Taking up the baton to bring music to all
“The number of high-quality musicians based around the South-East struck me as a resource that wasn’t being utilised. It was used when the various shows would happen in Wexford, Carlow, Kilkenny, or wherever. But the nature of the shows changed, so where there used to be up to 20 performers in the orchestra, now, if you have six or eight, that’s big. You have a lot of quality people around the place. I saw that as an opportunity.”
O’Carroll wanted to make orchestral performances accessible to a wider audience. “Any orchestra that visits Waterford — for example, the symphony orchestra, or the European Chamber Orchestra — it’s all strait-laced, it’s all serious. But we are in the entertainment business.”
O’Carroll initially set up an orchestra for a schools-concert series. “We had the musicians, and why export our education to Cork or Dublin, when we could do it locally? Eight thousand kids have now gone through. It confirmed to me that there was a viable orchestra there. In a sense, we are growing our own audience from the ground up through the schools-concert series. We decided we were going to do entertaining, but not necessarily condescending, music.”
The orchestra’s initial performances featured classical music used in films and were a huge success. O’Carroll says such a themed approach provides an accessible entry point for those not familiar with, or intimidated by, classical music.
“We played the theme from Schindler’s List at our last concert — I haven’t heard whooping and hollering like that at an orchestral performance in years,” says O’Carroll.
The orchestra’s upcoming performance has the theme of ‘Soldiers and Pirates’ and will feature music that refers to historical events, such as Beethoven’s Battle Symphony, which commemorates the Battle of Vittoria, one of Wellington’s first defeats of Napoleon, and A Wexford Rhapsody, by TC Kelly, which brings together songs relating to the 1798 Rising. The concert will also feature music from The Pirates of Penzance, Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan, Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean.
With no outside funding, the goodwill and passion of the musicians is keeping the show on the road. However, the orchestra is receiving a helping hand for its next performance. “After the last concert, the reaction was so good that a member of the audience came up and said, ‘That was fantastic, can I sponsor you?’ That doesn’t happen. It was someone from High Fidelity AV Solutions who represent Onkyo, who are sponsoring this concert,” says O’Carroll.
“We don’t get any Arts Council or local authority funding, despite trying. This sponsorship is the first outside help we have received. The South-East is the only part of the country that doesn’t have a State-sponsored professional performing group. If we can build our audience, then it becomes financially self-sustaining, if not profitable. A lot of my personal investment is because it is a good thing to do. It’s an opportunity to perform, to explore pieces that I otherwise wouldn’t get to conduct. The players are entertained by performing and the audience are entertained by the whole package.”
Waterford Concert Orchestra will perform a ‘Soldiers and Pirates’ concert at St John’s Church, Parnell St, Waterford, next Saturday, Apr 27 at 8pm. Tickets are €20/€18 (concession); U16s, €10. Tickets from Garter Lane box office at 051-855038; or at the door.
