In partnership with the Norwegian Youth Orchestra Organization (UNOF), Irish Association of Youth Orchestras are delighted to present a special lunchtime lecture and concert with the Thalia Quartet and Project MMXX on Thursday 23, February 2023 in MTU Cork School of Music.

Event Details:

Time: 1.00pm-2.00pm

Where: Room 217 in MTU Cork School of Music.

This lunchtime lecture and concert is part of an exciting project which has received EU funding (from the Erasmus+ Youth Mobility Fund) which encourages collaboration between groups of young people across European countries. The project is to research and test online rehearsal methods and technology.

At the lecture, Caitlin Kelly will present on Jamulus and the technology of online practice. Caitlin Kelly is a MTU Cork School of Music Bachelors of Popular Music graduate. She interested in sound engineering, sound design, and sound for interactive media as a result of this. Accessibility is very important to her and to her research. She is currently studying at MTU Cork School of Music as part of the ADVANCE CRT Programme. Her PhD research is on the topic of ‘Accessible Audio Extended Reality Experiences in Cultural Heritage Sites for People with Visual Impairments’.

Birgitte Mikalsen from UNOF will speak about the research and the pedagogical aspects of the project. Birgitte Mikalsen studies musicology at the NTNU Department of Music. Alongside her studies, she teaches at Trondheim municipal cultural school and Stjørdal cultural school.

The participating chamber music group from Cork, Thalia Quartet have been participating in online rehearsals with a similar third level group from Norway who are called Project MMXX. Both are rehearsing online using Jamulus and this collaboration is culminating with concerts in Ireland and Norway in Spring 2023. UNOF are currently researching the use of online rehearsal software and equipment and if it could be something that used more widely. Jamulus is open source networked music performance software that enables live rehearsing, jamming and performing with musicians located anywhere on the internet.

The Thalia Quartet, founded in 2021, is made up of four BMus students at MTU Cork School of Music; Kate, Myn, Ciara and Alina. Thalia Quartet are all students at MTU Cork School of Music. The quartet is tutored by Simon Aspell, and has performed in concerts at Crawford Art Gallery, MTU Cork School of Music, UCC’s Aula Maxima as part of the FUAIM series and for the ETC Cork School of Music.

Project MMXX are a chamber group of students studying music, conducted by Henrik Aarnes. The students attend university in Trondheim and Stavanger, and founded the ensemble in the Spring of 2020. The original plan was to form a small chamber group to play classical music together, but they quickly gained more members and Project MMXX expanded its horizons and now consists of Henrik Aarnes, Kristian R. Ye, Anne Handeland, Justus Aakre Zeiger and Emilie Victoria Hughes. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it took some time before they got the project started. But in the spring of 2021, they finally held a concert in Stavanger where they performed Souvenir de Florence by Tchaikovsky. It was a great success and the whole ensemble was hungry for more!

What is UNOF?

All democratic orchestras with young musicians in Norway can become members of UNOF. Member orchestras range from quartets to full-size symphony orchestras. UNOF runs NUSO – Norwegian Youth Symphony Orchestra, a national symphony orchestra for young people between the ages of 13-20, and organizes summer schools around Norway.

UNOF manages a number of support schemes and follows up the member orchestras’ interests vis-à-vis politicians. They work to ensure that children and young people can receive training and play in an orchestra, and that children and young people have the opportunity to influence their own organization and development.

This project was funded by the Erasmus+ Youth Mobility Fund. The European Union programme Erasmus+ funds Youth projects across Europe. This is to provide non-formal and informal learning opportunities for young people so that they can acquire competences that improve their personal and socio-educational development. It also encourages active participation in society, improving employment prospects. Participation also enables youth workers to develop skills to bolster professional development, foster new organisational practices and raise quality of youth work in general.

Learn more about IAYO and the project at iayo.ie