Over 220 musicians will take to the stage at The Venue at Ebrington tonight for a rousing finale to Derry’s City of Culture year.
Shaun Davey.
Shaun Davey’s Relief of Derry Symphony is the most ambitious concert to be staged there this year and will be a last chance for audiences to gather in what has become the spiritual home of the 2013 celebrations.
The concert boasts a stellar cast including Liam O’Flynn, Rita Connolly, Liam O’Maonlai, Gerard McChrystal, Eoin ó Beaglaioch, the combined forces of the Colmcille Pipe Band and members of the Neilston Pipeband from Glasgow led by Pipe Major Iain MacDonald, Donal Doherty and Codetta in a specially assembled 120-voice choir, Gerry O’Beirne, Noel Eccles, the Trumpets of the Britannia Concert Band and the full Ulster Orchestra, conducted by Gearoid Grant.
The Venue at Ebrington has played host this year to Radio One’s Big Weekend, Elvis Costello, Chic, Status Quo, Primal Scream and the Turner Prize awards ceremony, but it has never seen anything on this scale before with a total of 229 musicians and performers involved.
The symphony was originally performed to great acclaim in the Guildhall in Derry~Londonderry in the summer of 1990. It was commissioned by Derry City Council to commemorate the siege of the city in 1689 and has become known as ‘The Symphony of Peace.”
Shaun Davey, who grew up in Belfast, but now lives in Dublin, is a critically acclaimed Irish composer who has worked internationally in film, TV and theatre, and has received an Ivor Novello Award, two BAFTA nominations and a Broadway Tony nomination.
He is also acknowledged as the pioneer and champion of traditional musicians as soloists in orchestral works such as The Brendan Voyage, Granuaile, The Pilgrim and Suite for the Dublin Special Olympics.
His works, including The Relief of Derry, are regularly performed at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, Chicago Symphony Hall and as far away as the Sydney Opera House. In recent years he has been a founder member of the Sean Nós band Béal Tuinne in Kerry, has performed a suite of songs amongst the tombs of the Merry Cemetery, Northern Romania, and recently composed a suite of sea shanties describing a voyage around the world.
Shaun Davey said: ‘This enormous group of musicians – both professional and from the community – can only be assembled once every ten years or so, when someone – or some city – takes a very special initiative.
“These performers come from very different musical traditions, yet the kind of music they make together is miraculous, powerful and unforgettable.
‘This is a concert on an epic scale and I hope it will be a fitting way to bring the curtain down on a memorable year for the people of Derry.
He concluded: “The concert is designed to represent the end of a journey and I hope, apart from being spectacular and beautiful, that it will salute the powerful achievements and emotions in the City of Culture 2013.”
Tickets for the concert are £26.50 and are available from the Culture Company box office.
