Finola Merivale: A virtual homecoming for West Cork music festival
Finola Merivale.
Chatting to Finola Merivale at her home in New York over a Zoom call, I appear to have entered the hyper reality of scenes from those popular TV ads for Barry's tea. In this world, a creative soul leaves her native Cork to travel the globe, stopping off in Hong Kong to teach English, sidestepping into Java, Indonesia to study gamelan percussion.
Our protagonist then weathers the autumn months of lockdown with a sojourn in Paris before settling in Manhattan to surf the contemporary music scene as a Dean’s Fellow at the prestigious Columbia University. I have missed an episode here and there, but this is the real-life story of Finola Merivale, a 34-year-old composer from Inniscarra, Co Cork.
As we convene over the virtual platform, I fill my teacup but Finola has run out and awaits delivery of supplies of her favourite brand - “I like a cup of the Classic blend - the red one,” she adds. It seems entirely appropriate that her new work, a duo for violin and cello will feature in a concert titled ‘Citizen of Everywhere’ at this year’s West Cork Chamber Music Festival.
Sadly, there will be no gathering of distinguished musicians in West Cork once again this year. The cancellation of live events was a blow for the festival in its 26th year, organisers immediately rallied to create a virtual event with a total of 30 concerts, streamed online from destinations around Europe and the USA with the customary roster of high calibre artists.
Director, Francis Humphrys commissioned Merivale to write a duo when she was composer in residence at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris. “The work’s title, The Silent Sweep as We Stand Still refers literally to how the pandemic is still sweeping across the world even as we are hardly able to move. I have composed a lot during the pandemic, but this was the first piece that I’ve written that contemplates the lockdown and the virus. My music is usually very energetic and intense, but this piece is very different and unfolds really slowly.”
The release of a performance by violinist Mairéad Hickey and cellist Ella van Poucke from Bethlehemkerk in Amsterdam will mark a homecoming of sorts for Merivale who has close links with West Cork Music Festival. Her mother, writer Denyse Woods, was artistic director of the companion Literary Festival for four years.
Merivale volunteered at the music festival in her twenties when she was just starting to compose. In 2015, she won the annual composition competition there. Seven years on, Merivale is in her fourth year of a scholarship programme at Columbia University, delving into the world of electronic music as a doctoral student and relishing the vibrant new music scene in NYC.
“Columbia is such a welcoming place to work and study. It has the oldest computer music centre in the States. It was very exciting in my first year here to hear my work performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble at the Abron Arts Centre with my fellow students and professors in the audience.”
With indoor live music still on hold, that vibrancy has dimmed but Merivale has stayed connected to communities on both sides of the Atlantic. Her latest venture makes a virtue of necessity and embraces interaction through digital technology. Coming to composition working in sound design for theatre as an undergraduate, her latest project brings her back to that arena.
“I am excited to be composing my first opera, commissioned by Irish National Opera. ‘Out of the Ordinary’ will be the world's first community opera in virtual reality!”
From her base near Central Park, she has been collaborating online with three diverse groups that includes Irish speakers in Inis Meáin to create a programme that will be experienced on VR headsets next summer. Whether in Manhattan, Inis Meáin or West Cork, one senses that Merivale who says that she takes inspiration from a sense of place, would be at home anywhere in the world.
- Bantry and Beyond: West Cork Chamber Music Festival runs until 25th July Box Office at www.westcorkmusic.ie
- Citizen of Everywhere: Concert featuring a duo by Finola Merivale streams on Monday June 28
