WDUQ-FM will produce a series of programs from the prestigious Guinness Cork Jazz Festival. The series will be distributed free-of-charge throughout the public radio system to coincide with the Smithsonian Institution's celebration in April 2010 of Jazz Appreciation Month.
Complete program information is available here.
Click here for the official program press release (.pdf file)
Click here for photos from the Cork Jazz Festival radio series gala at the Irish Embassy
This project is made possible by the generous support of Tourism Ireland, www.discoverireland.com.
Along with the 4 one-hour shows that make up the series, we invite you to enjoy the following features.
1. Daniel M. Rooney, U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, interviewed by WDUQ's Dan Doyle at the U.S. Embassy in Dublin.
Hear the interview here.
(Click photo for larger image)
Ambassador Daniel M. Rooney (L); Aidan Butler, RTE, Dublin (C); Dan Doyle, WDUQ (R)
Photo credit: John B. Murphy, Press Assistant, U.S. Embassy, Dublin
Recording: Aidan Butler, Senior Music Producer, RTÉ, Dublin
2. Cllr. Dara Murphy, Lord Mayor of Cork interviewed at the Farmgate Café in Cork's historic English Market.
Hear the interview here.
3. Noreen Murphy Sheehan, Fâilte Ireland, presents a walking tour of Cork city.
Hear the tour here.
(Click photo for larger image)
Photo credit: Tourism Ireland, www.discoverireland.com
4. Kevin Stevens, novelist and writer on U.S. politics and culture for The Irish Times, interviewed at the Maldron Hotel, Cork, by WDUQ's Dan Doyle.
Hear the interview here.
5. Regina Sexton, food historian and author of A little History of Irish Food, provides a tour of Cork's historic English Market.
Hear the tour here.
(Click photo for larger image)
Photo credit: Tourism Ireland, www.discoverireland.com
6. Finbar O'Shea, proprietor of The Flying Enterprise (www.theflyingenterprise.com), one of Cork's most popular dining establishments.
Hear the interview here.
7. Noreen Murphy Sheehan takes us on a tour of the village of Kinsale. This historic village is significant for Charles Fort and the sinking of the Lusitania.
Hear the interview here.
8. Tom Durcan, proprietor of Durcans, one of the English Market's most endearing purveyors of exceptional culinary products.
Hear the interview here.
9. Matthijs van Ganzewinkel, May Day Jazzband (www.maydayjazzband.nl). Based in the Netherlands, this New Orleans styled band has been delighting audiences worldwide. The group emphasizes the role of jazz as an educational tool.
Hear the interview here.
About the Host:
Melanie O'Reilly
One of the most sensational musical pioneers on the international scene, Melanie O'Reilly is now firmly established in the pantheon of creative Irish artists. Born in Dublin, Melanie comes from a family of musicians and actors, spending most of her youth treading the boards as an actress and singer, while at the same time was a multiple- award -winner singing in Dublin’s Feis Ceol competitions.
Her passion for jazz began at the early age of 11. Intrigued by the rhythms and scat improvisations of Ella Fitzgerald, she immersed herself in the music of other jazz giants such as Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. She also absorbed much by listening to Irish groups such as Horslips, Louis Stewart’s Trio and the Sean-nos singing of Sean O Riada.
After studying at the Brendan Smith Theatre Academy Dublin, and then completing an Arts Degree from University College Dublin, Melanie began her professional musical career, discovering the possibilities of mixing jazz with traditional Irish music and began to build phenomenal respect and notoriety within jazz circles.
Melanie tours extensively throughout the USA, Ireland, Scotland, England, France and other parts of Europe. Venues of note include New York’s Cooper Union, the London Barbican, the Lorient Festival Inter-Celtique in Brittany, the Cork International Jazz Festival, Andernos Festival Internationale France, Freight and Salvage in California, Milwaukee Irish Festival, Chicago Heritage Center, Glasgow Concert Hall, and the Royal Festival Hall in London; a special highlight of her international work was performing at the Lincoln Center, New York.
Accolades for Melanie continue to pour in. Melanie in 2007 was featured in the annual “Best Of the Bay Area” special edition of the East Bay Express – a popular newspaper in her adopted home of the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2006 she was mentioned in Downbeat Magazine as one of Ireland's foremost jazz ambassadors. Her 2004 concert with guitarist Larry Coryell at Dublin’s Green Room was noted as one of the top jazz concerts of the year by the Sunday Independent (Dublin). Additionally, the Rough Guide to Irish Music called Melanie’s work "Spellbinding... uplifting music from a true innovator;" while the Irish Times noted Melanie’s "breathtaking amazing emotional intensity... (and) sheer virtuosity."
Melanie's stunning Celtic jazz album Oilean Draiochta (Enchanted Island) received the critical thumbs-up from the artistic community as well as garnering wide radio play and has contributions from a host of renowned musicians such as guitarist Larry Coryell, and Irish traditional stars Tommy Hayes and Eileen Ivers. It also features songs that were the result of her collaboration with Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill.
Other recordings include the album House of the Dolphins, a further development of Melanie’s fusion of Celtic jazz, and nominated for "Best Contemporary Album" and "Best Contemporary Female Artist" by Irish Music magazine. Her subsequent album, Aisling Ghear (Bitter Vision), is a duo album with guitarist Sean O’Nuallain and has been released to wide critical acclaim. Two of her songs she has co-written with Nuala ni Dhomnaill, “Chugat an Puca” and “Amhran na Milaoise,” were chosen for the compilation albums - Realta ’98 and Realta 2000 (RTE). She also featured on the recently released French album Lorient Festival Interceltique –Trent Ans/Thirty Years, a compilation of the best of Lorient.
"Women who Left", is an original song cycle exploring 19th Century Irish emigration to America. Three of Melanie's songs were recently featured on the PBS Frontline/World documentary entitled An Uneasy Peace, directed by Niall McKay. As vocalist, she has also been part of the winning team on the award winning piece “A Snail in my Prime”, composed by musician Michael Holohan and poet Paul Durcan, which won the Quimper Celtic Radio award.
Melanie is a regular performer on the American radio networks and her albums are constantly given airplay by KPFA, KCSM, KKUP in California as well as BBC radio and TV , RTE Radio 1, Radio na Gaeltachta, Lyric FM, and French radio and TV. In 2004 she entered the world of radio broadcasting, creating a show called Jazz on the Bay for RTE Radio 1, Ireland's National Broadcasting Station, in which she interviews American jazz musicians, listening to their life stories, their inspirations as well as their music. Her interviews include luminaries such as Dave Brubeck, Clint Eastwood, Chick Corea, Marion Mc Partland, Cleo Laine & John Dankworth, Bobby McFerrin, David Benoit, Larry Coryell, Nancy Wilson. It has continually been picked as Critics Choice in the Irish media, and her most recent series of Jazz on the Bay recently won a PPI AWARD/National Radio Award for "Music Specialist Program of the Year 2008". She is currently working on her fourth series which will be broadcast later this year, on RTE Radio 1.
Having been Musician-in-Residence at the University of California Berkeley, Celtic Studies program for five years, she has now been awarded a US Performance Visa, for “extraordinary ability”, and currently resides in Berkeley, California. Her most recent album Dust and Blood which the Contra Costa Times called “...a gorgeous sound, ..celtic cadence with a jazz sensibility”, was released in Ireland in September 2008, garnered much radio play, and is distributed by Claddagh Records Distribution.
Forthcoming:
Complete program and distribution information
Additional photos
For detailed information pertaining to the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival, Jack McGouran, artistic director, please visit: www.guinnessjazzfestival.com
Contact:
Mark Yacovone
Director of National Productions
WDUQ-FM
Duquesne University
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15282
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1 - 412 396-6030
