The Ulster Orchestra

As mentioned in Thursday’s paper the Ulster Orchestra are coming to An Grianan for the first time and with a very fine programme. Their soloist is Emma Johnson. Acclaimed by The Times as ‘Britain's favourite clarinettist’ she began to study the clarinet at the age of nine. In 1984 she won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition televised throughout Europe and in 1991 was a winner of the Young Concert Artist Auditions in New York. Emma has given master classes all over the world and was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in 1996. Emma Johnson has appeared with many leading orchestras including London Symphony, Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, Hallé, Tokyo Philharmonic, Salzburg Camerata and Netherlands Philharmonic in repertoire which includes over forty different concertos. She has sold well over a quarter of a million discs worldwide. Here she will perform the beautiful Mozart's Clarinet Concerto. It’s on Monday 22nd October. To book call 074 91 20777.

Letterkenny Film Club
The Film Club has relocated to the Regional Cultural Centre, that shiny building at the rear of An Grianan, and next up is Days of Glory, a French/ Moroccan, Algerian and Belgian production which took the Best Actor award at Cannes 2006. The blurb goes: With strong visual and even stronger emotions, Rachid Bouchareb’s ‘Day’s of Glory’ makes a powerful war film about a particularly unique subject. World War II historians tend to ignore the contributions and sacrifices made in the liberation of France by North African or ‘indigenous’ soldiers of the French army. It’s at 8pm call 0749129186 for more info.

Damien McGinley exhibition at An Grianan

A roaring success already with over half the pictures sold, Damien McGinley's latest exhibition sees a maturing of style and vision. Where last year’s outing seemed often hesitant and choppy, here a clear mode of execution links all the works. And it works well. Clearly there are strong influences form graphic novels and record and book artwork but whereas last year he aped his heroes here it is clearly only an influence and the work McGinley’s own. Well worth a visit it’s easy to see why so many people have decided to purchase, if he can make these strides in a year it will be interesting to see where he is in five years time. Probably beyond the reach of the pockets of us mere mortals!

Exhibition at the Cristeph

The Cristeph Gallery, on the Port Road just below the theatre, has an exhibition by five women artists opening on 19th October. It features work by Delores Dunleavey, Maria Noonan McDermott, Brigid Birney, Mary Ronayne and Lisa Bond. It will run until 3rd November.

Ross Fine Art, Ramelton

Ross Fine Art is a gallery in the heritage town of Ramelton, County Donegal, which specialises in Irish art and also carries selected artists from abroad. It is owned by the painter Janet Ross who has lived locally for many years. Ross Fine Art also promotes the art of Donegal, and carries a selection of work by widely-known local artists, including Derek Hill, Jacinta Feeney, Trudie Mooney, Wolfram Stumpf and Johnny Boyle. The current exhibition takes up two of the four rooms in the gallery in Mallbridge House (beside Whoriskey’s) , and there's a lot of contrast in the approach taken by the four featured artists.
Fiona McGee's paintings are real charmers and distinctive in both their subject matter and colouring. She rejoices in scenes of brightly-coloured fields, with their grasses and bog cotton and hilly backdrops. Ten of George Putttman’s paintings feature scenes in the Ramelton area, including the famous quay, and there are other charmers from Buncrana and Rathmullan. Gail Warner-Pryce is an artist from Cornwall and most of the paintings on show for the exhibition feature coastal scenes, particularly beaches. Piet Sluis is well-known as a graphic designer and a children's book illustrator and this is reflected in the beautifully-coloured and detailed paintings on show. There’s also a classy new website at www.rossfineart.ie or you can call them on 0749152554.

New Releases from SoulJazz Records

One of the best night’s we had in Letterkenny over the past year was when the fabulous Soul Jazz Records sound System hit town. And as their name would suggest they also have a records label named, funnily enough, Soul Jazz Records. They recently sent me three of their new releases to listen to: Jamaica Funk, The Soul Jazz Singles collection, and Brazil 70. First up is Soul Jazz Records singles, all their single releases over the last two years for the first time on triple CD. It’s quite a broad range with Dancehall, Reggae, Italo-Disco, Baile Funk, Dubstep, German Rock, Post-Punk, Deep Techno and House all featuring. As a flavour of the new releases Soul Jazz do its a good introduction to a label that many thought was only into rereleases. Brazil 70 is the follow up to the superb “Tropicalia: A Revolution in Sound” and takes up exactly where the first volume took off mixing up styles and featuring killer Brazilian tunes all influenced by American and British underground rock music from the early 70s. It follows Brazilian music in the aftermath of Tropicalia as the country’s dictatorship entered its most oppressive phase. Musicians and artists such as Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Tom Ze, Rita Lee (Os Mutantes lead-singer) and Gal Costa entered a new phase mixing rock, funk, samba and soul alongside a wealth of like-minded new artists such as Novos Baianos, Raul Seixas, Nelson Angelo and Joyce (who played at last year’s Errigal Arts Festival) and more. It’s great, shimmy like you’ve won the world cup!
Jamaica Funk, given my own musical preferences was always going to be my favourite of these three. It is a stellar selection of rare Reggae Funk and Soul 45s. Mostly released in Jamaica in the early 1970s, these 45’s feature versions of songs by Betty Wright, Al Green, The Stylistics, Bill Withers, The JBs and more as well as original cuts. Cracking. To buy any of these go to www.souljazzrecords.co.uk or your local music shop!