THROUGH A COVID-INSPIRED LENS DARKLY

For its 50th anniversary, the

Irish Chamber Orchestra (ICO) has commissioned a Covidinspired series of shorts through partnerships with 13 arts specialists. They will broadcast on ICO broadcast media channels over four Thursdays from November 4-25 under the title

I Create Online. It’s an initial four-part series, each accompanied by the ICO.

The first in the series, on Thursday, Nov 5, is a partnership between photographer Deirdre Power, animator Philip Shanahan and the ICO. It’s aimed at capturing the emotion of a city and its people through vivid imagery and the lens of Covid19. The music is the hauntingly atmospheric Oblivion by Astor Piazzola.

The second work on Thursday, Nov 12 is a collaboration with aerialist and double trapeze artist Aisling Ní Cheallaigh, ICO cellist Christian Elliott and film editor Michael Ryan. Aisling performs her ICO commissioned improvisation to Christian Elliott’s arrangement of the American folksong, House of the Rising Sun.

There’s a five-way collaboration on Thursday, Nov 19 between guitarist Jimmy Smyth, singer Kerrie O’Sullivan Holmes and the ICO as they perform a special string arrangement, of David Bowie’s Life on Mars, by ICO violinist Kenneth Rice and Jimmy Smyth. Visual effects are by film editor Dominik Kosicki.

The final production in the series on Thursday, Nov 26, features an extract from Time After Time by children’s author Judi Curtin, narrated by Aoife

Nic Athlaoich, animated by Phil Shanahan.The soundscape, Wave, is a collaboration between the ICO and composer Sam Perkin. See www.irishchamberorchestra.com