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The politicization of the harp through Moore's Irish melodies

When

Wednesday, November 20, 2019, 13:00

Where

Academy House, 19 Dawson Street

Tickets

No booking required

Professor Úna Hunt will give the fifth and final lecture in our series on 'Discovering Thomas Moore'. Listen back.

This lecture series accompanies our current exhibition 'Discovering Thomas Moore: Ireland in nineteenth-century Europe'. Curated by musicologist Dr Sarah McCleave, School of Arts, English & Languages, QUB, the exhibition exposes the breadth of Moore’s research and writing about Ireland and explores Moore’s role as an Irish writer with an international reputation in positioning Ireland within Europe through cultural exchange. It also addresses contemporary European fascination with the orient and Moore’s influential role in depicting eastern culture, particularly via his hugely successful work, Lalla Rookh.

Speaker:

Una Hunt is Professor of Music Performance Research at the TU Dublin Conservatory and, as a prominent Moore scholar, has published widely on the subject. Her seminal book: ‘Sources and Style in Moore’s Irish Melodies’ is published by Routledge. Una also enjoys a flourishing career as an international pianist and curated a 38-venue national tour of Moore’s Irish Melodies in 2008 and has since performed Moore in many prestigious international venues including Carnegie Hall, New York. Her discography of world-premiere CDs on Irish music includes the first ever complete archive of the Irish Melodies (6CD box set: My Gentle Harp, 2008) and a collection of the songs performed with a period instrument – Moore’s Irish Melodies, the Square Piano Recordings (2009). She compiled the multi-media outputs for the exhibition first shown at the Royal Irish Academy: My Gentle Harp – Moore’s Irish Melodies, 1808-2008, which was subsequently toured across Ireland and viewed by 100,000 people.

Una is also an award-winning radio producer and presenter and has compiled numerous features for the BBC and RTE, including the 6-programme series: My Gentle Harp. She is presently collaborating with Wexford Festival Opera to mount a performance of The Veiled Prophet opera by Irish composer, Charles Villiers Stanford, based on Moore’s oriental romance, Lalla Rookh.

Other lectures in this series:

9 October, 2019: ‘Re-imagining Moore’ by Prof. Harry White, MRIA, School of Music, UCD

30 October, 2019: ‘Thomas Moore in Paris’ by Dr Tríona O'Hanlon, Independent Scholar

6 November, 2019: ‘Genius of the East?  Moore's Orientalism’ by Dr Daniel Roberts, School of Arts, English & Languages, QUB

13 November, 2019: ‘Sentiment and song in Moore's Irish melodies and Lalla Rookh’ by Dr Sarah McCleave, School of Arts, English & Languages, QUB

Free admission. No individual booking required. Group bookings please contact: library@ria.ie / 01-6090620

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