NB: Available exclusively for DEIS national schools. Suitable for 4th, 5th and 6th class pupils
“Whale Tales and Fairy Folk Songs” A Children’s Celebration!
Join the Degani Piano Trio of pianist Rachel Quinn, violinist Alan Smale and cellist Annette Cleary along with Donegal artist Kim Sharkey and her magical live drawings of whales and other sea stories.
The concert will include a musical treasure trove of Whale Tales, a newly composed work by leading Irish composer Ian Wilson and especially arranged Irish Folksongs for piano trio by other Irish composers John Buckley and Phillip Martin including ‘The Maids of Mitchelstown Fancy’, ‘Lagan love’, ‘She walked through the Fair’ and the ‘Masons Apron’. Some humorous and also ghostly children’s poetry is interspersed between the folksongs to illuminate the musical moods such as The Jumblies, Ducks Ditty and the Stolen Child.
Kim Sharkey will award a small prize for the best Jumblie Drawing after the concert.
Whale Tales is a new piece of music by leading Irish composer Ian Wilson for violin, cello and piano inspired by different stories about, or things to do with, whales, as a way of reminding us how wonderful these creatures are. A short introduction is followed by four main movements – “Jonah”, “The Whale’s Tail” (after the area on the dwarf planet Pluto with the same name); “Sleep” (inspired by how whales sleep – vertically!); and “The White Whale”, after Herman Melville’s famous novel Moby Dick. The music is very illustrative and the movements relatively short so it will appeal to children’s imaginations. The inclusion of live-drawing by the wonderful children’s artist Kim Sharkey will make the experience completely engaging for under-10s
Whale Tales is funded by the Arts Council of Ireland/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.
