The musical performances of remarkable women made Finding a Voice in Clonmel a success

Finding a Voice, the Clonmel festival that celebrates music by women composers has just wrapped up for 2023 and what a music-packed five days it was.

From the opening concert in the Main Guard to the final night in Old St Mary’s Church, audiences experienced a huge variety of music with one thing in common – all the works were written by women. Wind quintet Musici Ireland opened the festival with a fabulous International Women’s Day concert, while visiting guitarist Eleanor Kelly transported us all to sunny South America the following night with her Música Latina programme.

THRILLING
Thankfully the weather didn’t dampen people’s spirits with this enthralling night of music from Argentina, Brazil and Chile. On Friday night, American mezzo-soprano Aylish Kerrigan brought the house down with her thrilling performance of …until the women are free by Irish composer Gráinne Mulvey, alongside Clonmel-born flautist Joe O’Farrell. The concert also included music by the youngest ever composer to feature in Finding a Voice: 17-year-old Patsy Jo Culleton from Ballyporeen whose piano piece Cables was performed by David Bremner.

Saturday’s lunchtime concert from visiting Spanish pianist Antonio Oyarzabal was undoubtedly a highlight, as he brought us on a musical journey from America to France and eventually to Ireland with an arrangement of Irish composer Ina Boyle’s Sleep Song, especially commissioned by the festival. Antonio and Eleanor, who were both visiting Ireland for the first time, were blown away by the beauty of the town and the warmth of the reception they received and have promised to return to Clonmel again before too long. Saturday evening’s concert featured American viola player Nathan Sherman alongside multi-talented percussionist Alex Petcu performing on an electrifying array of instruments.

FILMMAKER
Sunday was a jam-packed day, beginning with a morning screening of Clonmel-based filmmaker Dónal Ó Céilleachair’s beautiful Do Chuala Ceol, introduced by the composer Fiona Kelleher. The lunchtime concert of music from the seventeenth and eighteenth century by violinist Claire Duff and harpsichordist Rachel Factor was truly inspiring. A free afternoon concert of music from the Hifilutin Quartet showcased all the instruments of the flute family before festival favourites, ConTempo Quartet were joined by Eleanor Kelly to bring this year’s proceedings to a close. Already, we can’t wait until next year’s festival so put the dates 8th-10th March 2024 in your diary now!