My projects
Collaboration
Collaboration is at the heart of all that I do. It requires ongoing connection, engagement and innovation with a diverse range of people. With the collective The Art of Collaboration I explore and create unique and distinctive programmes and events with thought-leaders from the arts, education, health, science, business and design. Some examples of this work include:
Tulca is a group of inquisitive story-tellers in music and words that mix traditional Irish, Persian and Contemporary music with spoken word and design. Our first CD released in 2021 featuring Uilleann Piper Mick O’Brien and Professor of Psychiatry Jim Lucey is available to stream and purchase here.
This is a duo of Clarinet(s) and Recorder(s) with Laoise O’Brien. We enjoy unearthing old music and advancing new music. We explore soundscapes, examining the shared features of our respective instruments from the 12th century to newly composed work. We investigate how place and memory have influenced music over the centuries. See Time Place Memory here.
With contemporary specialist soprano Elizabeth Hilliard we commission and curate performances of new Irish and international composers. We collaborate with some of Ireland’s most renowned composers to create new repertoire that includes elements of theatre and spoken word. View a performance from the courtyard of the Irish Museum of Modern Art here. We are currently collaborating with composer Paul Hayes. This work will be part of a concert tour of Japan in 2023.
Co-Creativity
The concept of Co-Creativity is about who, why and how we create, with the focus on equality and integration. Projects evolve out of a process of engagement with people rather than something primarily prescribed. I engage in various co-creative projects as part of my artistic life and growth including some recent projects.
ICC Salon explores a wealth of new music from some of Ireland’s emerging composers. As part of their 2022 festival they will premier 30 new pieces produced through innovative collaborations. Paul Roe (Clarinets) and Laura Sarah Dowdall (Dancer) will perform pieces by 6 composers following a series of workshops where ideas will be explored and developed.
The International Music festival Finland, first staged in 2021, will this year take place between 26/7/2023 – 4/8/2023. Venues throughout Centra Finland will include: Oulanka National Park, Vanttajajoki, Kalajoki, Pyhäjoki, Maakalla island, Konnevesi Museum. The Rapid Arts Force is an international group with artists from Finland, Ireland, Hungary, Japan, USA, and Czech Republic. In its performances, the ensemble combines different kinds and styles of music and dance with improvisations and co-creativity influenced by the environment. Video of extracts from previous concert here.
Galway Music Residency presents it’s multi-genre series in the Druid Lane in Nov / Dec 2022. On 11th December Paul Roe will perform with guitarist Marco Ramelli. Also performing on this exciting concert are Galway’s Ensemble in Residence ConTempo Quartet. This event is curated by guitarist Marco Ramelli.
Contemporary
I have been absorbed in and an advocate for Contemporary music for more than thirty years having commissioned and performed many new works in Ireland and internationally. I continue to be curious and interested in all aspects of innovation in music and the arts and am intrigued by the scope new digital technology offers. I always have a variety of contemporary projects that are at various stages of development for upcoming performance including:
During 2022 I recorded an album of music by composer David Bremner with Andreea Banciu (viola), Elizabeth Hilliard (soprano), Paul Roe (clarinet) and Izumi Kimura (piano). Each work on this recording is a cycle of several short movements (or panels in the case of Developing Variations) investigating a single impulse: the exploration of a minimal, drone aesthetic through an atonal harmonic fabric of continuous gradual unfolding.
Possible Vignettes Instrumental ‘song cycle” and Logical Fallacies, movement 5 will be preformed in the Hugh Lane Gallery on 11th December 2022 as part of the “Sunday @ Noon” series
A central theme of the Music Current Festival is the participation and collaboration of composers and performers in developing new work. This year these collaborations took place in a new format with composers and musicians working closely together over an extended period. In this festival the seven composers and five soloists involved present the new works mediated by electronics. Find out more here.
Irish Music
In Ireland Irish music typically refers to ‘traditional’ music. This blanket term does not do justice to the richness of creativity in traditional and other forms of music making, including contemporary, popular and electronic music. Some of Ireland’s most innovative musicians draw inspiration from a variety of music and other art forms. I very much enjoy regularly collaborating with artists, poets and musicians across the creative landscape in Ireland.
“A fine example of how (not) to live” / For Clarinet(s) and fixed media.
This new work was developed over a 6 month period of creative engagement-mostly on zoom. The ground of the work is the writings of Leland Bardwell, a well-known Irish writer, with an international profile. John McLachlan is her son and one of her literary executors. Leland’s centenary is in 2022-2023 and this work will be played in some related activities then.
Performances include:
Crescent Contemporary Music Festival, Wexford. A Salon performance (live and online) in the Contemporary Music Centre-Dublin, Kaleidoscope Night, The Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane. Rose Festival Sligo. (Leland Bardwell Centenary)
Mick O’Brien-Piper, Paula Meehan-Poet & Paul Roe-Clarinet are three Dubliners who create programmes of words and music that blend beautifully. Metaphors and imagined images combine with traditional and new sounds. New stories carried along by the surprise of unfolding and emergence. View video here. Paul Roe-Clarinet will join with Dublin Airport Singers on 15th Dec 2022 for a Christmas celebration of choral works and clarinet solos.
Please get in touch and start a conversation
I am always happy to hear from prospective mentees or potential collaborators from all disciplines. Don’t hesitate to get in touch via email or just call:
© Paul Roe 2021 I Legal notice I Cookie policy I Terms and conditions