Events

The Sugar Club Harp Sessions feature the most exciting harpers – some with friends – who are pushing the boundaries of Irish harping.

Our Sugar Club Harp Sessions concert on Saturday 20th September features Úna Monaghan, Éanna Monaghan and Paddy Glackin.

Renowned harper, composer and sound artist Úna Monaghan blends harp and electronics in a performance  featuring a compelling  range of works from two decades of exploration involving motion sensors, processed harp, synthesis, tape pieces, samples, improvisation, and Irish traditional music. Úna  is joined by bassoonist Éanna Monaghan and fiddle player Paddy Glackin. Together, they showcase the sound world and character of these instruments, performing excerpts from Úna’s unique large-scale work on Hurling, and a new composition for harp, bassoon, fiddle, and electronics.

Belfast born Úna Monaghan is a harper, composer, researcher and sound artist working in Ireland and internationally. She collaborates, improvises and performs with poets, visual artists, computers, writers, musicians, and others. Úna also works as a sound engineer specialising in Irish traditional music, and experimental, live electronic and multichannel music worldwide. She has released two albums of her compositions, most recently Aonaracht, for solo traditional musicians and electronics. Úna received the inaugural Liam O’Flynn Award from the Arts Council of Ireland and the National Concert Hall Dublin and also held the Rosamund Harding Research Fellowship in Music at Newnham College, University of Cambridge from 2016-2019. She is a lecturer in Sound and Music at Queen’s University Belfast, where her research examines the intersections between Irish traditional music, experimental music practices, improvisation and interactive technologies.

Éanna Monaghan is a bassoonist from Belfast, currently based in London. He has studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, the Royal Academy of Music in London, and with Valentino Zucchiatti in Milan.  He enjoys an international performance career working with the BBC Concert Orchestra, English National Opera, the BBC Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras, English Touring Opera and the London Contemporary Orchestra. Additionally, he works regularly in Ireland, performing with the Ulster Orchestra, Camerata Ireland, Irish National Opera, Irish Chamber Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. As a chamber musician, he is a member of The Belfast Ensemble. He has received awards from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Music Network.

Fiddle player Paddy Glackin is from Dublin. His father, Tom, was from County Donegal and was a noted fiddler who had a significant influence on Paddy’s style. Paddy has also been inspired by John Doherty, the Donegal travelling fiddle player and by others such as  John Kelly, Tommy Potts and Pádraig O’Keeffe. Paddy was senior all-Ireland champion fiddle player at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann at age nineteen. He was a member of the traditional music group ‘Seachtar’ and then of ‘The Bothy Band’ in the 1970s. He was also a member of ‘Ceoltóirí Laighean’ recording two albums with them.  Having spent some time as Traditional Music Officer with the Arts Council, he moved to broadcasting with RTÉ.  Although his preference is for solo playing, he has joined forces with numerous musicians such as Paddy Keenan, Dónal Lunny, Robbie Hannan and Mícheál Ó Domhnaill and has also recorded with John Cage and Jolyon Jackson. His first solo album ‘Glackin: Ceol ar an bhFidil’  was released in 1977 and he was the recipient of the TG4 Gradam Ceoil Musician of the Year award in 2022. Paddy was awarded an honorary Doctorate from UCD in 2022.

Tickets available at www.eventbrite.ie/