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Dublin 08. March National Symphony Orchestra with Eímear Noone / Daughters of the Pirate Queen: The Spirit of Grace O'Malley
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https://www.hotpress.com/culture/eimear-noone-to-lead-national-symphony-orchestra-and-eight-other-performers-in-international-womens-day-performance-22951575

National Symphony Orchestra
Eímear Noone, conductor
Wallis Bird, singer/songwriter
Nina Hynes, music-maker and producer
Celine Byrne, soprano
Emma Langford, singer/songwriter
Helen Doyle, trumpet
Dawn Kenny, singer/songwriter
Aisling McGlynn, singer
Philipp Geist (videogeist) lighting designer and artist
Claire Garvey, costumer designer

On International Women's Day, the National Symphony Orchestra, in association with Polyarts, presents eight of Ireland’s top female performers – led by award-winning Irish composer and conductor Eímear Noone – in a major new performance which brings together their very different lived and musical experiences to tackle the turbulent tale of the Wild Atlantic Way in Daughters of the Pirate Queen: The Spirit of Grace O’Malley.

The soundscape of this genre-defying concert will centre on cinematic orchestral storytelling through music, narrative, and song, with indie rock, pop, and folk influences throughout the score. Bringing together Irish artists from different musical genres to co-write songs inspired by one of the greatest Irish women to have ever lived brings a unique, but essentially Irish flavour to the work. For example, iconic Irish songwriter Eleanor McEvoy has collaborated with Eímear Noone to write a song for performance by Emma Langford.

In the spirit of the great woman herself, the music is at times evocative, poetic, rhythmic, and exhilarating. An emotional ride, it seeks to embrace both the literal and metaphorical storms Granuaile rode and tamed in her complicated, glorious life.

The show’s creator, Eímear Noone, says of this deeply personal artistic journey, ‘What Grace O’Malley achieved in her lifetime has been a constant inspiration to me and getting deeply into her life with some of my favourite Irish women artists has proven that her fierce spirit lives in us all, and this music has her indomitable energy running through it. It is not limited by genre or label as neither was she.

It is important to me that great Irish women are memorialized and celebrated so that future generations can harness their passions and take ownership of their heritage.

Daughter, lover, mother, leader – Grace O’Malley was all of these things and so much more; not a myth, but a flesh-and-blood Irish woman. The fierce heart of the pirate queen resides in us all. Therefore, we are all her daughters’.

Anthony Long, General Manager, National Symphony Orchestra & Choirs: ‘I am very pleased that our second annual International Women’s Day Concert will be a collaboration with Eímear Noone and a very exciting ensemble of special guests. Eímear is a unique talent in the field of conducting and composition. This project epitomises the celebration of women and we believe that it will be an incredible show that will be repeated the world over. I would like to thank Eímear, Craig Stuart Garfinkle and the team at Polyarts for helping to bring this project to fruition.’

Presented by National Symphony Orchestra