Outline of project for 1st Ashling Murphy Scholarship with focus on the community
Background:
St. Louis, Missouri is one of the leading Irish music cities in the USA today. The CCÉ branch, St Louis Irish Arts, has been at the forefront of the promotion, preservation and teaching of Irish music, song and dance in the USA for over 50 years. In addition to this very active branch and school, the city also boasts one of the largest Irish music teaching festivals in the country, the St. Louis Tionól, which has grown from strength to strength since its inception in the early 1990s. One cannot mention Irish music in St. Louis without referring to John D. McGurk’s, a large pub and music venue that has been inviting performers from Ireland since the 1970s, chief among them the late Joe Burke, who also hosted a very successful radio show in the city for a number of years. Although St. Louis does not have a very large Irish born population, this has not hindered its growth of a strong Irish music community which today encompasses students, teachers, session players, professional performers and innumerable supporters and lovers of traditional Irish music.
I have been living and teaching Irish music in St. Louis for almost a decade and from my perspective, one of the unfortunate gaps in our Irish music scene is the involvement of intermediate players, particularly children and teenagers in session playing. We currently have about 60 students under the age of 18 enrolled in regular group classes at St. Louis Irish Arts and while there are many opportunities for the students to compete and perform throughout the year, opportunities to play in sessions are few and far between. When those session playing opportunities do arise at festivals or fleadhs, many of our students do not feel like they have the confidence or knowledge to participate, despite their ability to play dozens, if not hundreds of tunes, competently.
Similarly, many adults; parents who are former students of the school and those who have recently taken up an instrument, lament the fact that there are few opportunities for them to play together also. They feel frustrated that they aren’t accomplished enough to join one of the two fast-paced, weekly sessions that are held in St. Louis and don’t feel competent to host their own session. One of these weekly sessions is not ideal for younger players as it is held on a school night and the other is a paid session with limited room for other players to join.
Project proposal:
In order to address this gap in our Irish music scene and to create more opportunities for students of all ages to develop their session skills, enhance their playing and learn from one another, I propose to curate a family-led, family-focused session series to run from September 2023 – July 2024. These sessions will take place once a month on a Sunday afternoon and each will be led by a family. The term family shall be interpreted broadly to include children, parents, guardians, cousins, grandparents, etc but should include at least one player under 18 and one over 18 to reinforce the idea that session playing is for everyone, and that all ages are welcome to listen, to learn and to play. Each hosting family will participate in a preparatory workshop with me beforehand to prepare some sets of tunes and to give them an opportunity to ask questions and air concerns about session playing so that they feel confident leading the session. Other tasks that will fall within my remit include preparing promotional materials for the series; graphics, photographs, flyers, email blasts, facebook posts, etc; managing online marketing efforts; scheduling the series and preparatory workshops; and attending the session itself to lend a hand on the day if necessary. The money from the scholarship will be put toward administrative costs; the publication of promotional materials; and conducting the workshops and sessions.
Goals/desired outcomes:
I am hopeful that this series will create a space for Irish music students and enthusiasts of all ages to share music together in a supportive environment. By providing such an environment for intermediate players to get their feet wet, I hope that their confidence will grow and that they will feel more prepared to join a session when the opportunity arises at a festival, fleadh or other. Some of our students and families are intending to travel to Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann 2024 and thus a completion date of July 2024 is an appropriate timeline for this project.
I am also hopeful that, in time, these players will attend the weekly sessions already in existence in St. Louis and the gap between ‘seasoned session players’ and ‘students’ in the city will be bridged. One of my own personal goals is to show young musicians in particular that there is more to Irish music than weekly lessons and competitions and that the music is meant to be enjoyed and shared with others, regardless of age and ability. Ideally, each hosting family will invite friends and family to attend and that in turn will help grow our Irish music community in St. Louis and possibly attract more players.
One of the beautiful things about traditional Irish music is its power to bring the young and old together to play, listen and learn from each other. A remarkable amount of learning and development happens at informal sessions and I feel that our young players in particular are missing out on this aspect of the tradition. I feel very strongly about addressing this gap in our otherwise very strong Irish music scene in St. Louis and I thank you for considering this proposal.