A world of music in UCC's FUAIM festival
MEL Mercer’s journey down the rabbit hole began with a trip to Southeast Asia in the mid-1990s.
“I went to central Java, in Indonesia, in 1994 and ordered a set of traditional instruments,” says Mercer, head of the School of Music and Theatre at University College Cork and director of next weekend’s FUAIM music festival.
He brought back to Cork a set of percussive and wind instruments that together make up an Indonesian ‘gamelan’ orchestra. Since then, gamelan has been integral to the school’s identity — and a pointer to the sensibilities Mercer has brought to the college’s music programme and to FUAIM, whoseconcerts and seminars will run in venues across the city.
The FUAIM spring 2012 brochure is now available for download on our homepage! http://t.co/9387GA15
— Department of Music, UCC (@MusicUCC) January 9, 2012
“While very much committed to the local and Irish, we definitely have a world view and our students are very excited about that,” says Mercer.
“The gamelan instruments are symbolic of that inclusiveness. The ‘seomra gamelan’ is in the basement of our facility and, on open day, people will come and look at it. Often, it is the first time they have seen or heard anything like that.”
On for the weekend in venues such as Triskel Christchurch and Cork Opera House, FUAIM will include performances by Mercer’s Cork Gamelan Ensemble, as well as by Duke Special, Julie Feeney and Iarla Ó Lionáird, the sean nós singer acclaimed for post-trad outfit, The Gloaming.
The eclectic line-up reflects the ethos of UCC’s music faculty, says Mercer. “Students often come to us well-versed in classical music,” he says. “They may play popular music, write their own songs. perhaps they are into jazz. Already, they are ‘multi-musical’. That is the reality of life these days — undergraduates arrive not just interested in one genre, but many. Our curriculum allows them develop those interests — to take a musical journey and discover new things, such as the gamelan.”
Mercer is excited about Ó Lionáird, UCC’s first traditional artist-in-residence. Mercer says The Gloaming, a trad project incorporating minimalism and post-rock, is an example of the rich results of musical fusion.
“I’ve had many conversations with him about The Gloaming. One of the great things is that the music is very contemporary, while, at the same time, having resonances that are very old and Irish. And, with that, it sounds Northern European. There’s a coolness that you associate with music from places such as Iceland. ‘Fusion’ is an overused word. However, the drawing together is extremely interesting.”
For Mercer, the trek of discovery has been personal and professional. The son of esteemed folk musician, Peadar Mercer (a collaborator with The Chieftains), Mel started his music education as a bodhrán player. His outlook shifted radically as he attuned to avant-garde composition.
“I discovered John Cage and, over a period, my eyes opened to different ways of thinking about music. From there, I became interested in various sorts of world music. I did my masters in world music percussion, in California. That’s where I discovered the gamelan and Indian percussion,” he says.
It is this willingness to embrace difference that sets FUAIM and the UCC music programme apart. “It’s important that students can pursue a degree in music in an area where, traditionally, they would not have been able to. In the past, perhaps they might have been required to leave their electric guitar at home and practice piano scales. That isn’t our approach at all. We welcome every part of a musician’s identity. We see all music as equally valid and value everybody’s choices,” he says.
Since 2010, FUAIM has extended the school of music’s world view. Under the FUAIM umbrella, this outreach has taken a variety of forms, including performances, lectures, seminars and workshops. The new event is a logical progression.
“It is open to the university and to the wider community,” says Mercer. “Our audience has grown quite dramatically. Invariably, concerts are now packed to capacity. We, unfortunately, often have to turn away people. We have regular lunch-time concerts and will see people arriving up to an hour earlier.”
In its five years, FUAIM has become an important part of the city’s cultural landscape, he says — an engagement that the upcoming festival will celebrate and deepen. For admirers of eclecticism, FUAIM 2014 has much to recommend itself. From Friday, a series of concerts will turn a spotlight on Duke Special and Julie Feeney, as well as the West Cork Ukulele Orchestra, Scullion, The Vanbrugh String Quartet and composer Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin.
Reflecting Mercer’s music philosophies will be an emphasis on cross pollination and genre-splicing.
The festival opens with a Cork Opera House curtain-raiser by Scullion, Julie Feeney, and progressive folk troupe, Loudest Whisper. Elsewhere, there will be free showcases throughout the weekend, including the Vanbrugh Quartet, at Triskel Christchurch, on Saturday and John Spillane, together with the UCC choir, at the Opera House foyer on Sunday.
“We have a very loyal audience,” says Mercer. “It is made up of many, many people from Cork. I know of individuals who have come to every single concert — and, to date, we have had around 100 free concerts in the series. We see it as a meeting of city and university. The goal is for the festival to build on that — to bring what we do out of the campus and into the streets.”
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