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DkIT Music group to participate in Rauland Winter Music Festival

02 February 2017

A group of lecturers and students from Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) will travel to Norway this February to take part in the Rauland Winter Music Festival.

Organised by the Institute for Folk Culture at University College, Telemark, who have an Erasmus link with the Department of Creative Arts, Media and Music, the festival brings together artists from all over the world in an intense rural retreat. The festival includes competitions, workshops, performances and sessions.

The festival is located in the region most closely associated with Norwegian traditional music and in particular the Hardanger fiddle tradition. The experience is intensified as many of the audience are also musicians and post-concert sessions provide opportunities for musicians to play together, share their music and develop their craft. The aim of the festival is to keep alive and nurture the development of traditions, allowing artists to learn about and explore various traditions.

In recent years, DkIT has welcomed students from Telemark as students on the BA (Hons) Applied Music and Irish students from Dundalk have also experienced a semester abroad at the campus in Rauland. DkIT music lecturer Dr Daithí Kearney has previously taught in Telemark on an Erasmus Teaching Mobility. University College, Telemark includes the study of many folk arts including music.

 



During the festival, Dr Adèle Commins and Dr Daithí Kearney will facilitate workshops and perform selections from their forthcoming album of new compositions, A Louth Lilt. They will be joined by five students from year two of the BA (Hons) Applied Music programme for the festival, giving the students a wonderful experience of a very unique festival and learning opportunity.

The festival has always invited performers with a global reputation in the folk music arena. One of the main attractions this year is Janusz Prusinowski Kompania, a group that is in all respects a central player in Poland’s burgeoning traditional music and dance scene. From the tiny mountain country of Bhutan in the Himalayas, former Rauland student, the brilliant multi-instrumentalist, Jigme Drukpa will also be performing.  The teachers on Rauland’s own traditional music course also contribute to the festival along with their musical collaborators, including employees at institutions with whom we have co-operation agreements: Mikael Marin from the Kungliga Musikhögskolan in Stockholm, Sweden, and Pauliina Syrjälä from Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. In addition, there will be several solid tradition-bearers from Telemark, including Hardanger fiddler Einar Øverland and singer Kjell Hove. Most of Saturday is devoted to a kappleik, a competition in traditional music and dance.

 

The festival also caters to those with an interest in art. This year, we’ll have the Future Traditions exibition, which was the result of a collaborative project between Rauland and MOME, The Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest. The exhibition consists of work by students from both institutions, and has previously been shown in Budapest and Skien.

You can learn more about the festival here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QNtIGZdFew or find out more about music at DkIT at https://www.dkit.ie/creative-arts-media-music

 

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Further information:

The students travelling are Ciara Brannigan (piano, tin whistle, Drogheda), Conor Bogue (banjo, Limerick), Calvin McManus (guitar, Cavan), Jane Meehan (fiddle, Dundalk), and Míceál Mullen (banjo, Armagh).

Featuring music composed by Adèle Commins and Daithí Kearney, A Louth Lilt is an album of Irish traditional music on piano accordion, mandolin and banjo inspired by people and places in Louth and further afield. From the snows of Norway to the sunsets of Brazil, the legends of the Táin to the dreams we share, the music draws on Irish musical traditions with an ear to the wider world. Encompassing influences from our rich and varied musical experiences, these pieces reflect a lifetime of engaging with various musical cultures and personalities. For more information see www.alouthlilt.com