Music at Kilkenny Arts Festival

About the Curator

As Director of the resource organisation Improvised Music Company, jazz and world music aficionado Gerry Godley has been responsible for bringing some of the most exciting international music performers to Ireland in recent years. His diverse programmes include the 12 Points! Festival, the critically acclaimed World Music series Routes in Rhythm, IMC Records and The Pendulum Jazz Club. He has curated the MUSIC strand of Kilkenny Arts Festival since 2005 and presents 'Reels to Ragas' on Tuesdays on Lyric FM.

Music Programme

Arts festivals talk about “challenging audiences” but what do we really mean? For this programmer, the real challenge is asking you to commit your time. It’s precious stuff, especially when you’re being asked to commit it to artists with whom you may not be familiar. The best artists appreciate that, and set out to reward your appetite for risk with something beautiful and resonant that lingers long after the festival has departed. There’s no common thread with the artists I’ve invited here in August, except their shared understanding that their time on the bandstand has to be more vivid, more affecting, than what comes before or after. Sometimes that comes from volatility, as with improvisers Barry Guy and Evan Parker or the confrontational TrioVD. It can come from the deeply personal perspectives of Susan McKeon and Christine Tobin, two Irishwomen who’ve made their way abroad to great acclaim. Elsewhere, T with the Maggies usher us into their beloved Gweedore, and Hanggai do likewise with songs from the Mongolian steppes. Hypnotic Brass Ensemble bring you epic grooves, while Luka Bloom arrives with a posse of traditional players that create their own rhythmic delirium. Tempus fugit.

View the 2011 Music Programme