Joanna MacGregor’s Irish dates will feature everything from Bach to Thelonious Monk, says Alan O’Riordan.

A BRIEF chat I once had with a civil servant sticks in my mind. On noting my occupation, she paused in her task and reminisced about how much she had enjoyed playing the recorder in a school band. Amid the tedium of form filling, I was struck by her expression of genuine pleasure at the memory of musical activity with classmates after a gap of decades.

Francis Humphrys tells Nicki ffrench Davis about overseeing Bantry’s three summer festivals

Julianstown children set for big time, says Nicki ffrench Davis

CAN music, singing, story-telling and dance help those with mental health problems? Yes they can, according to musician and psychiatric nurse Kevin O’Shanahan.

The chamber music group will perform with the singer tomorrow as part of Triskel Christchurch’s Christmas programme, says Colette Sheridan

A WIDE-ranging Fringe Festival programme has been announced for the Waterford International Festival of Music taking place next month.

IRELAND’S newly appointed cultural ambassador, actor Gabriel Byrne, joined U2’s Bono and former US president Bill Clinton in New York on Thursday night for the American Ireland Fund 35th Anniversary Gala.

U2 are to co-fund a new scheme offering Irish children the opportunity to learn to sing or play a musical instrument.

IT increases energy levels, improves communication and motor neurone skills and relaxes the listener - if music be the food of life, play on.