21 May 2020
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork
Music Generation is Ireland’s National Music Education Programme that transforms the lives of children and young people through access to high-quality performance music education in their local areas. Music Generation is co-funded by U2, among others!
Tying in with the ethos of the Bealtaine Festival, which celebrates the arts and creativity as we age, Music Generation Cork City has launched a new project to bring young and old together to sing the beloved Irish classic, ‘Down by the Salley Gardens’, as part of their Lockdown Soundz series.
As a gesture of solidarity with senior members of the community, who have been hardest hit by the current pandemic, Music Generation Cork City (MGCC) wants to celebrate our older citizens and connect generations through song by encouraging an exchange of music.
To that end, MGCC is asking for the young people on their city-wide programmes to reach out to their grandparents and older relatives and ask them to take part in this new project, by joining them in making a little video, singing along to a backing track and by being part of an intergenerational song-sharing experience. The video gathered will be edited together to create a virtual performance of the piece.
The exchange envisaged in this latest project is the sharing of the experience around performing William Butler Yeats’ song. It might be a case that the young people involved already know the song, but if they don’t, it is an opportunity to learn it from their grandparent or relative. And thanks to technology, connecting with each other remotely, has never been easier.
This is the second in MGCC’s Lockdown Soundz series, which came into being over the recent weeks to address the need for musical creativity and expression under the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. Led by the Music Generation musician team, the series aims to encourage and engage our young people in a different way and to keep listening and creating even in trying circumstances.
Participating in the latest Lockdown Soundz project, Down By the Salley Gardens, couldn’t be easier – all information is available in the news section of the MGCC website www.musicgenerationcorkcity.com
