In collaboration with a local primary school class from Lucan, composer Anselm McDonnell will write a new work for the festival together with cellist Martin Johnson and violist Adele Johnson. The work will be co-created between the composer and a class and will take its inspiration from musical materials and suggestions created in a workshop with the class, responding to local activities and places in Lucan. The workshop will introduce the children to the sounds/techniques of the viola and cello, and explore music already written for these instruments.

“We will explore the act of co-creation by composing short improvisational pieces for the children to play (percussion ensemble) based on local places and experiences that are important to the children and create artworks responding to these places.For the second half of the project, I will compose a new piece for Martin and Adele based on the themes and musical materials created by the children in this workshop. To incorporate as many of the themes and stories suggested, the work will likely be a collection of short ‘portraits’ of local places and imagery. During the final performance, the visual artworks from the workshop will be displayed to complement the music depicting each place.” Anselm McDonnell, composer