TRYST
Where tradition meets innovation
in adventurous vocal music
Tryst presents: Songs of Myself
Tuesday 1st November 2011, 8pm
Tickets: €12/€10 (conc.) available at door
Vocal duo Tryst brings an intense and compelling energy to a richly varied vocal repertoire, ranging from Léonin to John Cage. Following two successful shows in New York as part of Culture Irelands Imagine Ireland initiative, Tryst return to Dublin to perform at one of the city’s quintessential venues – The Back Loft.
Drawing inspiration from jazz, contemporary, classical, cabaret and folk performance cultures, Michelle O'Rourke and Nora Ryan explore and interpret vocal repertoire. This eclectic approach, combined with the singers’ rare chemistry, throws music from the canon into a new, idiosyncratic, unique and beautiful light. Renowned British tenor John Potter (Hilliard Ensemble, Red Byrd) has described the synergy between O’Rourke and Ryan as “a magical unison”.
Featuring a captivating mix of arranged and improvised music, Tryst performs a seamless show that re-imagines, re-invents and re-defines conceptions of the singer’s role as interpreter. Medieval organa and rondeau are reduced to their beautiful essence, rapid-fire Aperghis Récitations are spliced into luxuriant Poulenc chansons, American art song is placed in the dark atmosphere of Tom Waits, solos by John Cage are lent a new, subtle theatre, and Kurt Weill torch song becomes haunting two-part counterpoint.
O’Rourke and Ryan perform with regular collaborators: composer-drummer Dennis Cassidy, bassist Sean Maynard Smith and English composer-pianist Jonathan Brigg. For this show at the Back Loft, special guest Adrian Hart (Yurodny, I draw slow) will join them on violin. The programme will include music by John Cage, Kurt Weill, Tom Waits, Richard Hundley, Guillaume de Machaut and Jonathan Brigg. This performance will also feature the Irish premiere of new work Mad Sweet Pangs through my Belly & Breast by Irish composer Judith Ring. Michelle O’Rourke commissioned this work for Tryst with funds from the Irish Arts Council: the work was premiered in New York this September.
