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Friday Evening, October 16, 2015, at 7:30

The Gloaming

Iarla Ó Lionáird, Singer , Thomas Bartlett, Piano Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, Hardanger d’amore , Guitar

This program is approximately 90 minutes long and will be performed without intermission.

Please join the artists immediately following the performance for a White Light Lounge.

This performance is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center.

Steinway Piano Please make certain all your electronic Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, devices are switched off. Symphony Space

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MetLife is the National Sponsor of Lincoln Center. Upcoming White Light Festival Events:

Artist Catering provided by Zabar’s and zabars.com Monday and Tuesday Evenings, November 2–3, at 7:30 in the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater at the West Side YMCA The End By Gare St. Lazare

Thursday –Saturday Evenings, November 5–7, at 7:30 in the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater at the West Side YMCA Here All Night (U.S. premiere) Featuring selected music and texts from across Beckett’s prose and plays Gare St. Lazare Ireland

Saturday Afternoon, November 7, at 4:00 in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse White Light Conversation: Language and Human Consciousness John Schaefer , Moderator With Joan La Barbara , Colum McCann , Steven Pinker , and Gary Tomlinson

Monday and Tuesday Evenings, November 9–10, at 7:30 in the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater at the West Side YMCA No’s Knife (World premiere) Excerpts from Texts for Nothing by Samuel Beckett Lisa Dwan , Performer

Friday Evening, November 13, at 7:30 in the Bruno Walter Auditorium White Light on Film Waiting for Beckett—A Portrait of Samuel Beckett

For tickets, call (212) 721-6500 or visit WhiteLightFestival.org. Call the Lincoln Center Info Request Line at (212) 875-5766 to learn about program cancellations or to request a White Light Festival brochure.

Visit WhiteLightFestival.org for full festival listings.

Join the conversation: #LCWhiteLight

We would like to remind you that the sound of coughing and rustling paper might distract the performers and your fellow audience members. In consideration of the performing artists and members of the audience, those who must leave before the end of the performance are asked to do so between pieces. The taking of photographs and the use of recording equipment are not allowed in the building. 10-16 Gloaming.qxp_GP 10/1/15 2:41 PM Page 3

Note on the Program head was turned by minimal, experimental sounds. His ability to mine the space and By Jim Carroll texture between the notes with his cus - dwells at a musical cross - tomized fiddle, part Norwegian Hardanger roads between the then and the now, and part viola d’amore, has produced some enhancing traditional Irish music’s rich, dul - groundbreaking work. For Hayes, it was a cet, melancholic tones with modern hues move to America that burnished his sound of jazz, contemporary classical, chamber, with new idioms. His ear for music ranging and experimental music. Steeped in tradi - from Estonian composer Arvo Pärt and the tional Irish music since birth, fiddlers Spanish viola master Jordi Savall to Martin Hayes and Caoimhin Ó Raghallaigh Icelandic rock band Sigur Ros has found its and sean-nós singer Iarla Ó Lionáird are way into the sway of his music. Still very joined by New York pianist Thomas much an East Clare fiddler, Hayes has Bartlett, a.k.a. , and Chicago-born brought this age-old sound into a modern guitarist Dennis Cahill. setting without losing its essence.

Ireland is a small country, yet the diversity in Just as the fiddle rules the roost in County styles between traditional music players Clare, sean-nós singing is the lingua franca from different counties and parishes a few of Cúil Aodha, a small village in the west dozen miles apart is a thing of no small won - Cork Gaeltacht where singer Iarla Ó Lionáird der. A fiddle player in the northern counties hails from. Sean-nós singers—solo singers of Donegal or Tyrone, for instance, will tackle unaccompanied by any instrument—are the a tune in a manner that is fast, punchy, and keepers of the flame with their recitals of energetic. Across county lines in Derry, the songs that have been passed from genera - style tends to be more considered and rather tion to generation. Usually to be found in ornate. Continue south and the gleeful, up- Gaeltacht areas, where Gaelic is widely spo - tempo sweep of Sligo players contrasts with ken, sean-nós singers are the nearest Irish the moody fiddle and flute music that domi - culture comes to the west African griot or nates further down the Wild Atlantic Way in storytelling tradition. . Head to Sliabh Luachra, the region encompassing parts of Cork, Kerry, and Whether laments, lullabies, or humorous Limerick, and you’ll hear and accor - pieces, these songs cover a multitude of dions color magnificently textured and quick- material. Some re-enact historical events, witted slides and polkas. others are love poems for absent sweet - hearts or bittersweet accounts of loss and The backgrounds of The Gloaming’s three emigration. There are also, of course, Irish members show the strength and color songs about drinking and devilment. of this ecosystem. Hayes hails from Feakle in the east of , where a slow, An exponent of this dark, passionate, and contemplative, and melancholic sweep of ancient art, Ó Lionáird has recorded a num - fiddle music holds sway among its musi - ber of albums for Peter Gabriel’s Real cians. It’s the style that Hayes would have World label and became a choice collabora - heard from his father, master fiddler and tor for composers like Nico Muhly, Gavin leader of the legendary Tulla Céilí Band Bryars, and Donnacha Dennehy. He took a P.J. Hayes, or played at informal sessions unique, indelibly Irish voice and lyrics and gatherings in village pubs like Pepper’s. drawn from Irish literature into new terrain.

Irish traditional music has also embraced The cast of The Gloaming has proven trans - experimentation. Hayes’s fellow fiddler is formative with the addition of Cahill, an -born Caoimhin Ó Raghallaigh, whose American from Dingle, County Kerry stock, WhiteLightFestival.org 10-16 Gloaming.qxp_GP 10/1/15 2:41 PM Page 4

and Bartlett, who has worked with Antony Jim Carroll is a journalist based in Dublin and the Johnsons, Sufjan Stevens, Glen who covers music and the music business Hansard, the National, , and for . He is also a regular con - many more. With Cahill and Bartlett’s musi - tributor to the Arena arts and culture show cal dexterity and shaping, The Gloaming’s on Irish national radio station RTE Radio 1. reels and jigs attain new and exhilarating heights. It’s a bold and brave combination that creates the distinctive, bracing sound —Copyright © 2015 by Lincoln Center for the of music then and now, perfectly in tune. Performing Arts, Inc. 10-16 Gloaming.qxp_GP 10/1/15 2:41 PM Page 5

Illumination

Postscript by Seamus Heaney

And some time make the time to drive out west Into County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore, In September or October, when the wind And the light are working off each other So that the ocean on one side is wild With foam and glitter, and inland among stones The surface of a slate-grey lake is lit By the earthed lightning of a flock of swans, Their feathers roughed and ruffling, white on white, Their fully grown headstrong-looking heads Tucked or cresting or busy underwater. Useless to think you’ll park and capture it More thoroughly. You are neither here nor there, A hurry through which known and strange things pass As big soft buffetings come at the car sideways And catch the heart off guard and blow it open.

—“Postscript” from OPENED GROUND: SELECTED POEMS, 1966–1996 by Seamus Heaney. Copyright © 1998 by Seamus Heaney. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

For poetry comments and suggestions, please write to [email protected].

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Meet the Artists multiple concerts at home from Dublin’s National Concert Hall to the Cork Opera House. The group’s live activity climaxed with the historic Ceiliúradh concert at ’s Royal Albert Hall, commemorat - ing the ’s first state visit to Britain. The Gloaming’s self-titled debut album was similarly acclaimed, winning

D Ireland’s Meteor Choice Music Prize for R A W Album of the Year and Britain’s BBC Radio 2 L A G

R Folk Award, among other accolades. A E F The Gloaming The Gloaming—fiddle master Martin White Light Festival Hayes, guitarist Dennis Cahill, singer Iarla I could compare my music to white light, Ó Lionáird, Hardanger d’amore innovator which contains all colors. Only a prism can Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, and pianist divide the colors and make them appear; Thomas Bartlett—have come together to this prism could be the spirit of the listener. create new music that pairs memorable, —Arvo Pärt. Celebrating its sixth anniver - yearning melodies with a progressive style. sary, the White Light Festival is Lincoln Center’s annual exploration of music and Mr. Hayes, Mr. Ó Raghallaigh, and Mr. Cahill art’s power to reveal the many dimensions have been recognized for extending the of our interior lives. Inter national in scope, Irish and traditions, balancing the multidisciplinary Festival offers a broad traditional rigor with an energy that seems spectrum of the world’s leading instrumen - entirely new. Mr. Bartlett has been identi - talists, vocalists, ensembles, choreogra - fied with the independent rock scene for phers, dance companies, and directors his work with artists as diverse as the complemented by conversations with National, Sufjan Stevens, and Antony and artists and scholars and post-performance the Johnsons. Mr. Ó Lionáird has made White Light Lounges. many groundbreaking recordings with the Afro Celt Sound System, his distinctive voice venturing far beyond the boundaries Lincoln Center for the Performing of any one genre. Arts, Inc. Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts In early 2011 the five musicians first met to (LCPA) serves three primary roles: presen - explore their collaboration and discovered ter of artistic programming, national leader a shared musical aesthetic that tran - in arts and education and community rela - scended the genres for which they had tions, and manager of the Lincoln Center become known. The Gloaming earned crit - campus. A presenter of more than 3,000 ical praise even before the release of its free and ticketed events, performances, debut album in 2014, and has quickly tours, and educational activities annually, become one of the world’s most LCPA offers 15 programs, series, and festi - renowned live acts, performing to packed vals including American Songbook, Great houses at London’s , Performers, Lincoln Center Festival, Mexico City’s Teatro de la Ciudad, Sydney Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Midsummer Opera House in Australia, and WOMAD Night Swing, the Mostly Mozart Festival, festivals worldwide, as well as selling out and the White Light Festival, as well as the 10-16 Gloaming.qxp_GP 10/1/15 2:41 PM Page 7

Emmy Award–winning Live From Lincoln the Lincoln Center complex and the 11 res - Center , which airs nationally on PBS. As ident organizations. In addition, LCPA led a manager of the Lincoln Center campus, $1.2 billion campus renovation, completed LCPA provides support and services for in October 2012.

Lincoln Center Programming Department Jane Moss, Ehrenkranz Artistic Director Hanako Yamaguchi, Director, Music Programming Jon Nakagawa, Director, Contemporary Programming Jill Sternheimer, Director, Public Programming Lisa Takemoto, Production Manager Charles Cermele, Producer, Contemporary Programming Kate Monaghan, Associate Director, Programming Mauricio Lomelin, Producer, Contemporary Programming Julia Lin, Associate Producer Regina Grande, Assistant to the Artistic Director Luna Shyr, Programming Publications Editor Madeleine Oldfield, House Seat Coordinator Kathy Wang, House Program Intern

For the White Light Festival Rocky Noel, Lighting Designer

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