Free workshop on the Children of Lir

Fifty free places are being offered to students and adults on a music workshop which will be held in the National Opera House on Saturday, February 4 alongside three performances of The Children of Lir concert.

The workshop will be hosted by the composer of The Children of Lir concert Brian O’Reilly along with nine musicians of the band Loudest Whisper and will focus on the creative trials and tribulations involved in composing the work and its subsequent development over the past 40 years.

Three shows will be presented in the Opera House including a matinee and evening performance on Friday, February 3 and an evening performance on Saturday, February 4.

Loudest Whisper, one of Ireland’s longest established groups will be joined on stage by a string quartet, a choir of 100 voices from Selskar College and the Loreto secondary school in Wexford and four ballerinas from the Wexford School of Ballet and Performing Arts.

Brian O’Reilly first staged his musical rendition of The Children of Lir in January 1973. It was an immediate success and was heralded as Ireland’s first Folk Opera. Polydor Records signed Loudest Whisper to make a concept album of the music which was released in 1975 and is now a collector’s item.

‘ This is going to be an epic show’, promised Brian. ‘We have travelled the world with the Children of Lir but it has not been showcased in Ireland for over 20 years so it is wonderful to take it back to Irish soil,’ he said.

The workshop will be held in the National Opera House at 3 pm on Saturday, February 4. To register for a free place email paudoreilly10@gmail.com.