Parking information:

Please note that the car park adjacent to The Granary is strictly for designated UCC staff only and will not be open to the public.

The closest public car park is Q-Park St Finbarr's. Very limited street parking is available on Mardyke Walk, Dyke Parade and Lancaster Quay.

30 years of gamelan at UCC

Mel Mercier leads the extraordinary Irish Gamelan Orchestra (IGO) and a stellar line-up of guest artists in a celebration of 30 years of Gamelan at UCC with a special FUAIM lunchtime concert performance of their powerful, original music.

In April 1996, the inaugural concert and public launch of UCC’s newly commissioned Javanese gamelan, Nyai Sekar Madu Sari (Venerable Flower of Honey Essence), took place at the Aula Maxima. Commissioned by Mel Mercier, the hand-made bronze instruments had been forged by internationally renowned gong smith Pak Tentrem Sarwanto (1941-2015) in Surakarta, Central Java, in the summer of 1995 and was the first-ever full set of Javanese gamelan instruments to be brought to the Republic of Ireland. Since then, the gamelan has been central to the UCC Department of Music’s ethos for music education, performance, composition and arts practice research, and generations of UCC Music students have been influenced and inspired by their experiences in the Seomra Gamelan as part of their university studies.

Join Mel Mercier and UCC Music alumni – including UCC Gamelan tutors, Kelly Boyle and Kevin McNally – in the Granary Theatre for this very special, celebratory, 30^th-anniversary event.

This concert will also be livestreamed on the Music at UCC YouTube channel.

The Irish Gamelan Orchestra

Formed in 2013, the IGO has pioneered the creation of a unique style of Irish contemporary music, collaborating with Irish and international artists, including Fiona Shaw, Joseph O’Connor, Martin Hayes, Colin Dunne and many more. Composed of 15 UCC Music graduates and performing on the 60 bronze instruments of Ireland’s first Javanese gamelan – housed at University College Cork for 30 years – the IGO has performed on stages across Ireland, the UK and Indonesia.

Described by critics as “miraculous”, “magical”, “like a classical orchestra on acid” and “completely off the bouncing walls”, the Irish Gamelan Orchestra presents two concerts – one in Cork and one in Dublin – to mark the 30-year anniversary of the arrival to UCC of the first full set of Javanese gamelan instruments in Ireland. Following the Friday lunchtime concert for FUAIM Music at UCC, the gamelan will travel to Dublin for the first time in ten years to present a concert at Project Arts Centre in a once-off, unmissable event for lovers of World Music, Indie and Alterative Pop, Contemporary Dance, Irish Traditional Music, New Music and Javanese Gamelan.

“The performance also includes a gamelan orchestra – specifically the Irish Gamelan Orchestra. It is like a classical orchestra on acid.” (Plays International review of How It Is Part 2)

Under musical director Mel Mercier, the 15-member Irish Gamelan Orchestra (IGO), which includes assistant directors UCC’s Kelly Boyle and Kevin McNally, is an independent ensemble, committed to working with professional Irish and international artists to create an original, cross-cultural, cross-arts repertoire. Formed in 2013, the IGO has pioneered the creation of a unique style of Irish contemporary music, collaborating with artists including Fiona Shaw, Joseph O’Connor, Martin Hayes, Mark Padmore, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Colin Dunne, Duke Special, Kate Ellis and Julie Feeney.

Performances

The Irish Gamelan Orchestra has performed at venues throughout Ireland, including Cork Opera House and the Everyman Theatre (Cork), Pavilion Theatre (Dun Laoghaire), Town Hall Theatre (Galway), UCH Limerick and the O’Reilly Theatre (Dublin). The ensemble has also performed at the Southbank Centre (London) and the Coronet Theatre (London). In 2018, the IGO, with support from Culture Ireland, represented Ireland at the International Gamelan Festival in Java, which was the largest and highest profile showcase of global gamelan practice ever staged. More recently, Mercier and the IGO composed and performed music for the Gare St Lazare Ireland production of Beckett’s How It Is Part 2 (Everyman Theatre/Dublin Theatre Festival/Coronet Theatre London).

Music

In 2004, ten years after Mel Mercier brought the first Javanese gamelan to Ireland – to the Department of Music at University College Cork – he co-composed ‘Telephones and Gongs’ with Linda Buckley, the first piece of original Irish gamelan music. Weaving together contemporary musical structures, Javanese sonorities and dancer Colin Dunne’s innovative choreography, the piece has been performed by the IGO and Colin Dunne ever since. Mercier and the IGO have gone on to collaborate and co-create new music with a wide range of artists, culminating in the release of their debut CD The Three Forges on Diatribe Records in 2015. The CD features original compositions performed by the IGO with Iarla Ó Lionáird, Duke Special, Julie Feeney, Colin Dunne, Nick Roth, Kate Ellis and West Cork Ukulele Orchestra.

This week's concert will be livestreamed on YouTube.