Copy
An Cèitean 2016 / May 2016
View this email in your browser

May 2016 Newsletter

After promising myself in January that I would be much better at sending out these newsletters, I've just realised that we're 5 months into 2016 and this is the first one that I've created. Note to self: must do better in future.

Thankfully, this is due to being busy with lots of fun projects - from teaching Gaelic singing in 6 schools in Renfrewshire through the fantastic Youth Music Initiative, to having a ball at this year's Pan Celtic Festival in Carlow. Working in a freelance capacity means that I have the opportunity to be involved with a whole range of music, media and educational projects and this year has already brought me a great mix of all three. 

I've included a wee selection of these projects below - please feel free to drop me an email anytime with your thoughts or if you happen to use FacebookTwitter or Instagram, you can find me there too :) 

Deagh dhùrachdan,

Joy x

Focus Wales


I've always enjoyed the collaborative side of making music and I relish the opportunity to work with different artists. Recently, I had the pleasure of working with Gareth Bonello aka The Gentle Good as part of a collaboration between Focus Wales and PRS For Music. Gareth is a fantastic singer, songwriter and musician from Cardiff and as a Welsh speaker, shares many similar experiences of working within a minority language environment. 

For this project, Gareth and I were brought together for three days in Glasgow to create new songs in Gaelic and Welsh. This was slightly daunting as not only had we never even met each other previously but I don't speak Welsh and he doesn't speak Gaelic! Thankfully, Gareth proved to not only be exceptionally lovely and easy to work with, but a beautiful songwriter to boot and over bucketloads of tea, biscuits and a LOT of chatting, we created three new collaborations - two brand new bilingual songs and one arrangement of a Gaelic puirt à beul set. These were very much 'works in progress' but we were pretty chuffed with ourselves all the same!

 

We then had the chance to debut these songs in the fabulous setting of St. Giles Parish Church, Wrexham (pictured above) as part of a PRS sponsored showcase at Focus Wales. This gorgeous night of Celtic music also featured fabulous Welsh acts Plu and Matt Nicholls, with myself and my brother Andrew additionally performing a set together - the sole Scottish artistes showcasing at the festival.  Although our new songs were very much still in their infancy (and may still change and grow), it felt great to have the opportunity to perform them to a live audience. We received really lovely feedback, thank you to everyone who took the opportunity to come and speak to us after the concert.

Additionally, BBC Radio Cymru also recorded the performance and snippets of the concert featured on Georgia Ruth's programme last night! For anyone who missed this, you can listen again over on iPlayer - our songs appear from roughly 17.30 minutes in. Being able to explore songwriting in a minority culture was a great experience and I want to thank both PRS for Music and Focus Wales again for giving me the chance to be part of this project and also, the lovely Gareth for being such a joy to work with! Here's hoping that we can do it again very soon.

Squeezing in a (very) last minute pre-gig rehearsal!

Music Makes Me

Some of you may remember that I mentioned the Music Makes Me initiative in my last newsletter. Part of the Argyll Talent Development project, funded by Creative Scotland and led by The Walking Theatre Company, it aims to celebrate, develop and showcase the talent that is found within Argyll’s creative sector and I was very excited to be accepted as part of their New Music programme.

For this particular project, 12 participants were invited to bring their own original work to the Music Makes Me studio and work in groups with celebrated musician and singer/songwriter, Joe McAlinden and Grammy Award winning sound producer, David Donaldson to create orginal songs. This was a hugely inspiring process for me that not only forced me out of my comfort zone but gave me the opportunity to work with some fabulous musicians.

Excitingly, I've just heard that the songs we created are being released as an album entitled, "Into The Wild Country" and it is set for release on Friday 27th of May 2016The album will be available via the Music Makes Me website and pre-orders are being taken at present. 

The album will also go live on Spotify and iTunes from the 27th May - I hope that you enjoy our new songs!

Love Music Choir

I'm a huge choral singing fan and have long been a member of several Gaelic choirs. I truly believe that community singing is good for the soul and it's always a real joy to work on group singing projects. I've previously been involved with fabulous Big Big Sing and as a result, I recently had the pleasure of working again with choral maestro Stephen Deazley on a new arrangement of a Gaelic port à beul. This was particularly interesting as it was aimed at choirs with no previous Gaelic knowledge and we wanted something that could be learned - lyrics, melody and harmonies - in roughly an hour.

Stephen then invited me to workshop this arrangement with his wonderful Love Music Community Choir in Edinburgh. The choir are a 300 strong group (with a waiting list of 140!) who rehearse in the glorious setting of the Usher Hall. They are also exceptionally lovely and rose to the challenge of learning our piece by ear marvelously! Hearing all these voices singing together in the Usher Hall was a pretty amazing experience - thank you again, Stephen, for inviting me along.

We are currently working on developing this arrangement to be included in the Big Big Sing repertoire, further news on this to come!

Las 

I recently enjoyed a couple of Scottish gigs with my lovely Las ladies that, dangerously, coincided with Paddy's Day. It appears that us Scots can commemorate this just as well as our Irish compatriots and we spent a great day in Glasgow, performing at several of the city's Irish celebrations. I'm pleased to confirm that we all made it home in one piece... just!

We then headed up to Dunkeld to headline the Saturday night concert at the Niel Gow Scottish Fiddle Fest. This was the perfect opportunity to introduce our newest member, fiddler Gràinne Brady. Gràinne is originally from Cavan, Ireland but now lives in Glasgow and we're really excited to welcome her to the band. She even wrote a lovely blog post about her first Las experience  - great to have you on board, Gràinne!

Whilst we were there, Suzanne's Dad also treated us to an al fresco photo shoot. Below is one of his lovely images - thank you, Ken! I think this perfectly sums up our Fiddle Fest experience; music, dance and lots of laughter.

For more information about Las or to just say hello, please visit our Facebook page - why not give us a 'like' to keep up with all our shenanigans.

Celtic Media Festival 

I recently had the very enjoyable experience of visiting Dungarvan, a small town in County Waterford, whilst attending my first ever Celtic Media Festival. The Celtic Media Festival exists to promote the cultures and languages of the Celtic countries in film, on television, radio and new media and although I'd heard rave reviews about the event, I'd never managed to make it over myself.

This year, I was invited to be on the selection panel for the Scottish radio entries which proved to be a tricky, but throughly enjoyable job. As a result, I had high hopes for our Scottish entries and it was great to see Mire ri Mòir aig a' Mhòd winning the Radio Music Category and Spòrs na Seachdaine succeeding in the Radio Sports category. Huge congratulations to all the very worthy winners

Thank you to the Celtic Media Festival for inviting me along this year and an extra special thanks must go to my Las bandmate Edel, for lending me her car so I could make a 4am drive from Dungarvan to Dublin, for a flying day trip to London, before then driving back to Dungarvan for the final awards night... Chan eil mi glic! 

Bòrd na Gàidhlig

Chaidh ainmeachadh sa Mhàirt gun deach mo chur an dreuchd mar bhall air Bòrd Stiùiridh Bòrd na Gàidhlig leis a’ Mhinistear airson Cànain na h-Alba. Tha Bòrd na Gàidhlig na Bhuidheann Neo-roinneil Phoblach a chaidh a stèidheachadh fo Achd na Gàidhlig (Alba) 2005 agus tha an urra ris cor na Gàidhlig a dhèanamh tèarainte; cleachdadh na Gàidhlig is tuigse air a’ chànan a bhrosnachadh agus foghlam is cultar na Gàidhlig a thoirt air adhart agus taic a chumail ri foghlam is cultar na Gàidhlig.

Tha mi a' dèanamh fiughair mhòr ri obair a' bhùird san àm ri teachd; gu h-àraidh obair dheiseileachaidh a' Phlàna Nàiseanta Ùir. Faodar tuilleadh a leughadh mu na buill ùra uile an seo.

It was announced in March that I am one of five new board members joining the national language body, Bòrd na Gàidhlig. Bòrd na Gàidhlig is a statutory Non Departmental Public Body established under the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 and is responsible for safeguarding the future of Gaelic in Scotland; for promoting the use and understanding of the Gaelic language and for developing and supporting Gaelic education and culture.

I'm looking forward to the new challenge of being involved in the future work of the board; in particular, assisting with the creation of the next National Gaelic Plan. You can read more about the new board members here

Teaching 

As I briefly mentioned earlier, I am lucky to be involved with a range of educational projects - YMI singing teaching in schools, language and singing tution for the Gaelic Department at Glasgow University and Centre of Open Learning, in addition to distance language learning through the fabulous An Cùrsa Inntrigidh and An Cùrsa Adhartais. (To a name but a few!)

I also teach private pupils so if there's anyone out there looking for Gaelic language or Gaelic singing lessons, why not drop me an email so we can discuss it further?

Lastly...


The lovely thing about singing is that you often get to perform for family and friends and there's nothing better than if it's at a wedding! I've had the privilege of singing at a good few weddings recently and as clichèd as it sounds, there really is something special about being a part of your friends' big day. The only danger for me is trying not to get too teary - I appear to have morphed into that friend who bawls throughout the whole ceremony! 

I just wanted to take a moment to give a huge congratulations to all my newly coupled friends: John & Rachael, Ellie & Hamish, Rosie & Joe, Carol & Mike, Anna & Peter and Edel & Innes. I wish you all the happiness in the world.

Move over Adam Sandler, there's a new wedding singer in town!
Action shot from Edel and Innes' wedding at Lodge on the Loch, Loch Lomond. 
Photograph - Paul Reilly
Website
Website
Facebook
Facebook
Twitter
Twitter
YouTube
YouTube
Instagram
Instagram
Email
Email
Copyright © 2015 Joy Dunlop. All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you have shown an interest in Joy's music.

unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences