Irish Gamelan Orchestra

Soloists

Luke Murphy

Aoife Ní Bhriain

Paul Noonan

Iarla Ó Lionáird

Nick Roth

Kathleen Turner

IGO Ensemble

Kelly Boyle (Assistant Director)

Sara Curtin

Anna Dore

Dee Gannon

Sinéad Hanrahan

Leah Hearne

Laila Jedir

Muireann Levis

James Mc Glynn

Kevin McNally (Assistant Director)

Mel Mercier (Director)

Eimer O’Donovan

JJ Riordan

Claudia Schwab

Laura Sliney

Produced by Once Off Productions

Graphic design Val Mercier

Image credit Maurice Gunning

“The performance also includes a gamelan orchestra – specifically the Irish Gamelan Orchestra. It is like a classical orchestra on acid.” (Plays International review of How It Is Part 2)

Under musical director Mel Mercier, the 15-member Irish Gamelan Orchestra (IGO) is an independent ensemble, committed to working with professional Irish and international artists to create an original, cross-cultural, cross-arts repertoire. Formed in 2013, the IGO has pioneered the creation of a unique style of Irish contemporary music, collaborating with artists including Fiona Shaw, Joseph O’Connor, Martin Hayes, Mark Padmore, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Colin Dunne, Duke Special, Kate Ellis and Julie Feeney.

Performances

The Irish Gamelan Orchestra has performed at venues throughout Ireland, including Cork Opera House and the Everyman Theatre (Cork), Pavilion Theatre (Dun Laoghaire), Town Hall Theatre (Galway), UCH Limerick and the O’Reilly Theatre (Dublin). The ensemble has also performed at the Southbank Centre (London) and the Coronet Theatre (London). In 2018, the IGO, with support from Culture Ireland, represented Ireland at the International Gamelan Festival in Java, which was the largest and highest profile showcase of global gamelan practice ever staged. More recently, Mercier and the IGO composed and performed music for the Gare St Lazare Ireland production of Beckett’s How It Is Part 2 (Everyman Theatre/Dublin Theatre Festival/Coronet Theatre London).

Music

In 2004, ten years after Mel Mercier brought the first Javanese gamelan to Ireland – to the Department of Music at University College Cork – he co-composed ‘Telephones and Gongs’ with Linda Buckley, the first piece of original Irish gamelan music. Weaving together contemporary musical structures, Javanese sonorities and dancer Colin Dunne’s innovative choreography, the piece has been performed by the IGO and Colin Dunne ever since. Mercier and the IGO have gone on to collaborate and co-create new music with a wide range of artists, culminating in the release of their debut CD The Three Forges on Diatribe Records in 2015. The CD features original compositions performed by the IGO with Iarla Ó Lionáird, Duke Special, Julie Feeney, Colin Dunne, Nick Roth, Kate Ellis and West Cork Ukulele Orchestra.

The gamelan is an occult, miraculous, quibbling thing…completely off the bouncing walls. (Fringe Review)

Music that feels ancient, something recognisable by a reincarnated soul. Their melodies are wistful, chaotic, incessant, and powerful. (Broadway World)

Every now and again, an album wends its way into the ether than shakes up our sense of the known musical world…this is an unmissable collection. (The Irish Times: The Three Forges CD)

The performance also includes a gamelan orchestra – specifically the Irish Gamelan Orchestra. It is like a classical orchestra on acid. (Plays International review of How It Is Part 2)

The Three Forges slowly reveals itself as a fascinating endeavour and a work of eccentric beauty. (Golden Plec: The Three Forges CD)