22 A RT S & E N T E RTAIN M EN T
SIN Vol. 18 Issue 09
Midwinter Festival: Prodigy By Timothée Cognard The Midwinter Festival took place in the Town Hall Theatre between 20 and 22 January. It brought to the public 4 concerts, a movie and a public rehearsal all focused on the theme of young compositors. The festival was launched on the Friday evening, in the presence of Noel Larkin and the programme manager, Anna Lardi Fogarty.
violin some pieces of the Opera she composed as an 8-year-old. “I discovered Alma at a party where one of her relatives told me about her,” said Collins. Alma is considered a prodigy like Mendelssohn or Mozart. On stage, Alma Deutscher comments on some of her own pieces; “I got the idea of this music in a dream, and I did not want to forget it so I wrote everything down in the middle of the night,” she said.
She also comments on others work like when she explains to the audience that Schumann did a “beginner’s mistake with the transition”, and shows how she would have arranged it! Alma and her sister Helen are the only young performers of the festival, the rest of the musicians being more established. The ConTempo quartet, for instance, is Galway based and the Esposito quartet is Dublin based.
Backstage of the midwinter festival
“The idea of prodigy came last year. Initially I wanted to make a festival focused on young composers music but did not have in mind to find a modern one,” explained Finghin Collins, Artistic Director of the festival and talented musician who won the RTE Musician of the Future competition at the age of 17. Star of the festival 11 year-old Alma Deutscher played on the piano and
Star of the festival 11 year-old Alma Deutscher played on the piano and violin some pieces of the Opera she composed as an 8-year-old. She also comments on others work - like when she explains to the audience that Schumann did a “beginner’s mistake with the transition”, and shows how she would have arranged it!
However, as some of the artists come from abroad, the preparation has been intense to fit a short schedule. “Most artists arrived on Wednesday and have been training for the last 2-3 days. It’s a lot of work but musicians are used to put everything together quickly,” explained Collins. The organization of the festival, expecting 250 visitors required 5-10 people, most of them volunteering under the supervision of Anna Lardi Fogarty, Programme Manager for the festival. Some of these volunteers are from NUI Galway and help providing information to the visitors. Last but not least, sponsors have helped to finance the festival: “Nothing could have been possible without our 4 sponsors: The Art Council, Galway city council, Insight and MJ Conroy,” said Collins.
The Contempo quartet
Finghin Collins, introducing Alma Deutscher
SIN Photographer Timothée Cognard went backstage at the Midwinter Festival to find out more of the goings on in organising a successful performance. No one really gets the chance to see the organisation behind a festival such as the Midwinter Festival and yet it is fascinating. Each concert needs a lot of preparation; lighting of course, cleaning of the room, organization of the stage - but also ensuring the instruments to have the best sound possible. For the piano, this is a half an hour long process. As the sound was also recorded for a video of the concerts, a sound engineer was present permanently on the side of the stage to adjust the balance between the instruments and manage the microphone for the speech interventions, if needed. To change quickly the positions of the chairs or the partitions, two people actually stay backstage, either looking at the show between the curtains or checking the small monitor showing the live show filmed from a small camera in front of the stage. Other than backstage, the Town Hall theatre is like a labyrinth with countless stairs, corridors and rooms dedicated to the artists. One of them is the “Green Room”, the room where artists can chill before going on stage, or after their performance. The atmosphere was relaxed and some of the artists talked about their way of working. Anna Devin, opera singer, explained to Christian Chamorel, pianist, how she memorizes the lyrics in foreign languages using a drawing method. In the meantime, Alma Deutscher packed her things before getting back to the hotel and going to bed early before her next concert. A speaker allowed the people in the “Green Room” to hear what was going on in the theatre and a bell rang a few minutes before going on stage - everything was well-organised! Overall, it was an enriching experience for me to be able to understand more about the organisation of the festival.