April 2014: Preparing for tour, Dear World: Emilie Conway Sings Alec Wilder
APRIL 1
"Something Beautiful Can Always Happen."
hello folks,
Something Beautiful Can Always Happen is a saying of mine ... I guess I say it often enough that a dear friend went and put it on a little blue wooden heart for me ... an act of itself so thoughtfully beautiful .....
But today was a day that was quite out of joint with this ideology and more along the lines of "nothing's bad that couldn't be worse.." UNTIL .... i went up to the Mill Theatre, Dundrum.
OK, apart from the fact that we have a concert there on the 25th April, y'all have to go there. It's a beautiful theatre but more than that, the people who work there are very special. I was there for a meeting with tech to check some lighting ideas. i guess I was visibly stressed and was offered tea, coffee, ....glass of wine? !! I cannot tell you how helpful the team were - they didn't have to be. it was time and kindness they weren't obliged to give, but they did. And I'd say I am perhaps the only visitor to Dundrum Shopping Ctr to walk by Abercrombie & Fitch today with a bag full of lighting gels, happy out! :) Something beautiful did happen.
And while we're on the subject, Something Beautiful Can Always Happen, let me tell you about the bubbles on the poster for the upcoming concert series, "Dear World," Emilie Conway Sings Alec Wilder, because that is a beautiful story of synchronicity.
I called the project "Dear World," etc after one of Wilder's songs and because he was an avid letter writer. Then I came upon a photo that captures a moment of Alec blowing bubbles, with none other than the brilliant late pianist Marian McPartland laughing in the background. I just thought the lightness in that image and the quote below so beautiful and so summing up of Wilder\s sensitivity, fascination with life and, at the same time, complete resistance to being anyway pinned to it ...
and THEN ... I enlisted the help of my friend Dee Gavin, artist, singer, pianist, everything! ...to help with putting together an image concerning bubbles .....
So here's the beautiful synchronicity part.. ... the "bubbles" that you see on the poster are actually not bubbles but an abstract from a photo Dee took of the reflections in puddles on a doorstep, Bleecker St & Houston, off Broadway in New York City! The reflection is actually the New York skyline! Except for the one "bubble" where Dee put in a detail from the score, Dear World!
... and they all lived happily ever after!
Concert listings below & The Little Blue Heart attached!
Hope to see you soon,
Best wishes,
Emilie
"Dear World," Emilie Conway Sings Alec Wilder
Friday 11th April: Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray | Thursday 17th April: Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda,
Saturday 19th April: Dunamaise Arts Centre, Portlaoise | Thursday 24th April: Ballina Arts Centre
Friday 25th April: The Mill Theatre, Dundrum
Presented by Jazz on the Terrace
Supported by the Arts Council
"I’m concerned with the miracle of life in all of it’s incredible forms. I’ll stop for a spider, a bird, a tree, a flower, a child, a book, a storm, a sound, a scent, a smile. l'll blow bubbles, watch bobble birds, read a dictionary, listen to a sad take, make up a puzzle, row a boat."
- Alec Wilder, (1907-1980)
Dazzling Dublin jazz singer Emilie Conway and her quintet bring to the stage the music of the enigmatic Alec Wilder: a music of haunting simplicity, beauty, humour, and warmth, brimming with Wilder's fascination with life.
"Star of the show is Conway's voice," - Hot Press
"Classic style," - Irish Times
"A beguiling and balmy listen," - The Sunday Business Post
Emilie has presented projects on Billie Holiday, Elis Regina and Abbey Lincoln. She now presents “Dear World,” together with her regular associates, some of Ireland's finest jazz musicians: Johnny Taylor (piano), Damian Evans (bass) and Dominic Mullan (drums) with the outstanding Brendan Doyle (saxophone