Michael Dervan

2 days ago | irishtimes.com | Michael Dervan

Musical transcription, arrangement and variation have been with us forever. Or at least since the first human heard the likes of a cuckoo or maybe some long-extinct bird and chose to imitate it. Before the invention of sound recording, transcriptions and arrangements were essential for anyone trying to build a knowledge of music.

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Michael Dervan

How things change. Back in 2010 the first Lismore Music Festival, today’s Blackwater Valley Opera Festival, presented sure-fire repertoire – Bizet’s Carmen, with Fiona Murphy heading the cast of 10 in the title role – in a marquee in the stable yard of Lismore Castle, with an ensemble of violin, accordion, guitar, double bass and percussion standing in for the colourful orchestral score.

1 month ago | irishtimes.com | Michael Dervan

The 26 musicians who made it through the first round of the 13th Dublin International Piano Competition are about to compete in the quarter-finals. By next week just three will remain, to contest the final at the National Concert Hall on Friday, May 16th. They’ll be judged by a seven-strong jury chaired by the Irish pianist Finghin Collins. Four of the judges talk about their roles.

1 month ago | irishtimes.com | Michael Dervan

Julian Bliss is singular. He began his clarinet career around the age of 12 and has been before the public, working with major orchestras and playing in large venues, ever since – which is to say for nearly a quarter of a century. This is not uncommon in the world of the piano or the violin, but it’s hard to think of any other clarinet player whose career has had a similar arc.

1 month ago | irishtimes.com | Michael Dervan

Maximilian Marcoll created the word amproprification by blending “appropriation” and “amplification”. Irish audiences will be able to find out exactly what that sounds like when the German composer’s work is performed at the Music Current festival this month – but, given that his work Amproprification VI includes a complete, unaltered live performance of one of the glories of Renaissance choral music, Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli, you can see where he’s going.