Dates: Thursday 26 and Friday 27 February 2026
Times:
Day 1 - 26 February 2026:
- 14.00-17.00 Symposium Presentations
- 19.00-21.00 Symposium Concert
Day 2 - 27 February 2026:
- 09.30-17.30 Symposium Presentations
- 19.00-21.00 TCD Student Recital
Locations:
- Boydell Recital Room, Department of Music
- Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute
- Arts Technology Research Laboratory (ATRL) Theatre
All symposium events are free and open to the public and all are warmly welcome.
Registration (optional but strongly encouraged). Please click on the relevant links below:
Symposium, 26-27 February 2026
Day 1 - 26 February 2026: Department of Music, Trinity College Dublin
Day 2 - 27 February 2026: Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute
Symposium Concert, 26 February 2026, ATRL Theatre, 7pm
This two-day international collaborative symposium explores how musical identities were shaped and reimagined across the Irish Sea. It aims to foster dialogues between scholarship, performance, and artistic practice, providing a platform for re-examining underrepresented strands of cultural history. Themes include:
- Repertoire recovery, editorial practices, and historiographical re-evaluation
- The careers, contributions, and compositions of musicians in the Celtic nations
- The cultivation of cultural identities through music
- Transnational collaboration and exchange
- Cross-disciplinary artistic and creative partnerships
- Approaches to heritage preservation in the twenty-first century through curation and education
Programme details:
DAY ONE: Thursday 26 February 2026.
Venue: Boydell Recital Room, Department of Music
10.00 to 12.00: Student Workshops with Quartet Draig
14.00 to 15.30: Reimagining the Baroque: Performance Practices and Continuities.
- Between the Gigues and the Reels: Performing Baroque Music on the Uilleann Pipes. Eamonn Galldubh, University College Dublin.
- Mining musical resources in Wales through national partnerships – a performer’s perspective. Zoe Smith, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.
16.00 to 17.00: Keynote Lecture: Dr. Jenny O’Connor-Madsen, as part of Trinity Seminar in Musicology Series.
Symposium Dinner
19.00 to 21.00: Symposium Concert - Quartet Draig and Ani Glass, Venue: ATRL Theatre, Trinity College Dublin.
DAY TWO: Friday 27 February 2026.
Venue: Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute
09.30–11.00: Celticism, Irishness, and Cultural Politics
- Celticism and Irishness in Bax. Aidan Thomson, University of Galway.
- Music from the Celtic Fringe: Celtic Identity and Internal Colonialism in Early Twentieth Century British and Irish Music. Matthew Madeley, University of Birmingham.
- Publishing Scottish music across the Irish sea at the turn of the 18th to the 19th centuries. Almut Boehme, National Library of Scotland.
11.30–12.00: Institutions, Education, and Repertoire Recovery
- “Fairies and Music, Gipsies and Flowers”: Music Pedagogy and Performance in the Convent School. Emma Arthur, University of Oxford.
14.00–15.00: Transnational Mobility and Networks
- Irish–Russian Musical Exchanges in the Long Nineteenth Century: John Field as Cultural Mediator. Stacy Jarvis, University of Birmingham.
- From Coign to Castletownsend: The Transnational Friendship of Ethel Smyth and Edith Sommerville. Hannah Millington, TU Dublin Conservatoire & Chamber Choir Ireland.
15.30–16.30: Celticism, Pan-Celticism, and Beyond
- Ireland Takes It All: the Predominance of Irish traditional themes in European Folk Metal Music. Leandro Pessina, Dundalk Institute of Technology.
- A “Kiaulliaght Gailckagh,” Or Manx Concert. Stephen Miller.
16.45–17.30: Panel Discussion – Critical Reflections, Rediscovering Celtic Heritage
19.00: Trinity College Dublin Student Recital Free Concert - Open to All. Boydell Recital Room, Department of Music
Symposium Committee:
Cheryl Tan (Trinity College Dublin, Chair)
Emma Arthur (University of Oxford)
Orla Flanagan (Trinity College Dublin)
Nicole Grimes (Trinity College Dublin)
James Lea (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama)
Orla Shannon (Royal Irish Academy of Music)
Questions: For further information, please email Dr Cheryl Tan (Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Music) at cheryl.tan@tcd.ie
Acknowledgments: This symposium has been generously supported by Trinity College Dublin, the Society for Musicology in Ireland, and Arts Council Wales.