Dumbworld: The Open Fund for Organisations
Three years ago, composer Brian Irvine and librettist John McIlduff were commissioned to create their first Street Art Opera, “Drive-by Shooting”. This brought together street art, mapped projection and contemporary opera to create an artistic experience for public spaces, open to all without any of the barriers normally associated with an art form that often struggles to reach new audiences – opera. Dumbworld have now created “If Walls Could Sing”, a collection of new street art operas that can be presented across a town or city in a full evening event. Each work tells a different story; two angels playing I spy as they watch over the city, a family of polar bears drifting apart on a melting ice cap, drunken world leaders relieving themselves against a wall and causing a flood, and introduces the audiences to vibrant visual and musical worlds as they stroll through the streets of a city.
Born in Belfast, Brian’s unique musical world combines the known and the unknown, the free and the fixed, the schooled and the unschooled. His huge output includes operas, large scale oratorios, orchestral, ensemble, chamber, solo and dance works as well as film scores and installations. His music has been commissioned, broadcast and performed all over the world by a vast array of performers and organisations including the London Symphony Orchestra, Welsh National Opera, RTE National Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Red Note Ensemble, Ulster Orchestra, Joanna MacGregor, Fidelio Trio, Irish National Opera.. to name but a few.