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Music of People and Place

Vincent Kennedy composer, conductor
RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Mark Redmond uilleann pipes

Release Date: December 1, 2023
Catalog #: NV6586
Format: Digital
21st Century
Folk Music
Concertos
Orchestral
Orchestra

Composer Vincent Kennedy and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra bring MUSIC OF PEOPLE AND PLACE to Navona Records. Selected from some of his most beloved works and inspired by the people, mysticism, mythology, history, and landscapes of his native Ireland, this album is a rich collection of 19 stories, each appealing to the human spirit with sublime performances by the superb musicians of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.

Where The North Wind Blows, in which the orchestra is joined by Mark Redmond on uilleann pipes, is one of the few — if not the only — concert pieces written for Bb Uilleann pipes. This powerful music contrasts in character with Colmcille’s Lament, heard first with orchestra and then in a new textural layer with broad raw emotion at the critical close of the album. From IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN is the deeply moving Brothers to Arms, the reverential Arbour Hill, and the hauntingly evocative Grá (Love) played beautifully by Mia Cooper (Violin) and Yue Tang (Cello).

Kennedy’s most performed work, Meditation on the Book of Kells, and a musical memorial to John F. Kennedy are here. And for the child and dreamer in all of us – The First Steam Train in Ireland, The Accidental Tango, and The Birth Cloak. 

Much like the Irish library’s stained-glass window into which the melody from A Sunny Day In Fethard-on-Sea was honorably etched, MUSIC OF PEOPLE AND PLACE is an inspired orchestral body of work painted in a series of kaleidoscope slides, each as elegant as the last, offering a rewarding and enriching musical experience for the listener.

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Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 Where the North Wind Blows Vincent Kennedy RTÉ Concert Orchestra | Vincent Kennedy, conductor; Mark Redmond, uilleann pipes 5:58
02 A Sunny Day in Fethard-on-Sea Vincent Kennedy RTÉ Concert Orchestra | Vincent Kennedy, conductor 3:05
03 Meditation on the Book of Kells Vincent Kennedy RTÉ Concert Orchestra | Vincent Kennedy, conductor 3:37
04 Abbeys, Monks and Knights Templar Vincent Kennedy RTÉ Concert Orchestra | Vincent Kennedy, conductor 4:24
05 Trasna go Dál Riada (Over the Sea to Dál Riada) Vincent Kennedy RTÉ Concert Orchestra | Vincent Kennedy, conductor; Mark Redmond, uilleann pipes 2:08
06 John Fitzgerald Kennedy - The Torch Still Burns Brightly Vincent Kennedy RTÉ Concert Orchestra | Vincent Kennedy, conductor 7:18
07 Grá (Love) Vincent Kennedy RTÉ Concert Orchestra | Vincent Kennedy, conductor; Mia Cooper, solo violin; Yue Tang, solo cello 5:26
08 Raising the Flag Vincent Kennedy RTÉ Concert Orchestra | Vincent Kennedy, conductor 3:19
09 Brothers to Arms Vincent Kennedy RTÉ Concert Orchestra | Vincent Kennedy, conductor 6:36
10 Valour and Discipline Vincent Kennedy RTÉ Concert Orchestra | Vincent Kennedy, conductor 3:39
11 Arbour Hill Vincent Kennedy RTÉ Concert Orchestra | Vincent Kennedy, conductor 6:29
12 An Capall Bán (The White Horse) Vincent Kennedy RTÉ Concert Orchestra | Vincent Kennedy, conductor; Mark Redmond, uilleann pipes 3:17
13 If You Have to Ask You Will Never Know Vincent Kennedy RTÉ Concert Orchestra | Vincent Kennedy, conductor 3:39
14 The First Steam Train in Ireland Vincent Kennedy RTÉ Concert Orchestra | Vincent Kennedy, conductor 3:18
15 Colmcille’s Lament Vincent Kennedy RTÉ Concert Orchestra | Vincent Kennedy, conductor; Mark Redmond, uilleann pipes 4:44
16 The Birth Cloak Vincent Kennedy RTÉ Concert Orchestra | Vincent Kennedy, conductor 5:03
17 Tír na nÓg (Land of Eternal youth) Vincent Kennedy RTÉ Concert Orchestra | Vincent Kennedy, conductor 5:08
18 The Accidental Tango Vincent Kennedy RTÉ Concert Orchestra | Vincent Kennedy, conductor 2:48

Recorded March 3, 6, 2023 at Studio 1, RTÉ Radio Centre, Montrose, Donnybrook in Dublin, Ireland
Recording Session Producer Gavin Murphy
Recording Session Engineers Debbie Smith, Gareth Duffy (RTÉ)

Album Producer Vincent Kennedy
Editing and Mixing Debbie Smith at Windmill Lane Recording Studios in Dublin, Ireland

Mastering Melanie Montgomery

Cover Photo Baginbun, County Wexford, Ireland © 2023 Vincent Kennedy

Executive Producer Bob Lord

A&R Director Brandon MacNeil
A&R Ivana Hauser

VP of Production Jan Košulič
Audio Director Lucas Paquette

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming
Publicity Aidan Curran

Artist Information

Vincent Kennedy

Vincent Kennedy

Composer, Conductor

Vincent Kennedy is a composer and conductor from Dublin, Ireland, who received his earliest music education in CBS Westland Row, Dublin. He won the under 18 category in the Feis Ceoil national music competition at age 12, and two years later won the adult Feis Ceoil. He was performing trumpet with the National Symphony Orchestra by the age of 19, and holds a master’s degree from Dublin City University in humanities (music and composition). Kennedy’s life experiences have defined his musical purpose, and he describes it as thus; “Music has been a faithful friend: always there to uplift, distract, colour, and comfort. I write music to enrich life and take my inspiration from many sources and possibilities, like a bee using the nectar of different flowers to produce a unique honey.”

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RTÉ Concert Orchestra

Orchestra

The RTÉ Concert Orchestra (Principal Guest Conductor Stephen Bell; Associate Principal Conductor Gavin Maloney; Associate Artist Guy Barker; Conductor Laureate Proinnsías Ó Duinn; Leader Mia Cooper) is part of RTÉ, Ireland’s national public service multimedia organization. Founded in 1948, the orchestra specializes in eclectic programming and has performed with Luciano Pavarotti, Lang Lang and Cleo Laine, and Irish artists, including Sinéad O’Connor and Imelda May. A recent series of 1990s dance music events won the IMRO radio Outstanding Achievement Award for 2018, and the RTÉ CO is now collaborating with Jenny Greene on a new set. The RTÉ CO has performed in seven Eurovision Song Contests and holds numeral film credits, including Stephen Rennicks’ score to Room and Brian Byrne’s Golden Globe-nominated score to Albert Nobbs.

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Mark Redmond

Mark Redmond

uilleann pipes

Mark Redmond has gained a reputation as a performer on the uilleann pipes in a traditional sense, but also as one who melds with a wide range of genres. He performs and records regularly with both the National Symphony and RTÉ Concert Orchestras. Within this context, he has featured in multiple live television and radio broadcasts for many historic occasions, including The Papal Mass, Phoenix Park, 2018; The State Commemoration for the centenary of the Easter Rising, Arbour Hill, 2016; The Eucharistic Congress, Croke Park, 2012, and the State Visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Ireland, 2011.

As a guest soloist abroad, Redmond performed with Camerata Ireland at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington; the Nagoya University of Arts Wind Orchestra, Japan; the Savannah Philharmonic, Georgia, US; and the Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne, Rennes, France.

In 2014, along with Organist David Bremner, he recorded, L’Air Du Temps, an album which combines traditional repertoire with music of the French Classical Organ School.

His diversified career includes tours on the international circuit with Riverdance and Celtic Woman. While at home, he has performed and recorded with a host of artists including Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Westlife, Christy Moore, and Glen Hansard.

Currently a lecturer in Irish traditional music at Technological University Dublin and the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Mark received a first-class honours degree from the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, where he was awarded the Leo Rowsome Gold Medal for Performance in 2012 before completing an honours master’s in music performance in 2013.

Notes

In this album, MUSIC OF PEOPLE AND PLACE, my wish is to bring the listener into the world of my orchestral music; music has been a faithful friend: always there to uplift, distract, color, and comfort. I write music to enrich life and take my inspiration from many sources and possibilities, like a bee using the nectar of different flowers to produce a unique honey. Apart from Where the North Wind Blows and John Fitzgerald Kennedy – The Torch Still Burns Brightly, all the tracks come from larger multi movement symphonic works whose titles I have also given. The titles, with the year of composition in parenthesis, are largely self-explanatory, and only where I feel it is absolutely necessary have I added more text. Sometimes my titles are in Irish with the English translation beside it in parenthesis. I hope you find something positive for yourself in my music.

— Vincent Kennedy

Commissioned by The North Wind Blows project, a Peace and Reconciliation project funded by the International Fund for Ireland and administered by Donegal Music Education Partnership. Featuring Mark Redmond as soloist on uilleann pipes.

From The Hook – A Place and A People. Wexford County Council Public Art Commission.

From The Chronicles of Meath. Meath County Council Public Art Commission. The Book of Kells, created around 800 A.D., is a national treasurer of Ireland, an illuminated gospel manuscript considered one of the greatest works of western calligraphy.

From The Hook – A Place and A People. Wexford County Council Public Art Commission. In the 13th century, the great Cistercian monasteries of Dunbrody and Tintern co-existed on the Hook Peninsula in Ireland with the Knights Templar and their church at Templetown.

From Colmcille – Dove of Peace. Commissioned as part of Colmcille 1500, funded by Donegal County Council and administered by the Donegal Music Education Partnership. Featuring Mark Redmond as soloist on uilleann pipes. This lively piece is about Colmcille’s crossing with his monks from Ireland to the Isle of Iona in the sixth century.

Commissioned by New Ross Town Council on the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s death. This piece includes the tune “The Boys of Wexford” by Arthur Warren Darley.

From IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN commissioned by Roscommon County Council to celebrate and remember the Easter Rising of 1916 in Ireland. All wars are paradoxically accompanied by acts of great love. This movement is dedicated to my wife and best friend Gráinne.

From IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN commissioned by Roscommon County Council to celebrate and remember the Easter Rising of 1916 in Ireland. This piece includes allusions to the music of the Irish National Anthem by Patrick Heeney and Peadar Kearney. It is about the Irish soldier Eamon Bulfin racing up to the roof of the General Post Office in Dublin on Easter Monday 1916 to fly the flag of the Irish Republic. When I was a child, Eamon Bulfin lived in the cottage next door to me.

From IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN commissioned by Roscommon County Council to celebrate and remember the Easter Rising of 1916 in Ireland. This piece commemorates two brothers who fought on either side. One was the first British Officer to be killed, his brother fighting for the Irish survived. When he died in 1944 he was laid to rest with his brother. The music begins with a duet and that idea of two parts permeates the whole piece to reflect the joys of brotherhood and growing up together. Naturally because of what unfolded there is a sadness permeating the whole piece, and it finishes softly with music that reflects the music of a military salute to the fallen.

From IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN commissioned by Roscommon County Council to celebrate and remember the Easter Rising of 1916 in Ireland. The title is taken from the Proclamation of the Irish Republic read by Patrick Pearse at the GPO on Easter Monday: “In this supreme hour the Irish nation must, by its valour and discipline and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which it is called.”

From IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN commissioned by Roscommon County Council to celebrate and remember the Easter Rising of 1916 in Ireland. Arbour Hill cemetery in Dublin is where the executed leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising are buried.

From Colmcille – Dove of Peace. Commissioned as part of Colmcille 1500, funded by Donegal County Council and administered by the Donegal Music Education Partnership. Featuring Mark Redmond as soloist on uilleann pipes. The story goes that the day before he died Colmcille’s white horse lay beside him with tears in his eyes.

Commissioned by The Winds of Change project, a Peace and Reconciliation project funded by the International Fund for Ireland and administered by Donegal Music Education Partnership. A jazzy piece whose title is paraphrased from Louis Armstrong’s reply to being asked for a definition of Jazz.

From A Day in the Life. Commissioned by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for Culture Night 2018.

From Colmcille – Dove of Peace. Commissioned as part of Colmcille 1500, funded by Donegal County Council and administered by the Donegal Music Education Partnership. Featuring Mark Redmond as soloist on uilleann pipes.

From Colmcille – Dove of Peace. Commissioned as part of Colmcille 1500, funded by Donegal County Council and administered by the Donegal Music Education Partnership.

From Legends and Lore funded by a Creative Ireland Award through South Dublin County Council. Tír na nÓg in Irish mythology is an island somewhere off the coast of Ireland where people, once they reach adulthood, never age and live happily in beauty and good health.

From A Day in the Life. Commissioned by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for Culture Night 2018.

Featuring Mark Redmond solo on uilleann pipes. From Colmcille – Dove of Peace. Commissioned as part of Colmcille 1500, funded by Donegal County Council and administered by the Donegal Music Education Partnership.