RTÉ Lyric FM broadcast Stephen McNeff’s Ballads of a Bogman - the Sigerson Clifford Song Cycle

This recording of Ballads of a Bogman: The Sigerson Clifford Song Cycle will be broadcast on RTÉ lyric fm LIVE, on 14 July at 7pm. Listen online here.

Louise Thomas and Gavan Ring (photo Paul)

Recorded live on 16 October 2022 at the Daniel O’Connell Memorial Church Cahersiveen.

Gavan Ring, tenor
Louise Thomas, piano
Recording Engineer: Paul Ashe-Browne

Acclaimed Irish tenor Gavan Ring and pianist Louise Thomas present the ‘homecoming’ performance in this recording of Ballads of a Bogman - a cycle of nine songs by CMC Composer Stephen McNeff based on the evocative poetry of the bard of Iveragh, Sigerson Clifford.

The song cycle was devised during 2021 as part of the Contemporary Music Centre's Contemporary Artists Network (formerly CMC Colleagues), where Stephen, Gavan and Louise began their collaboration. On this subject, Stephen McNeff who is Professor of Composition at the Guildhall School of Music in London says, ‘I had been a big fan of Gavan’s voice and I approached him in late 2020 to collaborate as part of ‘CMC Colleagues’ a Contemporary Music Centre initiative to partner composers and artists together. Gavan had no hesitation in recommending that I look at Clifford’s poetry. I was instantly bowled over by his texts; Clifford possesses a clear voice and a technical mastery which made them perfect for the medium of art song’.

Through Louise Thomas, who is Associate Dean of the College of Performing Arts at Chapman University in Los Angeles, the composition of Ballads of a Bogman had its world premiere at Chapman University last year, followed by a European and Irish premiere in association with Cork Opera House at St Fin Barre’s Cathedral – only a stone’s throw away from Dean Street where Sigerson Clifford was born. This performance, however, was recorded in Clifford’s and Gavan’s hometown of Cahersiveen last October and was made possible by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media’s Local Live Performance Programming Scheme.

1. I am Kerry Intro
2. The Ballad of the Tinker’s Son
3. The Old School
4. The Boy Remembers his Father
5. The Kerry Christmas Carol
6. The County Mayo
7. O drink your porter, tinker man!
8. The Fiddler
9. I am Kerry