Mel Mercier's musical journey from UCC to UL

After 30 years in UCC, Mel Mercier has now taken up a post in University of Limerick, writes Colette Sheridan

PROFESSOR Mel Mercier, who was recently appointed chair of performing arts at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick (UL), says leaving UCC was a wrench. He became the first Head of UCC School of Music of Music and Theatre in 2009, but says his “antennae had been up for a while, looking out for new opportunities”. Mercier replaces Professor Micheál Ó Suilleabháin who will retire in June.

Ó Suilleabháin, who headed up the academy since 1994, is the reason why Dubliner, Mercier, came to study in Cork. “I spent 30 years at UCC, starting out as a student there and then teaching there since 1992 and becoming associate professor last year.” He spent three years teaching in the US but says that his time at UCC was the making of him as a musician and composer.

A son of the late Peadar Mercier, one of the founding members of The Chieftains and a member of Ceoltoíri Chualann, Mercier started to play with Ó Suilleabháin when he was in his teens. “I really developed as a bodhrán player, playing alongside Micheál on piano. We still play together as a duet. It’s an important part of my musical life.”

When Mercier gave up his job as an electronics engineer and started his musical studies at UCC, he came to regard Ó Suilleabháin was an inspirational lecturer. “He spoke about Irish traditional music in a way I had never heard it spoken about before. He really elevated traditional music and musicians. That validated my musical choice. When Micheál left UCC in 1994, I applied for and got the job of lecturer in music. Now, I’m taking over Micheál’s job at UL.”

What does he hope to achieve at UL? “One of the things that attract me to UL is the emphasis given to performance, not just traditional music but also classical and other music as well as dance. While there’s some dance at UCC, it is more developed at UL where dance and music go hand in hand.

“I’m very interested in composition. One of the things I’m hoping to do at UL is to develop a culture of composition in music and dance which is still in its infancy there. I’m also interested in connecting that with some of the exciting things that are happening outside in the professional world in new music where you have classical musicians, popular musicians, traditional musicians and singers creating new interesting music.”

Mercier, whose stellar career has seen him working with the composer, John Cage, as well as being nominated for a Tony Award in 2012 for his score for the Broadway production of Colm Toibín’s The Testament of Mary, starring Fiona Shaw, is currently collaborating with Corcadorca theatre company in Cork. Their site specific play will be performed at Elizabeth Fort in June.

“It will have a strong musical aspect to it. It will engage with issues to do with the development of the nation over the last 100 years. It will do that in broad strokes and will, I think, explore the poetic experience more than the political.”

Mercier’s other projects include working with dancer, Colin Dunne, on the development of a new dance piece. He is also working with Gare St Lazare on a Beckett play as part of the theatre company’s residency at the Everyman. And Mercier will be going to Salzburg in July to work on the music for a production of The Tempest, directed by Deborah Warner. Clearly, Mercier has many strings to his bow.