A Mother’s Voice is a commemorative dedication to the many women affected by the mother and baby homes in Ireland during the 1900s.

Musici Ireland is humbled to present a multidisciplinary production in honour of the women, a collaboration between artists and living survivors to shed light on this veiled era of Ireland’s recent history. The production, which has been a two-year work in progress, will culminate in an immersive walk through exhibit by Bridget Ní Dhuinn, with lighting by Eoin McNinch and showcase a performance of the newly commissioned work by Cork composers Linda Buckley and Irene Buckley with animation by Éabha Bartolozzo and Jack Kirwan. The piece also features the voices of three mothers.

Musici Ireland hopes that this will be a unique concert experience – a sharing between audience and performer and an ode to the harrowing journey these women have endured.

Kindly supported by the Arts Council and Triskel Arts Centre’s WRITE RECORD PERFORM Artist Residency.

A Musici Ireland production featuring voices of survivors, original music by Irene Buckley and Linda Buckley

Animation by Éabha Bortolozzo and Jack Kirwan and an immersive art installation by Bridget Ní Dhuinn with lighting by Eoin McNinch

Beth McNinch of Musici Ireland is the recipient of Triskel’s WRITE RECORD PERFORM Music Residency 2022

Proceeds from this world premiere performance will go to OSS Cork.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Founded in 2012, Musici Ireland is a female led chamber collective that takes pride in presenting interesting and evocative programmes.

Musici consists of a core of players that welcomes collaborations with nationally and internationally celebrated musicians. Over the last decade they have created lasting relationships with venues and guest artists, performing regularly at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, making their debut at the Kilkenny Arts Festival in 2019, and enjoying a successful partnership with RTE Lyric FM through regular broadcast of their performances as well as broadcasts on BBC Radio 3. 2022 marks their 10th anniversary, with celebrations including an ambitious concert series featuring music by women composers.

“Still I Rise” at St Ann’s Church, Dawson St, showcased the versatility of Musici Ireland, with concerts for wind quintet, piano quintet, guitar and voice. With music from the Baroque period to World Premieres, they fulfilled their aim to champion the works of women throughout the ages.

Alongside their concert season, they look forward to several exciting commissions by Irish composers, and are also working on many exciting cross genre, International collaborations, with dancers, theatre and visual artists.

In 2022, Musici Ireland welcomed 20 outstanding young musicians from around Ireland to join them in concert. This project, in partnership with Music For Wexford, gave young musicians a professional concert experience, performing Grieg Holberg Suite and Vaughan Williams’ “Variations on a theme by Thomas Tallis” alongside Musici’s world class musicians.

Musici Ireland are passionate about encouraging the next generation of musicians to learn more about the profession by gaining hands on experience.

You can find out more about Musici Ireland and listen to their podcast “Musici Chats” at www.musici.ie and on the usual social media platforms.

Musici Ireland are a Company Limited by Guarantee supported by The Arts Council of Ireland under the Arts Grant Fund Award.

Beth McNinch studied viola at the GSMD & RAM in London, continuing with a successful freelance career, performing with all major symphony orchestras in the UK, including the London Symphony Orchestra & BBC Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared as principal violist with English national Ballet, London Sinfonietta, Wexford Festival Opera, Irish National Opera, RTE Symphony & Concert Orchestras and the Ulster Orchestra. She is recipient of the SEVN bursary, researching & recording works for solo viola by female composers. Beth is also recipient of an arts council bursary to study viola d’amore. She has also been awarded a place on Creation 21/22, a mentoring scheme run by the Performance Corporation to encourage cross genre collaborations.

As a soloist, Beth is a prolific commissioner, particularly championing the work of women composers. She will also be giving the world premiere of a new chamber concerto for viola by Irish composer Liam Bates in 2023.

Beth formed acclaimed Irish chamber collective, Musici Ireland, in 2012. They are one of the most respected chamber ensembles in Ireland and their performances can be heard regularly on RTE Lyric FM and across the EBU. Musici Ireland is a female led ensemble & as part of their 10th anniversary celebrations, they will be presenting a series of 5 concerts featuring exclusively female composers. Musici enjoy collaborating with composers, dancers, artists and poets, creating new and interesting ways of presenting classical music.

Lidia Jewloszewicz-Clarke is an award winning Polish violinist living in Ireland. She is a winner of Hibernian Orchestra Concerto Competition (Ireland) and the Gdańsk Mozart Prize (Poland). She is an avid chamber musician and member of Banbha String Quartet supported by the National String Quartet Foundation and Musici Ireland. She was a founding member of Lupus Piano Trio with whom she received a number of awards at international competitions. Lidia is a recipient of scholarship of the President of the University of Music in Luzern, Switzerland and an Artistic Scholarship of the President of Gdańsk for Special Achievements in Music and Culture. Most recently Lidia has been awarded Arts Council Ireland Bursary and Agility Award.

Lidia has toured in Europe and Asia and regularly performs with Camerata Ireland, Musici Ireland, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Irish National Opera and Wexford Festval Opera.

Lidia graduated with honours from the Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk. She furthered her studies in London at The Royal Academy of Music and graduated with MA in performance. Her teachers include Remus Azoitei, Sebastian Hamann, Tomotada Soh and Miroslawa Pawlak.

American cellist Katie Tertell enjoys a rich and varied experience as a freelance artist in Europe and America. She is Artistic Director and Founder of the Appalachian Chamber Music Festival, headquartered in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. A former member of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Katie now curates several of her own projects and collaborations alongside performance and recording work with numerous European symphony and chamber orchestras including in various leadership roles.  She regularly performs internationally at chamber music festivals and series and enjoys working with composers on creative projects and commissions. Katie is a recipient of several honours and awards including an “Exceptional Talent” visa awarded by Arts Council England. She also teaches cello at Durham University (UK).  Some of her current projects include “A Winter’s Journey, reimagined” with composer Mark Boden; “Lost in Plain Sight” in collaboration with Dr. Rosi Song, Durham University and the Instituto Cervantes, and the Cello Power project which was presented as part of the “Live_Performance Now” conference in Dublin in March of 2022.

Jane Hackett is an Irish professional violinist based between Dublin and Vienna. She performs regularly with the National Symphony Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, RTE Concert Orchestra, Irish National Opera and with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra in Vienna. She has appeared as soloist with the RTE Concert Orchestra on a number of occasions and at the Carthage International World Music Festival Tunisia, is an RDS Rising Star and is a recipient of numerous Awards including Individual Artist and Creative Ireland Awards, Agility and Lyric FM Bursaries and is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, Dublin City Council, South Dublin County Council and Culture Ireland. Jane enjoys a diverse mix of repertoire, spanning from solo, chamber and orchestral, to experimental performance art and contemporary music. She is a long standing violinist of the contemporary music group, Kirkos Ensemble, performing and composing works for ‘New Music Dublin’ and a member of the Contemporary Music Centre’s ‘Artist Network of Colleagues Programme’ hosting discussions and working with Irish composers. Jane is interested in cross art collaborations and has recently been awarded the Arts Council’s Music Project Award to direct and develop a new large scale work- a silent concert experience in collaboration with Dublin Theatre of the Deaf. She is a proud member and recently appointed Co-Director of the chamber ensemble, Musici Ireland with whom she performs chamber works and co curates multi disciplinary performances around Ireland.

Éabha Bortolozzo and Jack Kirwan are two young, multi-award-winning filmmakers.

Their student film, The Usual, was well received and selected to screen worldwide at festivals in Asia, The US and Europe.

Their second short film, Her Song, which was completed at the beginning of 2020, told the harrowing story of Mother & Baby Homes. The script attracted the talent of Brenda Fricker and Nicola Coughlan and was funded by Screen Ireland. This film was widely received and saw the duo win an IFTA and be long-listed for the 2022 Academy Awards.

Currently, Éabha & Jack are finishing up their third short film which is funded by Screen Ireland and stars Tom Vaughan Lawlor, Liam Ó Maoinlaí with music by Gareth Quinn-Redmond. It is due for release in early 2023.

Linda Buckley is a composer who has written extensively for orchestra (BBC Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ NSO), with an interest in merging her classical training with the worlds of post punk, folk and electronica. Her work has been described as “sublime and brilliant” (BBC Radio 3) and “strange and beautiful” (Boston Globe).

She has scored films (Nothing Compares on Sinead O’Connor, co-composed with Irene Buckley), by Pat Collins (Henry Glassie: Field Work) and Tadhg O’Sullivan (To The Moon), with awards including a Fulbright scholarship to NYU.

Recent collaborations include work with experimental folk duo Anna & Elizabeth, writer Doireann Ní Ghríofa and Crash Ensemble. Linda holds a Music Degree from University College Cork, a Masters in Music and Media Technologies and a PhD in Composition from Trinity College Dublin. In 2020 her album From Ocean’s Floor was released, featured by Iggy Pop on BBC Radio 6 as “beautiful music – here is somebody really special”. She was elected to Aosdana in 2021.

Award winning composer Irene Buckley is active across many music disciplines including choral, opera, orchestral, dance, theatre, film and electronics. She has received commissions from Union Chapel London, Irish National Opera, Cork International Film Festival and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. In recent years she has focused on composing live scores for silent films, which include Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc, Epstein’s The Fall of the House of Usher, and also Murnau’s Nosferatu and Lang’s Metropolis (both co-composed with Linda Buckley).

Other film scores include Nothing Compares by Tara Films (co-composed with Linda Buckley) and Touch by Enda Walsh. Irene holds a PhD in Composition and a BMus from University College Cork and an MA in Music Technology from Queens University Belfast.

Bridget Ní Dhuinn is a production designer and spectacle artist based in Kilkenny. Her work incorporates set design, lighting design, mask making and puppetry to create emotive environments and unique pieces of art. From 2018 she was based in Taiwan where she was the Artistic Director of the 2019 Dream Parade Carnival, South East Asia largest street carnival. While in Taiwan she developed skills in mask and puppetry making from Balinese artists which she has adopted into her artistic work. In 2021 she received the next generation artist award, which provided her the time to further develop her skills in sculpting and large scale puppetry. Bridget’s work is highly collaborative, commonly working with performers and directors to help design and create immersive environments or unique stages for their performances.

Eoin McNinch is a programmer, relighter and designer. Over the past few years, he has diversified his skills to include CAD drawings of venues, Modelbox creation through Fusion 360 & 3D printing and WYSIWYG previsualisation.
Eoin started his theatre career straight out of school, spending 6 years working in the Cork Opera House. Then cut his teeth in the freelance world working with some of Irelands most prestigious companies and has travelled worldwide with them. He has spent 16 seasons as the lighting programmer for Wexford Festival Opera and one season as Lighting Designer with them.

His theatre and opera credits, as Programmer and Associate LD, include; Walworth Farce (Landmark), I Keano (Lane Productions), Once (Howth Head Productions), Radamisto (NI Opera), Acis & Galatea (OTC), The Girl Who Forgot To Sing Badly (Theatre Lovett), Powder Her Face (INO), Tosca (NI Opera), Turn Of The Screw (NI Opera), They Called Her Vivaldi (Theatre Lovett), The Return Of Ulysses (OCI), The Approach (Landmark), Aida (INO), Orfeo Ed Euridice (INO), Madama Butterfly (INO), Least Like The Other (INO), Bajazet (INO), Tosca (INO), Semele (OCI), The Steward of Christendom (The Gate Theatre).

As Lighting Designer; Little Shop Of Horrors (Backstage Theatre), What Happened To Lucrece (WFO), Falstaff (WFO), Seraglio (INO).

ABOUT OSS Cork (Domestic Violence Information and Support Service)

The OSSCork is a one stop shop for persons aged 18yrs and over who are or have been in domestically abusive relationships including (partners, adult children, and dependents). The OSSCork is open from 9-5pm Monday to Friday. The full complement of services is provided free of charge and in confidential, non-judgemental fashion.

The OSSCork aims:

• To provide a support service to all victims of domestic abuse, their concerned family members and friends.
• To provide the above via one-to-one support sessions, helpline (1800 497 497) and e-mail. The support sessions are to be made available through both walk in and appointment.
• To provide information and advice to other stakeholders eg professionals who come across the issue of Domestic Violence and Coercive control in the course of their work.
• To provide accompaniment to Court, Garda Stations, Tusla and other agencies as required by the client.
• To provide referral to appropriate specialist services as necessary including Legal Aid, Housing and Social Protection.
• To advocate on behalf of the client.