The Atlantic Orchestra Project is an international mix of classical and traditional musicians, singers, a film maker and a storyteller. In 2018 the group first worked with Spanish Armada Ireland and the Irish Underwater Archeology Unit to create a musical theatre piece telling the story of three of the 16th century cannon recovered from the seabed at Streedagh Sligo. This included research, scripting, composition, direction and performance.

Their next piece was a focus on the work of author and filmmaker Bob Quinn, premiered in Zurich in 2020 and they are currently working on a piece with Sligo Colmcille 2021 which will feature the iconic Irish saint in the context of his time. Their two original performances to date are:

 

Cairo to Connemara: Routes and Rhythms in Irish Music  Jan 2020

East meets West in this piece which starts with a 12th century Moorish Dance and swings over into a zippy trad composition by Sligo musician Ray Coen, featured in the clip on fiddle. From a live performance of “Cairo to Connemara: Routes and Rhythms in Irish Music’ Zurich , January 2020. The Atlantic Orchestra Project arranges its own music and features a mix of traditional and newly composed pieces.

 

 

Cannon in Sea   September 2018                                                                                    

 Cairo to Connemara: Routes and Rhythms in Irish Music is inspired by the work of Bob Quinn in his book ‘The Atlanteans’, first published in the 1980s. The music works with his suggestion that the main influences brought to bear on Irish west coast culture arrived there via people who took the sea routes from north Africa and the Iberian peninsula over several centuries, bringing layers of musical culture, art, song, and dance that survive in Connemara to this day. Extensive studies show that the sean-nós culture in the west of  Ireland is not European.

 The performance is a layered affair. Music from the 16th century airs with percussion that could be timeless or 21st century.  Authentic Irish sean-nós singing and Spanish strings sit amicably with newly composed and traditional Irish dance pieces. The spoken word provides context and fantasy by turn, while selected film clips provide a backdrop anchoring the idea of place firmly with the audience.

As a group, these artistes unearth the fabulous, the mysterious, the earthiness and the beauty of this musical heritage and present it to audiences in 90 minutes of spellbinding entertainment.

 Music from the Project: The Innishmurray March and The Julianna Jig composed by Catherine Rhatigan, arranged by the Orchestra. From live performances.

Cannon In Sea, scripted and directed by Catherine Rhatigan for Spanish Armada Ireland first aired in Grange, Co. Sligo in September 2018. The resoundingly successful was performed in a former Napoleonic courtyard, just yards from where the actual Spanish Armada ships foundered and wrecked in 1588.

In this creative mix of  original film footage, music, narration and song, the musicians collaborated  with the National Underwater Archeology Unit of Ireland who provided original film footage of 16th century Spanish cannon recovered from the Sligo coast in 2015.  The specially scripted piece revolves around the imagined  ‘lives’ of three of the majestic cannon, part of the  Spanish Armada  wrecked in 1588. Enthralled, audiences got   a backward look through time into the 16th century and the fascinating, long gone world to which the brass cannon once belonged.

The Performers

The Atlantic Orchestra Project is made up of people who are all involved in other bands and projects, but their collective energy really swings in this one!  Veterans of the international stage, (Japan, Europe, The U.S, South Africa and Australia), these musicians are both competent exponents of music from other folk cultures, as well as highly respected members of Irish traditional music at home and abroad. All are recorded artistes, and have been working together in various combinations since 1995.

Their collective résumés include appearances with legendary super-groups like De Danaan, Clanad, Chris de Burgh, and Alan Stivell, a tour of the U.S with The Chieftains, another with the award winning Druid Theatre and appearances in Zurich Opera House and Carnegie Hall, New York.

Catherine Rhatigan, Project Director / Irish harp. A founder member of Tale of the Gael, she created and directed the 12 events for Yeats 150 Harp Festival of Moons which ran for a year.  Most recently, she has scripted and directed productions with the James Joyce Institute Zurich, The Dept. of Foreign Affairs, as well as with universities in Switzerland and Germany. She has performed and taught harp music in the U.S, Europe, South Africa, Japan and of course Ireland.

www.irelandharp.net

 

Robert Tobin, Ireland, Silver flute, whistle. Currently working and living in Helsinki, Robert toured Europe and Ireland with Tale of the Gael, and The Deirdre Starr Band and has appeared in both the Zurich Opera House and Carnegie Hall during his career to date. Robert will begin work  with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra as Principal Flautist in April 2020.

http://roberttobinflute.com

 

Isabelle Hauser Switzerland, storytelling, narration. Isabelle studied storytelling with Liz Weir in Co. Antrim, Ireland, and is a founder member of The Celtic Fragment, a storytelling/music trio which has performed all over Switzerland, as well as in Austria and Ireland since it formed in 2017. She was recently invited to participate at an International Storytelling Festival in Dubai, March 2020.

www.isabellehauser.com

 

 

Dave Aebli, Switzerland, Guitar, Double Bass, Irish Bouzouki. Dave plays Greek, Balkans and Irish music with equal verve. His  Balkan and Greek music can be heard with Chef de Kef,  and he is a long standing member of both Tale of the Gael, and The Joe Mc Hugh Band.  He has been part of the Rigiblick Theatre house band  in Zurich for several years.

www.kafenion.ch/chef-de-kef

 

 

Prannie Rhatigan Ireland, Bodhran. Prannie is best known these days for her work with seaweed cookery, and was recently a First in the World in 2019 for her latest book. In another life she played percussion with a renaissance group, and accompanies Tale of the Gael on their various international tours whenever time allows.

www.irishseaweedkitchen.ie

 

Ray Coen, Ireland, Guitar, Fiddle, Vocals. A musician of many parts, Ray can show up anywhere in an ensemble. His singing ranges from full on rock to gentle ballads, and his fiddle style ranges from authentic Sligo traditional to improvised, as the occasion demands. He and Catherine performed a mix of traditional Sligo and 18th century music to great acclaim at the Tokyo Irish Festival in 2019. He plays guitar, fiddle and sings with the international touring band No Crows,

www.nocrows.net

 

Felip Carbonell, vocals, classical guitar. Felip grew up in Mallorca listening to various kinds of Spanish, Latin American and Catalan music, about which he knows an awful lot. His current projects include working with No Crows, Jazztalk, and Amy O Hara and A Band. He regularly gigs with his daughters at home and in Spain and also writes music.

www.felipcarbonell.com

 

Treasa Ni Mhiollain,  sean nos singing. Treasa grew up on the Aran Islands where she learned her vast repertoire of Gaelic songs from her parents. Apart from performances worldwide and at home, Treasa has been entrusted with the job of teaching the art of sean nós to younger generations on all three of the Aran Islands. In 2011 she was artist in residence for the National University of Ireland in Galway, and released her second album in 2019.

 

 

Seamus Gallagher, Percussion. Seamus comes from a family of drummers and his experience ranges across every spectrum of music out there. Musicals, traditional, rock, pop, covers, Seamus has played it all at least twice over the last 30 years. His musical travels have taken him to several European countries, the US and South Africa.