MARCH 2025
Happy Saint Patrick’s day from my little town in the South West of Ireland where we celebrate with a huge parade of all the community groups and projects happening. I’m always found on my beloved bicycle, representing with the gang of us who run the Clonakilty Bicycle Festival and the Bike Circus community bike workshop. Bikes have brought me such joy, health and adventure in my life and brought me human connections I would have missed out on in any other form of transport. I’ll always be thankful to my beloved bike, and will (try to) always keep her chain oiled and brakes serviced!
LIMERICK SEMINAR AND PERFORMANCE
I want to let you know about 2 performances I am doing this month. This coming Wednesday 19th March I will be participating in a public seminar at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, which will also feature performances of my works ‘Litany’, ‘Seams in my Socks’ and ‘Triple Spiral’. This will be the premiere performance of ‘Litany’, a work I composed as a graphic score for hang drum, violin, hurdy-gurdy and harpsichord. (See score above). Myself and harpsichord professor Yonit Kosovske will also be talking about our collaborations, the challenges and opportunities of composing for the harpsichord, and my creative process in general. It’s at 4pm and is free and open to the public. Do come along! Details are here, at the website of the Limerick Early Music Festival.
MARCH BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
BOB DYLAN: Philosophy of Modern Song
I loved ‘Chronicles, Vol I’ so much, and after seeing the wonderful ‘A Complete Unknown’ film last month I went down another Dylan wormhole, discovering that he has 100 episodes of his own radio show entitled ‘Theme Time Radio Hour with your host Bob Dylan’ in which he fascinates and entertains with always fantastic music from the 50s and 60s but also his quirky, encyclopaedic knowledge and take on the songs, deeply felt and human. I could listen all day! Highly recommended - as is this book, a collection of writings and essays on the topic of different songs from those eras.
THE SCHOOL OF LIFE: Guide to Modern Manners
I have read quite a few of the extensive collection of books coming out of this collective of writers/philosophers/pychotherapists and they are always very practical, heartfelt and deeply helpful in reminding us that we are human, and giving us the ability to transcend the stumbling blocks we find ourselves constantly tripping on. I was intrigued by this little tome I found on a shelf in my favourite bookshop in Cambridge (Heffers) and then ordered it in my favourite bookshop in my town (Kerr’s). It delves into such seemingly trivial topics as ‘How to spill a drink down your front - and survive’ and helps find the much deeper and more substantial basis to many of these dilemmas we struggle with in social life.
ISABEL FONSECA: Bury Me Standing
After reading (and loving) ‘Zoli’ by Colum McCann, a novel based on the life of a female Roma gypsy poet in the mid-twentieth century, I ordered this book from the library, as he footnotes it at the end as the book which began his desire to write ‘Zoli’. Its a deep dive into the fascinating and complex history of Roma gypsy people the world over, by a journalist not afraid to live and journey with the very people she is so passionate to understand. It’s not romanticised, but very real, and paints a picture of racism, suffering and exclusion, but also one of joy, talent, wit and a lust for life and survival. Highly recommended.
Hope to see you at one of the performances if you’re in the area!
Justin