After two years of development during a global pandemic, Galway Music Residency brings JazzTempo to a live audience later this month.
Developed by Galway Music Residency, in partnership with Matthew Berrill, this project is immersed in genre-fusion and brings the best of jazz and classical music together to create a new aural experience. The culmination of the project will be a live performance on Wednesday August 31 (8pm ) in The Mick Lally Theatre.
Over two exploratory residencies in the Oughterard Courthouse since 2020, ConTempo Quartet and four of Galway’s best jazz musicians have experimented and challenged each another, learning from each other’s experiences in their respective music genres.
ConTempo Quartet has shared this experience with Matthew Berrill (clarinet/sax ), Aengus Hackett (guitar ), Róisín Mulliez (voice ) and Barry Donohue (double bass ) - some of the best emerging jazz artists currently performing in Ireland.
Based on new compositions by Matthew Berrill, the musical director of the project, the musicians have developed a new body of work for performance, taking inspiration from both the 'jazz' and 'classical' idioms, and the result is a "unique sub-genre of music set to delight and excite audiences".
The 60-minute performance takes place in the The Mick Lally Theatre.
Galway Music Residency, which was established in 2002 to cultivate a comprehensive music development programme for Galway with a professional ensemble at its centre, presents this project with support from the Arts Council of Ireland, NUI Galway (Education Partner ) and Galway City Council.
Formed in 1995 in Bucharest, ConTempo Quartet is recognised as one of the most exciting and vibrant chamber ensembles performing today. ConTempo Quartet was chosen as Galway Music Residency’s Ensemble in Residence in 2003, while Matthew Berrill is an Irish session musician and member of many ensembles in the jazz, improvised and traditional Irish worlds, including Ensemble Ériu and the Irish Memory Orchestra.
Tickets cost €10 plus booking fee and are available from www.druid.ie/the-mick-lally-theatre from Friday August 12 at 1pm.
