Can Music Be Kind?

Date: Sunday 23rd April

Time: 9.30pm

Venue: The Studio, National Concert Hall

Tickets €14

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Crash Ensemble

Susan Doyle, flute

Leonie Bluett, clarinet

Roddy O’Keeffe, trombone

Brian Bolger, guitar

Alex Petcu, percussion

Andrew Zolinsky, piano

Courtney Orlando, violin

Lisa Dowdall, viola

Killian White, cello

Caimin Gilmore, double bass

 

Ryan McAdams, conductor

Andrew Hamilton, violin and voice

 

Emma Martin, visual collaborator

Adrian Hart, audio producer

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Andrew Hamilton Friendly Piece (2023) [World Premiere]

Can music be kind? This performance by Crash Ensemble of their major new commission from Irish composer Andrew Hamilton explores friendliness and loving kindness through music that revels in ambiguity and defies constraints.

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‘I have aimed to make this a piece of music that is “habitable”. Somewhere you can sit in, somewhere that might give you a tiny bit of joy or likewise infuriate you!’, explains Hamilton, who wrote the work in 2019, during his time as composer in residence with Crash. Friendly Piece is about precision, but leaves room for freedom, drawing on multifarious influences—from ancient Buddhist texts to painting and sculpture. Don’t miss the opportunity to hear this fascinating new work where, in the words of the composer, ‘everything belongs’.

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Commissioned by Crash Ensemble with funds from the Arts Council of Ireland