Showing posts with label republic of cork. Show all posts
Showing posts with label republic of cork. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

zip, zip, zip

Since last we spoke I posted, I have been in Cork... again! The Orchestra went down to Cork two weekends ago, for a concert. The experience was mostly similar to last year's concert in Cork-- we even stayed in the same hotel!-- with two main differences.

1. We didn't play at the UCC campus, but rather at St. Finbar's Cathedral.

It looks gothic and medieval, doesn't it? It was actually built in the mid-19th century! So only about 150 years old. It's a beautiful building, though the acoustics left something to be desired, very echo-y and hard to hear fellow players. That's the only picture I took of the Cork trip, anyway; the pictures from last year's trip pretty much cover the rest.

2. At the after-party, this time I got to be a part of the trad session! I brought my ukulele down, and it was a total hit among the orchestra. Early in the party, when people were taking turns singing or playing songs, I played an Amanda Palmer song for the orchestra; then, when the session started up, I played along, even though the ukulele is not exactly a trad instrument! It was a ton of fun.


The following weekend-- this past weekend-- we had another concert, in Galway. This one was at St. Nicholas' church, which is actually a medieval church and has a delicious lingering melty acoustic. I love playing there! The concert went well, too... though it was a bit sad for me, because now Orchestra is over until the fall. I love playing music, and having that outlet is something I look forward to every week. Oh well, I guess I'll have to tide myself over playing pop songs on the ukulele.


This coming weekend-- tomorrow, actually-- I am going to Dublin for a conference! The conference, held at Trinity College, is put on by the Irish Society for Theatre Research. In other words, professionals in my field! It's a big conference, one with multiple talks going on simultaneously, and will take up part of Thursday, all day Friday, and all day Saturday. Plus a dinner on Saturday night. I'm giving a paper, though not in an actual talk; instead, it's part of a "working group," a session with maybe 6 or 8 people talking reading each others' papers and giving advice on them. A workshop, basically. I'm looking forward to it; the workshop should be really helpful, and the conference itself sounds exciting. My advisor, Lionel, is actually going to be at this one, too, since he's organizing the working group I'm a part of. It'll be nice to have a familiar face in such a big conference!

Speaking of which, I better get back to reading those papers.

Monday, May 18, 2009

belated pictures from Cork

A while ago, I went with the NUI Galway Orchestra to Cork. My friend Sarah just emailed the pictures she took of the weekend, so I thought I would share a couple!

(Click to enlarge!)

Me and Liz, a cellist. This is what Cork looks like-- very urban-- so I was surprised when we got to the University College Cork campus and it looked like this:


Very peaceful, with footbridges and lots of grassy areas and pretty flowering trees.


Me and Sarah, violinist, in front of the UCC quad.


The orchestra and one of the choirs, playing one of the Mozart pieces. I'm hiding behind my stand.


The orchestra in action! I'm again hidden behind my stand, but at least you get a good view of the conductor Hugh's awesome ponytail.


Orchestra standing. There I am, back row in the center!