Jan/102
What’s going to happen in 2010?
The future of SMS? I have no inside information. So please don’t jump to any conclusions?
We (on this blog) did our best to support SMS09. We’ve created a record of sorts – that’ll be there for posterity. We’ve linked people and created a resource for others to use as they see fit.
But what of the future of SMS? Will it continue in 2010? If so, in what form?
There’s no point in pretending we can predict the future. It’s there for us to make. I for one would love to see SMS continue in 2010 – in some form that’s sustainable.
So far it’s been the child, the baby of Bob Creech. Without him there would be no SMS. But Bob can’t go on for ever. There has to be some sort of handover, at some stage. Maybe not 2010, but some time.
The burning question is the transition to a new regime for SMS. Will that happen? If so, how?
My view (and please remember I’m a newcomer to SMS) is that the sooner the better. We need to support Bob Creech as he thinks about the future of SMS. I have no doubt Bob has thought a lot about this issue. But I’m not in touch with his thinking. I hope some of those who are in touch with Bob’s plans will read this and let him know that there are others here too. I would certainly commit to helping SMS into the future.
The question is how can I best help?
Sep/090
Homage to Bob Creech
This is an attempt at a homage (or an homage – pronounce it as ye will) to Bob Creech, and a poor one at that.
Not being a Classical music connoisseur, let alone a buff, I’m not privy to what Bob Creech has achieved in a lifetime of dedication to Classical Music and the education of children in Classical Music. But I know, from the lips of many internationally renowned classical musicians who have given freely of their time in successive Summer Music on the Shannon festivals, that his achievements are gargantuan. I let it to those in the know to fill in the details.
I am writing from my personal experience of Bob Creech.
When Bob asked me to take over the running of the SMS office in UCH, from his wonderful wife Nancy 5 years ago, I was both flattered and petrified. I was flattered because I couldn’t understand why Bob could have such faith in me since, to my mind, I hadn’t proven that I could manage anything, let alone the chaotic maelstrom that was Summer Music on the Shannon. I was petrified because I lacked the confidence and belief in myself that I could do it. Yet, such was my respect for Bob that I could not refuse his request, so I accepted.
That first year in UCH was utter hell for me. SMS didn’t have an office, but was situated in the open area of the ground floor in the Foundation Building between the toilets and the Emergency Exit. I think that says something about how UCH saw the programme at the time – I may rue saying this, but I’ve never been a shrinking violet when it comes to speaking my mind and I don’t intend to start being one now. All that was between the office staff and the outside world were some hastily assembled tables. I remember being constantly worried about somebody making off with our computer equipement, despite the fact that our computer equipment was so outdated as to be worthless, so nobody in their right minds would have touched it anyway. I always did make sure to take my laptop with me wherever I went, however. What was worse was having to talk to the parents of the children on the programme. I felt a mixture of terror, fright, confusion and embarrasment (not necessarily in that order) everytime somebody asked me a question. This heady mix was enhanced by a healthy dollop of worry that something would go drastically wrong, with panic waiting in the wings to make a grand entrance when it did. Eventually I got used to dealing with the public and I relaxed a bit. I think it was only after the third year that I felt I had a handle on how things worked, and more importantly, on how things didn’t work and what to do when they didn’t.
Experience is a great teacher.
[To be continued...]
Sep/091
Interview with Michael Murphy, director UCH, coming up soon
On Wednesday I drove from Cork to Limerick and interviewed Michael Murphy about Summer Music on the Shannon (SMS). We talked about his experience of SMS for almost an hour.
I think you’ll be interested in his perspective.
All I have to do is finish knocking my notes and recording into shape.
Michael is Director of University Concert Hall. He’s David Collopy’s manager and has a really interesting take on the SMS story.
Watch this space.
Aug/090
Stretching SMS out across the internet is a complex business
What wonder of modern civilization the Internet is.
I think of it like the wheel. And sometimes even like fire…
The arena that is the Internet is a porous affair, a permeable membrane… a space where fault lines cross, rivers converge and ideas splinter in a trillion directions.
SMS is out there now. Goodness knows who’s picking it up and playing with it. There could well be someone in Alaska under the influence, or a Russian child dreaming of how to do the same thing over there.
This blog continues, and will keep on going…
The Facebook Group is well and truly on the march: 62 members from many countries and counties, & 250 photographs, each of which tells a story.
And so far we have only scratched the surface.
Not a single newspaper, radio station or TV programme-maker has picked up the story of how this blog is an interesting innovation. No one’s come to us and said “tell us the story of why you’re doing this… Why blog SMS?”
It’ll be interesting to see who gets that story first.
Aug/092
The SMS Interview : David Collopy’s view of SMS
We are delighted to welcome David Collopy, General Manager of University Concert Hall (UCH), located on the campus of University of Limerick (UL).
This is the first of a series of interviews we hope to publish around the theme of “SMS : Significance & Future” - showcasing views of key people in and connected with SMS.
David brings a wonderful CV to SMS.
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Director Glór – Irish Music Centre in Ennis, Co Clare
October 2007 — October 2008
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Chief Executive Opera Ireland
November 1985 — December 2006
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General Administrator Wexford Festival Opera
February 1980 — September 1985
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Some personal favorites…
Favorite Sport: I’m not really interested in any sport. If offered tickets for Heineken Cup final (Munster playing), I’d probably say “tickets should go to someone who’s passionate about the game.”
Favorite Food: My favourite food experience is the seafood platter in Linnane’s New Quay, County Clare. This is a pub-restaurant, on southern shore of Galway Bay, near Ballyvaughan (known as “the flaggy shore“). There was a boat disaster there; I saw a documentary on it. I’m a seafood person; I’d live on it if I could.
Favorite music: If I could take only one piece to a desert island, it would have to be opera: overture to Verdi’s La Forza del destino [listen here] - a common enough overture, but I love it
Favorite performer, musician or singer: Maria Callas
Favorite country: Switzerland. Been many times. love it – so many contrasts
Country you’d love to go to: Bali. Wanted to get married there. Or Goa
Favorite city: Paris, culturally
__________________________________________
How did you first hear about “Summer Music on the Shannon”?
Seven years ago, when I was chief executive of Opera Ireland, Michael Murphy, director UCH, told me about this “summer camp”. Michael introduced me to Bob Creech. SMS opera project had just started. It was something I wanted to explore, because Opera Ireland was very keen to nurture young talent. SMS opera programme was a programme with which we wanted to build a partnership. We wanted to support it.
Opera Ireland became partner/sponsor of SMS opera programme. It was great for SMS to link with the only national opera organisation in Ireland.
When I left Opera Ireland, I wrote a report for Michael Murphy on how to take this link forward. I also looked at organisational structure & management, began to work closely with Bob Creech. UCH wanted to help SMS achieve its ‘raison d’etre’.
Any highlights in relation to SMS?
As general manager UCH from November 2008, I began to “look after” SMS from a UCH perspective. We’ve tried to make a bit more sense of the relationship.
SMS is actually a “project” of UCH. SMS isn’t a legal entity in its own right. In terms of liabilities, financial and otherwise, SMS comes under UCH. When making grant applications, applications go forward from UCH. My job is to add more resource to SMS for management & administration. We want to continuously improve SMS business organisation, so that the artistic, learning & performance side of SMS can continue to flourish.
When SMS is on UL campus, the two organisations are nearly one and the same.
Who else in UCH plays an important role in SMS?
Marie Healy is Registrar: looks after applicants signing-up for courses; deals with queries & all things on campus - even doctors & dentists.
Paul Boland is Technical Manager. We have 22 public performances.
Anything that must move for performances@St Mary’s Cathedral, Kilrush, Bruff, Kilmallock – like projectors & sound equipment - is provided by UCH technical department.
Paul Boland also acts as Production Manager: sets up & provides equipment, schedules, deals with the technical side of Concert Hall, lights the hall, works with Set Designer to help realise the overall design concept.
Emma Foote, Marketing Manager: prepares printed material, brochures, press releases, radio ads, helps local, regional & national newspapers. For example, Carl Davis [composer of "The Mermaid"] was on Pat Kenny Show with Myles Dungan – she arranges that.
Box Office Manager, Henri Murphy, with our box office staff, sell tickets. There’s no box office@St Mary’s Cathedral, so we have to provide that with house staff.
How does SMS Summer School fit into the annual cycle of Concert Hall?
Fits very well. Summer is every concert hall’s down time for audience. With SMS, we’ve a programme that fills the gap brilliantly.
Remember, SMS occupies more than the Concert Hall. Expands into 3-4 university faculties. Uses space from Languages, Engineering, Irish World Academy of Music & Dance. (Great co-operation there.) Also Jean Monnet Theatre & Jonathan Swift Theatre : SMS pervades the physical fabric of the University Of Limerick.
The downside is that SMS runs during summer holiday season. Local concert-going audience is down, off on holidays. SMS can’t have the same packed houses for concerts as we get during the rest of the year. So it’s a trade off.
What connections exist between SMS & the wider artistic community in Ireland?
Musicians come from their musical communities. After SMS they go back to work in September, on their day jobs. They take the spirit & experience of SMS with them, to Cork, Dublin and beyond.
It’s like ‘viral’ marketing. The word gets out & on to others who may well join SMS. Music education all over Ireland benefits. For example, Artane Band [see them play] with whom SMS has close links, comes to Limerick for a week of their own Concert performances.
The impact of SMS radiates out a fair bit. The musical connections also connect with educational networks. School teachers come to supervise & support students.
There is an essential & strong connection with the international music community as well. SMS began with Bob Creech & friends from Canada & UK. Recently, the Norwegian connection has grown. For example, David Stewart is Canadian. He’s known Bob in Canada. He also has connections with Norway. He was leader of the Norwegian Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. There are so many countries involved in SMS, that these international influences are developing all the time.
Bob Creech is the centre, with his amazing experience and network. If you look at his CV, you’ll see how he’s brought people together from many countries. It’s a bit like Facebook in action – the living embodiment of Facebook [there is an SMS Facebook Group] in terms of networking.
What connections exist with the wider community in Limerick, Clare, Ireland & beyond?
SMS is predominantly a Summer School. A certain school regime is present. As for all children going to school, students share a common interest. But when the child leaves school, it’s over. After SMS, the connection is broken. Contrast this with the world of work: there are people I’ve known, & stayed in touch with, for 30 years.
The student association with the organisation is relatively short. Absence of structures & backup means that, for SMS, the long term connection is not so strong. We have plans to address that.
Do you deliberately plan for children from deprived areas like Moyross to come?
Look at the mission statement for SMS (on website). It’s a very global mission statement. It’s really to make music for everyone, irrespective of age, financial background, or ability. Students have access to SMS music programmes, with bursaries for those who can’t afford the fees. SMS lives out its mission statement.
The SMS experience gives students a bit of a ‘crutch’, if they need it. Young kids come to the programme from Moyross. They develop a talent they didn’t know they had. This a key aspect of what we do. The bursary programme should be the last thing to go if we’re in difficulties. The joy this experience gives kids is of immense value to everyone.
Any particular challenges in 2009?
As I see it, SMS is at a cross roads. SMS has outgrown its success It came to UCH with a 2-week programme. Now it’s over 4 weeks. There are masterclasses now. The programme has expanded out of all recognition. And yet it’s still being run with it’s original approach.
Now we need a serious reassessment. How is SMS going to build and keep bringing in other elements?
We need to develop long term plans. Branding. Governance structures. Strategic marketing. SMS has now become too big to continue as it has been.
It is also struggling financially - like every arts organisation.
Change must be done in a measured and achievable way. You cannot run an organisation which grown so much bigger in size and diversity, on the same resources or mechanisms. This is what Bob Creech has been trying to bring to all our attention. We have to consider how best to move forward for the next phase of SMS – so as to ensure the spirit of SMS for the future.
Looking ahead 5 years, where would you see SMS?
Assuming present demand & growth rate remains constant, we shall concentrate on tuition, but also with performance.
A key aspect for students is that they play alongside professional players from the Philharmonic. What is unique is that they interact as equals in performance of the music. You may have the leader of the Norwegian orchestra playing alongside a student, with the student leading the orchestra. The roles are reversed. It is a great way for kids to learn that this is what its like when you’re a player.
SMS goes to Kilrush, Bruff & Kilmallock. Do you see SMS going to other places, expanded its outreach service?
We need to define outreach. SMS spends 4 weeks working very hard here. Going out from Limerick gives students more performances. Going on tour shows opera students what it’s like to tour an opera. This means it’s not just one performance. They get to perform at home and tour.
We need balance. It’s a matter of showing communities what is available. Letting them find out what an SMS performance could mean to them locally. It’s not a matter of SMS pushing itself into communities. We need local communities to want SMS.
We need to show the very high standard of SMS performance. This is audience development. Growing the appreciation of the value there is in a young student reaching out to young musicians and teachers, on an equal basis. This is an area for policy development.
[to be continued]
Aug/090
Everyone’s at “The Mermaid” children’s opera
And I’m @home in Cork, wishing I was in the audience.
The good thing is that I’ll be @Kilmallock, Co Limerick on Tuesday evening for the final performance of this opera I’ve never seen or heard.
There is something special about being @openingnight. Especially for opera. There is always the possibility of disaster…
The tenor may miss the top note in Act 3 of Rigoletto. The leading lady may bounce back up over the castle walls in Tosca, when she’s meant to have fallen to her death. These are famous opening nights I’ve experienced.
But also there’s the possibility of being present for a miracle. Whenever it’s repeated, it’s not as good. No one talks of their attendance for the miracle third performance in a run. But if you were there for the opening night, it’s different. Perhaps it’s like the first glass from an amazing bottle of fine wine.
I also love being there for the end.
The closing night, when the cast come on stage, exhausted, and the musicians will to dash to the pub, but are detained by the glory of the audience.
For me “The Mermaid” in Kilmallock will be my compensation for the disappointment of not being able to be at so many SMS concerts.
Next year I’m camping out in Limerick.
Aug/090
Worldwide audience for SMS Concert from Limerick
Backstage in University Concert Hall (UCH) after the concert, the musicians looked at (and listened to) themselves on stage playing…
For me, the most poignant moment on Saturday evening was when a musician turned to me and said
“My father can’t travel to hear me play. Now he could watch the concert on the internet…”
I thought: what’s the story? is his father ill? is this a one-off? imagine his father never being about to hear him play live?
That was a moment of enormous force.
A moment when I resolved to do all I could to help bring about change, to harness the power of the internet of help overcome such limitations. We no longer need to be there in person to watch and hear the concert. So let us make it happen. Let’s live-stream every concert…
You are looking at a photograph of two wonderful musicians watching the concert being played back.
HEAnet (who & what it is) reaction to the live broadcast they sponsored:
I heard from David Collopy, UCH, today that the HEAnet people were delighted with the broadcast. The quality of sound was spectacular. It should have been: it went out down a pipe that was 1 gigabyte wide (whatever that means) on fiber optic cable. (Even I know that’s cutting edge.)
Whenever we use the word “audience” again, let’s think of the bigger audience out there with internet access…
I hope there are people in the wider Irish arts community reading about SMS, and thinking “how could we do the same?“
Jul/091
First LIVE Concert Streaming from University Concert Hall & UL
An exiting press release… (Thanks to David Collopy)
On Saturday 1st August people from all over the world can zone in on University Concert Hall and watch, listen to and enjoy musicians –also from all over the world – perform Live!
“The PianoMan” is the inaugural concert of this year’s Summer Music on the Shannon International Festival and will be the first ever concert streamed Live from the UL campus.
Over three hundred classical music and opera students and faculty have gathered in University Concert Hall from countries including the US, Canada, France, Italy and even Zambia, for Summer Music on the Shannon 2009.
UCH & UL are therefore delighted to announce this innovation whereby parents, friends and family of these young pupils can now log on and enjoy the first performance of the Festival!
Hosted by the HEA (Highter Education Authority) Net and facilitated by the University of Limerick ITD department, this will be the first of many concerts streamed live from UCH for the benefit and enjoyment of music fans the world over!
“The PianoMan” will feature John Perry, Professor of Music at the University of Southern California, and friends perform a delightful programme of music including Schubert’s Fantasia (Piano for Four Hands), Beethoven’s Piano Sonata In D and Terzetto in C by Dvorak. The concert is Free to the public and is sure to set the scene for a wonderful 16th SMS season!
For those of you who cannot get to UCH next Saturday night, be sure to log onto http://flashhost.heanet.ie/sms/live.html and enjoy!
Jul/092
Visiting SMS late on Friday afternoon of Week One
My day involved driving from Glanmire, Cork to Adare to visit my mother in Embury Close.
Grace, my almost-four year old daughter went for her fortnightly treat to see grandma Clare.
Unusually, we left Adare at about 2.30pm because Grandma had another appointment. So I drove into Limerick, to Clancy’s Electrical on O’Connell Street to return my Sony digital camera.
It’s a xmas present, under guarantee, and it stopped working in Biarritz, France, recently. I’ve felt as if I’ve lost an eye.
So I felt great to have a loan of mother’s CanonA460 digital camera.
I joined the traffic into Limerick, sent my camera back to Sony for repair and phoned Patrick Stack. He was working for SMS @UCH @UL.
It was great to have a few minutes of unexpected time to visit UCH and meet SMS for the first time.
So far all my contact with SMS has been via word-of-mouth, telephone, email and website.
What I didn’t realise is that UL closes down early on Friday afternoon. There were hardly any students wandering about on campus. Maybe there were all in the library, but I doubt it. UCH felt empty.
The cafe shut when we arrived, but the staff, who were cleaning up, were kind enough to serve Grace a Fanta Orange. (I’d promise her treats for coming in to meet people.)
I contacted Patrick by mobile phone. He met us and brought us to the nerve centre: Marie Healey. She’s Michael Murphy’s PA. She didn’t want her photograph taken,
so instead I shot Patrick Stack in her office.
I got a quick glimpse of Michael Murphy, managing director UCH, on the phone in his office, didn’t disturb him. I was so delighted to have a digital camera again.
Patrick took me down into the basement of UCH – where the SMS rehearsal & admin office is. I met his daughter and son at work there.
I met the man who drives the bus in which SMS students get out to campus from Limerick train & coach station.
I was interested to see what was posted up.
I also met two members of SMS faculty, from the singing section: they were shy. I’ll get their photos next time.
I met a group of five students, who just finished working (studying).
I photographed people whose names I never found out.
I felt I was beginning to get into SMS, starting to meet the people who matter, picking up the flavour of the mix.
I was introduced to people who were on their way home to Brookfield Hall (where students & faculty are staying)
and a fun lady from Kilrush who is a teacher (I forgot to ask her what she teaches).
There was also an amazing highlight. I went into a room where a young Russian student was working with his singing coach.
He sang, unaccompanied, a part of Pie Jesu (Sarah Brightman & Paul Miles Johnston with Winchester Cathedral Choir version here) for me. I was transported.
All the people I met were incredibly friendly and positive about the blog and keen to see it. I didn’t meet anyone who’d yet seen it. Patrick Stack set up a introductory viewing on his laptop. [That’s Toni looking at Bruce Dunn on screen.)
I did my best to encourage people to look at the blog and comment on it.
Grace & I left at about 5 pm. We drove back to Cork and I resolved to visit SMS again soon.