Olga Barry: Kilkenny Arts Festival - there's nothing else like it

New work is what makes an Arts Festival really thrive, it’s the lifeblood of creative artists and essential for sustaining the thrust of new ideas and new people being seen and heard in Kilkenny.

The Curing Line is a new opera by Michael Gallen, and it’s a definitely a uniquely Irish, yet universal sort of story that Michael with Annemarie Ní Churreáin and Shawn Fitzgerald Ahern have brought into the operatic realm – it’s one foster sister who inherits ‘the cure’ from her father, but end up in an emotional dispute with her sibling, so it’s really about reckoning with a sort of a family schism that resonates with some of the bigger issues facing the planet.

Donnacha Dennehy’s music has always moved me, it can be overwhelming, sometimes almost industrial in effect, but he has the most lyrical writing that could make you weep, sometimes fleetingly. Land of Winter is his brilliant tone poem, a sort of ode to the Irish light and landscape which won a Grammy earlier this year; and performed by Crash Ensemble – the group he co-founded - for whom playing his music is just second nature. It’s essentially a journey through the calendar year, reassuringly cyclical, a sort of aural expression of light. I think that’s going to be an incredibly special night at St Canice’s Cathedral in the changing light of the late summer.

Kilkenny audiences will have the singular opportunity to hear his newest work – Between which is written for two pianists, playing two pianos, David Kaplan and Timo Andres. Co commissioned by the Festival, it’s a work that Donnacha describes as being ‘a kind of liminal in-between’ where he’s from, Ireland, and the US where he lives – the universal experience for immigrants where two places occupy the push and pull on our emotions. Its seven movements are named more personally for Donnacha, and also account for the journeying between the two places, over various seasons. I just can’t wait to hear it.

Sun Lines is the title Niall Vallely, Liz Knowles and Niwel Tsumbu have given their new album, and also for a special concert with the Irish Chamber Orchestra. As a Trio (performed at KAF 2024) they had the audience in their collective palms – there’s a real sensitivity in their playing, and with a lightness of the undeniable virtuosity they each bring to it. Niall has been writing tunes probably his whole life, but is also an incredibly talented composer for orchestra, electronics, ensembles and more. The Trio are all arranging some parts of it, with Niall leading the arrangements. I can’t wait to hear it with the extra oomph of the brilliant ICO. It’s going to be a fun night. We also just realised (thanks to a Festival Friend) that the upcoming Solar Eclipse is happening right at the beginning of this show – considering how often we talk about light and darkness this year, it couldn’t be more apt!

The Idrîsî Ensemble, with Layale Chaker and Festival artist in residence Francesco Turrisi is going to unmissable for anyone who loves choral music with a medieval and Mediterranean flavour – inspired by the cartographer al-Isrisi and the women troubadours of medieval Occitania, this concert imagines the Mediterranean as a meeting of language, faith and sounds rather than a set of modern borders. A new collaboration with Layale Chaker and Francesco is beyond tantalising, and in the acoustic of the Black Abbey, I think the audience is in for a goosebumps treat. I’m also really excited for Francesco’s own and very personal project, Vuci – in the Watergate Theatre. It’s an aural journey to his homeplace, Sicily, with bespoke video made by the brilliant Laura Sheeran, whose work Kilkenny audiences have loved in all its many guises. He also brings Rhiannon Giddens to his residency this year, an extraordinary performer I’ve wanted to bring to Kilkenny for many years – I won’t be anywhere else that night!

For the Record is a show where Colin Dunne turns his feet into an ‘instrument’ of electronic sound, is exactly as brilliant as it sounds, with two amazing trad musicians, Ultan O’Brien and Becky Ní Éallaithe, which also has that ability to stop you in your tracks in deceptive simplicity. Kilkenny audiences have been seeing Colin do some of this in recent years as a guest with others, and this show is a sort of complete experience, it’s fun and beguiling all at the same time.

Kate Ellis is simply an extraordinary musician and creator. Outside of leading Crash Ensemble, touring with Bono and everything in between, she’s one of the most original musicians I’ve ever met. She is a born collaborator, so having the chance to watch her gather a new collection of collaborators especially for Kilkenny, is seriously chef’s kiss stuff – with Síle Denvir, Lucia McParlin and Linda Buckley – it’s yet another one of those opportunities to see something new at its earliest outing. Kate feels like a sort of embodiment of the spirit of KAF, she’s deliberate and open, and I can’t count the number of things she’s done in Kilkenny, but never any two things alike. Anytime she’s involved, it’s a thrill.

The Alice Project is going to be wild, Jack Phelan Lights Up the Castle in a new, come together and celebrate the good and fun wherever we can find it, Barnstorm have a brilliant programme for kids, the Butler Gallery is going to be very special this year with the ongoing love for Jane and Tony O’Malley and their incredible influence in Kilkenny, Elaine McCague’s work always leaves me in awe and Anchorpoint is going to have us all having to pick our jaws off the floor, the Secret Music Garden series is always the best fun, the talks and literature programme will make us think and consider things anew, Chamber Choir Ireland, The Gesualdo Six, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Dowland celebrated, Malcolm Proud continuing his unrivalled sequence of appearances at the Festival, James McVinnie playing big Bach at the Cathedral…..and as ever, Martin Hayes hosting his Marble City Session finale – (just before Asylum see Petronella off) holds a special place in my heart – Kilkenny audiences know why this is so special – hearing an artist at the absolute top of his craft, a craft distilled over generations and lifetimes, gathering people from the Festival programme and making an entirely unique concert each year – there’s a reason it always sells out in advance - because there’s nothing else like it.