Case Study: Beyond Borders – Moving On Music/ Thirteen Vices
Belfast born composer Brian Irvine’s Thirteen Vices brought together Scotland’s contemporary music group Red Note Ensemble with three of Europe’s finest free improvising musicians including Jennifer Walshe for an explosive re-imagining of Russian artist Mihail Chemiakin’s famous Moscow public sculpture – Children Are The Victims of Adult Vices.
Combining specially commissioned text and solo soprano the exaggerated, comical and grotesque figures of Chemiakins sculpture will be reborn into a unique and uncompromising world of sound.
Moving on Music, Belfast and Sound, Scotland provided administrative support to aid the project.
Project Success
With the support of the PRS Foundation’s Beyond Boarder fund Brian Irvine’s Thirteen Vices was performed in venues around the UK including The MAC, Belfast, Great Hall, Derry, Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda, National Concert Hall, Dublin and King’s Place, London.
“Energetic and energizing, the musically adventurous, tempestuous fiesta that was 13 Vices proved that entertainment and intellectual stimulation are not incompatible. Sometimes they go hand in hand in wholly unexpected guises.” Ian Patterson, All About Jazz
Audience reaction
“Oh my! That was the best gig I’ve seen for a while”
“On my way home inspired and utterly exhilarated by the performance of ’13 Vices’ at Kings Place this afternoon”
“’13 Vices’ -…. 75 minutes without an interval simply flashed by! Want to hear it all over again as soon as possible!”
“The piece is one of those rare works written these days that is actually contemporary music”
“It was an astonishing concert, really gripping”
Catching up with the creators:
Brian Irvine said,
“13 Vices has, and continues to be, a wonderfully messy, chopped up, beautiful, bewitching cocktail of the best people making the best sounds and is a project that myself, collaborator Jennifer (Walshe) and all the gang and very proud of!”
What happened next?
In 2017 further supported by the PRS Foundation, Brian Irvine, Jennifer Walshe and Red Note Ensemble came together to perform Thirteen Vices at the New Music Biennial. This performance recorded live by the BBC at The Guildhall, Hull and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and subsequently released on NMC Recordings and can be purchased here.
