Aug/093
SMS Office now closed
Well, we’ve finally disassembled what has been the Summer Music on the Shannon office for 2009. I had some help from Ana Marques, Deirdre Stack Marques and Naoise Stack Marques yesterday and today in expunging all traces of SMS 09 from the Foundation Building at UL. This included taking down all the signs that had been put up on notice boards, walls, and doors throughout the Foundation Building’s ground floor where we operated from, as well as our Room Numbers and maps from the room doors and dressing room doors backstage which served as tuition rooms for the instrumental faculty as well as changing rooms for the many performances on the University Concert Hall stage.
The office itself had to be put back into boxes for transport back to Clare Music Makers which stores SMS office stuff during the year. The computer equipment (consisting of a 17″ CRT monitor, two speakers, an aging epson printer, and CPU, plus cables for same) has been unplugged, battened down where necessary, and taped up ready for transport also. All the tables and chairs have been removed and put back where we got them. So I’ve finally moved out of UCH and the SMS office has gone into hibernation until the summer of 2010, when it will again spring into existence all going well.
The music library is still in the process of being dismounted and put back in its multitude of sturdy plastic containers. This job has fallen to Bob Creech and Bruce Dunn and should be complete by this evening or tomorrow morning. All the music on loan from Germany, Sweden and the UK has to be packaged up and posted off. The remainder goes back into storage at Clare Music Makers in Ennis. Colie Tubridy will transport it, together with the office, tomorrow or Thursday.
Then there is all the musical equipment that has been on loan from Clare Music Makers, the University of Limerick Orchestra, and others, consisting of music stands, percussion equipment and other bits and pieces, which has to be returned to the owners in pristine state. And last, but not least, there’s the TAM on loan from RTE which has to be taken back to Dublin.
This is some of the essential preparatory work that goes on in the background both before and after an event such as Summer Music on the Shannon, that goes unnoticed by the public, and without which SMS could not take place at all.
Aug/091
Vivaldi+ at The Georgian House 13 August 2009
I took the Inspiron Mini notebook with me tonight to the Georgian House and this is what I wrote as the evening progressed:
We have just got on the bus which is to take us to the Georgian House for tonight’s concert. The bus is gradually filling up. I’m sitting in the front with Ana Marques. To my right is Toni Rose who is looking for a nail file – asking every female who has boarded if they happen to have one. Clarinet student Alice FitzGibbon has just arrived but the bus is pulling out. Colie, the driver, is up to his usual tricks! We’re off.
Ten minutes later and we’re comfortably seated in the second row upstairs at The Georgian House. The Canadian contingent of students who are playing Vivaldi’s “Concerto for Four Violins” can be heard going through their paces in the distance.
Myra Bennett is selling raffle tickets.
It’s warm this evening. I haven’t bothered to change my clothes because I didn’t have time to shower and I’ve run out of clean clothes. I must pay an early morning visit to Dunnes Stores tomorrow and pick up a couple of T-shirts. A new black shirt is also a must have for the grand finale on Sunday.
The clock inches inexorably towards 8pm. Several animated conversations fill the space around us. Ana yawns beside me. I think a glass of wine would be nice now, but decide to wait for the interval before indulging.
David Piggot sets up the audio-recorder thingy atop his metal Velbon tripod in the corner in readiness for the concert. I hand him a folder with the latest completed CD order forms which came in this evening just before the SMS office closed.
Ana observes that a lot of people are buying raffle tickets. In truth the prizes are good ones consisting of a number of high quality classical recordings, and some cuddly toys.
Strap to hold cello steady while playing
It’s now 8pm according to my watch. The place is nearly full.
I notice a black strap on the floor with the plastic loop held in place by a chair leg at one end and the other end consisting of a round hollow tube set in a square piece of plastic – it’s to hold a cello in place is my guess.
The Canadian students make their entrance and line up. Ana closes the door. We’re about to commence.
Very nice rendition of Vivaldi by the Canadians.
A quick change of chair and stand arrangement and we’re ready for the Poulenc piece. If it’s anything like the Poulenc I heard last night in St. Mary’s Cathedral it’ll be challenging.
The 2nd movement turns out to be a nice not overly complicated piece, while the third is playful and rather cartoonish – not to my liking (the music that is). The playing is brisk, competent, and at times brilliant especially by Laurent Cote.
There follows the Bassoon Concerto performed by James Hodges which was very enjoyable. What an amazing instrument the bassoon is!
Interval time and a glass of red wine.Una of the Georgian House informs us that quite a lot of guests of the Boutique Hotel next door have come to the Mozart+ series of concerts this year and have been raving about the high standard. It’s gone down a treat!
Micheline Kinsella with Trevor Selby on piano
Ten minutes later and we’re back inside ready for Micheline Kinsella and Trevor Selby. But first it’s the raffle draw.
Wowee – what a performance by Micheline Kinsella on violin and Trevor Selby on piano. Very jazzy as she said it would be in her introduction.
Now for piccolo – Myra Bennet gives a short talk on the instrument. It’s played a lot in the symphony orchestra – it’s the “fireworks” in Myra’s words.
The Bassoon Song, with Alex Walker on Bassoon, Allardyce Mallon on piano, and Mike Ogonovski on vocals, proves to be hilarious, and has us all in stitches. Not surprisingly it gets an encore.
Kevin Grogan finishes off the night with three songs, and the entire audience leaves on a high!
Aug/090
Pigeon trouble at the Paddock
Much hilarity was had this lunch time at the Paddock when a pigeon, realising it was about to fly into the Paddock restaurant, made an emergency hard turn with milimetres to spare and almost got itself entangled in Gillian Mott’s hair. Gillian performed a spectacular ducking manoeuvre while simultaneously letting fly a very audible expletive quiet unlike any sounds that regularly emanate from her violin! Some of the witnesses to this interlude were Bob Creech (though I think Bob had his back turned and his ear bent to his mobile phone at the time), Bruce Dunn, Colie Tubridy, Pat Downes, and Patrick Stack.
Aug/090
Early rise for me and Colie
Colie Tubridy, our Director of Transportation, had a very early rise this morning with a run to Shannon Airport to pick up five Canadian students and their chaperone, Lori Burns, whose flight arrived from Ottawa at 6.30am. I got a text from Colie at 7.30am to tell me he was leaving Shannon. It woke me. I still had some final room allocations to do before they arrived so I spent the next half hour at that.
A second batch of students – two young Canadian women – were delivered to Brookfield Hall at 9.45 by Dermot O’Meara, who is acting as backup driver for the moment.
Aug/092
Fantastic concert last night
Last night’s concert was really outstanding, as everyone from the large crowd will attest. And the live streaming worked really well also I’m told. So a second live-streaming event is looking likely in the next couple of weeks, though no decision has been made yet. I’m looking forward to seeing Paul O’Mahony’s posts on it – and the many photographs he took afterward of the musicians.
John Perry has just left with the SMS Director of Transportation, Colie Tubridy, for Dublin from where he catches his flight back to the US at 4 this afternoon. Mina Perry is missing him already.
Colie will arrive back later this evening with Josef Calef the Cellist. Josef has been coming to SMS for many years now and is an esteemed and very well liked member of the faculty.
Jul/096
Problems encountered so far
It’s almost the end of the first week of Summer Music on the Shannon 2009 and time, I feel, to share some of the problems, many of them perennial, we have encountered in the last four days. I would like to emphasize that this is not a grudge list, rather is it a factual account of the problems the programme faces year in year out. The order I list them in is random
- Photocopier jammed yesterday evening at the worst possible time – machines seem to have a knack of doing this.
SMS is given the use of a photocopier upstairs in the Foundation Building by the University via UCH. - Still awaiting internet access – the delay is down to O2 I believe, as UCH has done its utmost, in the person of Marie Healy, to get an upgraded Broadband USB stick delivered asap. This is a perennial problem also. Perhaps we will finally get it sorted this year so we have broadband access from the outset in future.
- Problems contacting Brookfield Hall manager, as set out in a previous post. This is a temporary thing, but no less frustrating for that.
- Office equipment is barely adequate. The programme could do with a couple of properly specced laptops – preferably a mac and a PC running Windows, as well as a couple of printers, a mini-photocopier, and a telephone line (we have always had to rely on our own mobile phones during the programme!). It is thanks to Michael Hennessey of Ennis that we have a computer and printer this year, as he kindly donated his old PC to the programme. It runs Windows 2000, has adequate RAM (500Mb), and a reasonably sized hard drive (16Gb) for the purpose. The printer, however, would not work, despite all my cajoling, and a reinstall. Marie Healy kindly came to the rescue once more by donating her own printer as she recently upgraded to a newer model.
- One of our supervisors, Nicola Moroney, fell ill on her second day and is not now coming back to the programme. This lead to a mini-crisis on Tuesday afternoon when there was nobody to pick up Sara Ripoll and her father who have come to the programme for the first time all the way from Alicante, Spain. The result was that Ana Marques had to drive to Shannon to pick them up as Colie Tublidy had both of his buses in for their NCT test., and we had to postpone a meeting to mid-afternoon as a result. Another consequence of Nicola’s absence was that Deirdre Stack Marques who was helping her with the supervision of the Ennis students on the return train journeys each day has had to do it by herself. As there are only 6 students this week, it hasn’t proved to be a problem.
- We need an adult volunteer to do the train supervision for Week 2.
- Dearth of information – some faculty members who are due to arrive the first weekend in August have still not confirmed their dates of arrival, or indeed their accommodation requirements. Bob Creech has e-mailed them and is still awaiting replies. This makes it more stressful for us in the SMS Office to arrange accommodation, airport pickups, and supply accurate meal numbers to the Paddocks Restaurant ahead of time.
- There seems to be a problem with some promised bursaries not coming through, but I can’t say any more about this at present.
There you have a typical first week at Summer Music on the Shannon.
I must pay tribute to the wonderful work done by UCH staff in particular by Marie Healy who is a colossus in the work she does, and Emma Foote who does the PR.
Jul/091
Most residents of Opera Programme now registered
I’ve had a very busy day with SMS preparation stuff.
First thing this morning I went to Aldi to do the breakfast shopping for the 17 residents we will have for week 1 of SMS 2009.
I must say I got some quizzical looks from the people in the checkout queue when they saw the multiple boxes of Cornflakes, Rice Krispies, jars of jam, coffee, tubs of margarine, cartons of milk and orange juice, teabags, packs of sugar, and a whole load of toilet paper and kitchen roll.
After lunch I drove down to Brookfield Hall, with my son Naoise as a helping hand…
and sat in the pool and TV room beside reception for 2hrs and 15mins to give people their keys and food as they arrived.
The three girls from Kilrush who have come back for the Opera Programme again this year were already waiting with one of the mothers.
Shortly afterwards the only boy in residence for week 1 arrived with his mother.
Then some time later Bob Creech arrived in the company of John O’Dwyer who was driving.
A few minutes after that Toni Rose made an appearance with her flatmate Danella Sing who flew into Shannon on the very early flight from the US this morning.
Elinor Moran had already arrived on the 9.45 flight from London to Shannon.
Dermot O’Meara, who works for the instrumental programme, as a stage hand, did us the favour of collecting both Danella and Elinor from the airport and chauffeuring them to Brookfield Hall.
As I waited I worked on the accommodation requirements for Week 2…
while keeping an eye on the Connaught Football final between Galway and Mayo. Mayo won in a thrilling finish.
Nobody else came in the time allotted time for registration. So at 17.40 we made our way over the the accommodation block and stocked up the 5 remaining apartments with packs from the car boot. I left the remaining keys with Bob Creech.
Then it was down to Dunnes Stores on the Childers road with Toni Rose and Danella Sing, so they could purchase other things they needed. We eventually left Brookfield for home at 19.05 where we arrived shortly before 20.00.
Tonight…
After dinner tonight, it’s time to print off the lists we need for the registration of the Opera day students. I have to be in UCH (University Concert Hall, Limerick) at 8 am in the morning.
Ana Marques is also coming, as she is dropping off Deirdre Stack Marques and Nicola Moroney at the train station. They are supervising the Ennis Opera students on the train to Limerick, and back again in the evening, for the rest of the week. We already purchased the tickets at Ennis Station on Friday evening.
I’ve had a couple of calls from Colie Tubridy, the transport co-ordinator, who has arrived at Brookfield in the last hour.