Small Behaviours – Songs from a Witness Statement. (premiere performance)
Written by Kate O’Callaghan. Arranged by Seamus Devenney.
Performed by Kate O’Callaghan, Seamus Devenney and the Donegal Camerata String Quintet
Abbey Arts & Cultural Centre, Ballyshannon on Sunday, October 9 at 8.00pm
€15 & €1 booking fee €16
Small Behaviours–Songs from a Witness Statement is the second instalment of Inishowen musician and composer Kate O’Callaghan’s musical response to her great grand aunt Catherine Rooney’s witness statements to the Irish government’s Bureau of Military History, detailing her involvement in the events of Easter 1916 in Dublin, and the subsequent War of Independence. While a previous work, The Girl with The Beret, focused on 1916, Small Behaviours deals primarily with its aftermath. As such, the new song cycle sees Catherine – a native of Dublin – and her wider family, including her sister and her mother, deeply involved in the events of the War of Independence. The work is essentially a reflection on the seemingly ‘small behaviours’ of ordinary women, which ultimately affected far reaching social change over time.
The Donegal Camerata String Quintet is led by cellist Victor Yelamo, a longtime member of the award-winning Concerto Malaga orchestra and Director of the annual Donegal Chamber Music Festival. The Camerata also includes violinists Orsalya Szabó-Yelamo (also of Concerto Malaga) and Maureen McGranaghan, with Robert Peoples on viola and Michael McGinty on double bass.
Small Behaviours – Songs from a Witness Statement, was created with the help of funding from Creative Ireland and Donegal County Council.
