Coole Music celebrates legacy of WB Yeats

The eight annual Coole Music Orchestra Festival, taking place this weekend in Gort will be celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of poet, WB Yeats.

It is one of several events taking place in South Galway throughout March and April marking Yeats’ connections with Coole Park, Thoor Ballylee and other areas in the locality. These are being run as part of the Yeats2015 celebration, a Government-run initiative in honour of the Nobel laureate.

With Ceiliúradh! as its theme, the Coole Music Orchestra Festival will host two concerts this Saturday, March 7, involving young musicians and singers from all over Ireland, with a strong local input. That’s no surprise, given that the Coole Music organisation was established to make classical music education more available to people in south Galway and North Clare

“We have made it a special Yeats event,” says Coole Music’s Artistic Director Katharina Baker of this year’s Festival.

“We always have two premieres at each Festival and then all the orchestras play together. This year we have included choirs for the first time.”

Twelve groups are taking part in Saturday’s Coole Music Orchestra Festival, with performances from junior to mid-level orchestras beginning at 1pm and the senior-level orchestras at 6pm. All groups have been asked to perform a piece by an Irish composer to mark the Yeats anniversary.

For more, see this week’s Connacht Tribune