhythm, they become an
evolving conversation. Karen Donnellan’s work is concerned with the intangible essence of things. Informed by her
interest in the metaphysical, her work draws on a wide range of media including blown and cast glass, woodturning,
sound, light and film. Working with composer Alma Kelliher, her work explores the boundaries of sound technology
and experimental glass art. Visitors will be invited to try out their own music.
New York-based painter Marilyn Lerner’s first exhibition in Ireland, Circle In The Square, will take place in the Butler
Gallery. An extraordinary artist who has been committed to abstract geometric painting for over forty years,
Lerner’s oil paintings are painted on wooden panels with bevelled edges so that they almost float off the wall. They
are highly skilful compositions that articulate her experiences through form, pattern and colour.
Over the duration of the Festival, visitors will have a unique opportunity to view the interior of St Mary’s Church, one
of the most important medieval buildings in Kilkenny, stripped back to reveal its original volume before the next
phase of architectural development begins. In a special intervention for Kilkenny Arts Festival entitled Outside In,
Canadian artist Max Streicher will fill the interior with animated clouds suspended from the transept and the nave.
The near weightlessness of these forms enables them to rustle and shift, responding with surprising subtlety to the
action of air within and without.
Audiences are encouraged to explore the stunning medieval and historic spaces both indoors and out which will be
the locations of unforgettable moments over the ten days of the Festival including St Canice’s Cathedral, St John’s
Priory, Castle Yard, the Parade Tower, Butler House, the Black Abbey, Rothe House and the Heritage Council, as well
as more modern performance spaces including the Set Theatre, Watergate Theatre and Left Bank. Within Kilkenny’s
medieval centre lie some of Ireland’s finest historic urban gardens, and in a new initiative this year, the Festival
presents Secret Garden Music where each afternoon, four of these stunning historic gardens will come alive with
free pop-up 15-minute concerts. The gardens are secret, and so are the artists…
This year’s Hubert Butler Annual Lecture will be Theatre of War: Inside the UN Security Council, as Richard Ryan,
Irish Ambassador to the UN from 1998 to 2005 and President of the Council in the aftermath of 9/11, reveals some
of the inner dynamics of this secretive and powerful institution during a tumultuous period. Other talks, lectures,
readings and discussions include a one-off conversation between Lady Antonia Fraser and Roy Foster on Writing
Lives: The Art Of Historical Biography; Thomas Pakenham on Historic Irish Demesnes; and a key lecture by Niall
McCullough on architectural interventions in historic spaces in Kilkenny, Ireland and Europe. Also appearing are Irish
novelists Hugo Hamilton, Liz Nugent & Donal Ryan and poets Eilean Ni Chuilleanain, Conor O’Callaghan & Peter
Sirr.
The Festival will also present a wide range of family workshops, performances and events by creative leaders
including Cartoon Saloon, the National Craft Gallery and Butler Gallery. The Ark and Improvised Music Company
will also present the premiere of a new interactive performance and visual adventure with guitarist and technology
whizz Shane Latimer, acclaimed vocalist and improviser Lauren Kinsella and cartoonist Patrick Sanders. The
musicians will create funky jazzy melodies on the spot, while Patrick draws cool cartoons of the music and projects
them live.
Booking now open
Booking details: www.kilkennyarts.ie
Tel: +353 56 775 2175 (from 7 July)
In Person: Festival Box Office, 14 John St, Kilkenny (from 7 July)
Kilkenny Arts Festival is core-funded by An Chomhairle Ealaíon / The Arts Council and supported by Fáilte Ireland and
Kilkenny Local Authorities.
Learn more about the festival at: http://www.kilkennyarts.ie/blog/
http://www.youtube.com/user/KilkennyArtsFestival
Get social and let the festival know your own personal highlights and comments:
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Learn more about Kilkenny at: http://www.kilkennyarts.ie/visit/
Press information: Sinead O’Doherty / Gerry Lundberg. Gerry Lundberg Public Relations
t: + 353 1 679 8476 / + 353 86 259 1070 / +353 87 259 1070 e: pr@gerrylundbergpr.com