From minor to major

Lifestyle – Music for Galway may have had its genesis in disaster – but, as JUDY MURPHY reports, this small but dedicated band of classical music enthusiasts can now celebrate 40 years of success in bringing world class performances to the west.

A piano collapsing during a concert isn’t exactly anyone’s idea of a good thing. And when it happened at the Jesuit Hall in the city’s Sea Road during a classical performance one night in the late 1970s, it was rightly seen as a disaster.  “I can still recall men in dickie bows and tails crawling on the floor trying to fix it,” recalls Colm O’Byrne with a laugh. Colm wasn’t laughing then and nor was Kathleen Murphy, a local performer, music teacher and the woman who had organised the event.

But that disaster started a campaign among music lovers to buy a proper piano for Galway. They succeeded – getting not just any old instrument, but a Steinway.

And that group led to the formation of the Music for Galway arts organisation, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, kicking off with a gala concert in the city’s Town Hall Theatre on Thursday, September 30.

Colm who had moved to Galway in the mid-1970s, working as a cameraman with RTÉ, has been involved since the beginning and his sympathy for Kathleen Murphy is still apparent. Fortunately, things have improved greatly since and in addition to presenting a huge variety of concerts in Galway every year, Music for Galway (MfG) has helped with the creation of other organisations, including the Galway Music Residency, featuring the ConTempo Quartet.

But their initial ambitions were relatively minor, according to composer and pianist, Jane O’Leary, who was Music for Galway’s first Artistic Director.

“The aim was to get a really good piano so that we could invite people here to play. We never even thought of doing a concert series at that stage,” explains American-born Jane who moved to Galway when her husband Pat got a job teaching in the university.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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