Jay Wilson

I’ve ordered the homemade beans on toast and some Japanese Gen Mai tea. I’m sitting in the corner, having moved from sitting outside (beside the wonderful ‘found object’ mosaics): it’s a bit colder today. That’ll hopefully not have been the extent of our summer...

This weekend was the 11th international chamber choir festival in Marktoberdorf, Germany, and New Dublin Voices made the trip. The opening concert was given by Consono, from Köln, who won the top prize at the festival in 2007...

I subscribe to about two dozen blogs and browse through them most days. Today I heard this great cover of an Elliott Smith song, ‘Needle in the hay’, by a lady called Mélissa Laveaux. On a blog with the marvellous name of Aurgasm...

Last night was the first of a four-Thursday residency in The Purty Loft by Hamlet Sweeney & The Handsome Strangers (of which I am Handsome Stranger No. 1 )...

I posted up the videos of New Dublin Voices in Budapest...

I’m looking forward to playing The Stables in Mullingar on Friday with Hamlet Sweeney. We’ve played there a couple of times and it was there that I first heard Audrey Ryan. This time we’re supporting ‘Villagers‘, who I first heard in the distilled form of village chief, Conor J...

Hamlet Sweeney and I climbed the stairs to the auspicious Balcony TV studio a little while ago. Thankfully I didn’t have to lug the keyboard with me, just the cajon...

Really good cartoon about orchestras by Matthew Guerrieri (guest-posted on Adaptistration). Via Jonathan Grimes. Posted in links

I found The Anderson & Roe Piano Duo on YouTube yesterday...

I was determined to start back strongly after the Easter break with the girls choir I conduct. I’ve been experimenting with seating arrangements for the forty or fifty of them that turn up every week(!)...

My brother-in-law, Dan, recommended that I listen to Battles a few months ago after he saw them do a gig in Dublin. I just found some great photos from the gig on my friend Steve Ryan’s site...

Waiting for the water to heat so I can finish the washing-up this morning, I just came across Nicholas Bate’s ‘The Rules of Life‘ e-book on Eclecticity...

Posted in links

This is still sinking in…! Outside the Palace of Arts in Budapest Leading Irish chamber choir New Dublin Voices has won the Grand Prix at the prestigious Budapest International Choir Competition...

Today was the fourth rehearsal of a jazz trio comprising me (on keys), Barry Rycraft (on bass) and Satya Darcy (on drums). We worked solely on original material this time, after having started on standards...

If you get a chance to hear this group of Trinity College Dublin students playing the music of Sigur Rós, I’d recommend it (again). Here, they perform ‘Inni mer syngur vitleysyngur’ (Within me a lunatic sings). Posted in links

I did a project with a group of school kids last week in Offaly. We wrote a song about the Pied Piper, ‘The Bargain’, which turned out rather nicely, ending with lots of angry faces and fist-waving...

I travelled back from Galway today with three other choir people...

I really enjoyed working with the children at the Mansion House today We had quite a range of ages in the group of about a dozen kids and we had great fun making music together...

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Kurt Vonnegut quote This was on the wall above the urinal in The Peacock theatre in Dublin on Culture Night (19sept08).

Last week we had snow here in Ireland and the second concert featuring Brian Denvir’s faithful arrangements of Sigur Rós music took place in the chapel of Trinity College Dublin...

Jim Jarmusch quote      

I met Max at a session of The Song Room back in July...

Last night I performed my latest song for the audience at Saint Brigid’s parish, Cabinteely. New Dublin Voices were doing a concert to raise money for a charity called Preda that helps children in the Philippines...

On Friday Hamlet Sweeney played his first gig of 2009, launching his release strategy on the world. He will release a single every month this year - the first one being ‘I am a man’...

I was delighted to hear that these talented Trintarians will be putting on another concert of music by the Icelandic group Sigur Rós. I was lucky enough to hear their previous concert and can only presume that this one will be even better...

If you’re interested in keeping up with what New Dublin Voices are up to and hearing about upcoming concerts, then please become our fan on Facebook. Our next concert is on Sunday 1st February in St Brigid’s church in Cabinteely, County Dublin...

Back in October, Hamlet and I went into the MUZU TV studios and recorded ‘I am a man’. Looks good, methinks...

New Dublin Voices had a very busy Christmas season with concerts in Navan, Dublin (performing for the Friends of the National Gallery, singing carols in Dickensian garb on the steps of The Gate theatre before the opening night of ‘The Old Curiosity Shop’ and doing a lunchtime concert in the...

One of Rowan Manahan’s first posts of the new year was about finding your voice. It is, for most of us, our primary tool and yet we often don’t think about how best to vocalise our message...

These tracks were recorded by my talented friend Paul Donnan in the beautiful entrance hall of Powerscourt in County Wicklow. I have a fascination, inherited from my father, with Irish ‘Big Houses’...

Pictured at Our Lady's Hospital, Crumlin was cellist Grainne Hope, Jonathan Wilson as Tchaikovsky, Amy Jordan and flautist Julie Maisel...

I was introduced to Eclecticity today by Rowan Manahan, whose witty and informative blog I would recommend to anyone who likes to laugh and has to work for a living. I sing in a choir and, it being the season, we’ve been singing lots of Christmas music...

Graham Linehan has found another great slice of dancey pop - this time from Milwaukee band French Horn Rebellion.      

Stumbled upon this great piece of beatboxing…     

It has been a very busy four weeks since I last posted something. Here are some highlights: the first stage of the Infant Imaginings project drew to a close...