Gort tunes up for Orchestra Festival

Musical and geographical borders will be crossed at next Sunday’s Coole Music Orchestra Festival, which takes place in Gort Community Centre from 1pm.
Ten youth orchestras from North and South will be participating in the festival including the Ulster Youth Jazz Orchestra under the baton of Ken Jordan and from nearer to home, the Galway Youth Jazz Orchestra under the direction of John Fleming.
The award-winning Ulster Youth Jazz Orchestra was formed in 1993 by Ken Jordan after a series of summer courses held in the Crescent arts Centre, Belfast. They have performed all over Northern Ireland and have also toured Austria, Holland, Germany, France and Belgium. The band has performed at the School Proms in 2000 and 2004 and in 2002, they won the BBC Radio 2 National Big Band Competition.
The Galway Youth Jazz Orchestra was the first jazz orchestra to perform in the IAYO Festival of Youth Orchestras in the National Concert Hall. It has performed a number of impressive concerts since its inception, including a performance with Ian Shaw, Michael Buckley and the Phil Ware Trio in the Galway Jazz Festival.
Festival manager Fiona Buckley is in the final stages of preparing for the arrival of 350 young musicians to Gort for the festival which is themed Young Sounds Across Borders.
“The theme of this year’s festival is apt in so many ways,” said Fiona.
“We are crossing all kinds of borders – musical and geographical – with this year’s performances. When one thinks of an orchestra what comes to mind is classical music but this time, we have orchestras playing traditional arrangements alongside classical music and even a guitar orchestra playing music composed especially for them.”
“For the first time in the history of the festival, we will also have two jazz orchestras participating and the evening concert finale piece, a composition by composer Katharina Baker entitled It’s You! is also written in the swing genre,” she said.
A European premiere for the festival will be the performance of It will Turn Into Memories by young Chinese composer Edwin Sung. Currently studying in Cambridge, Edwin will travel to Gort especially for the event.
A small army of parent volunteers and local people are involved in transforming Gort Community Centre to a concert venue.
“Around 50 volunteers get involved every year to make the festival run smoothly,” says Fiona.
“The parents are wonderful and all contribute in some way – from stage building and management, organising refreshments for the participants, managing parking or running the front of house, all jobs are important to make the festival the success it has become.”
There are still some spaces available in the free percussion workshops led by Dublin percussionist Shay Lally and Galway-based Alan Preims on Saturday.
Anyone interested in coming along should contact info@coole-music.com. Tickets for the festival concerts on Sunday are available on info@coole-music.com or at the door.