Educator
Elaine’s output has reached audiences from the BBC London Proms and Gamers to outreach workshop participants within education, prison and healthcare. As a renowned facilitator, Elaine is highly experienced in enthusing participation of all ages in collective music-making and has connected with audiences from Indonesian Gamelan workshops on the island of Java and school workshops in Reykjavík to residencies at Georgetown University Cancer Unit in Washington DC as well as The Orpheus Centre in Surrey, a unique performing arts college for disabled young adults. Elaine has directed many major education and community projects throughout the UK and Ireland with Arts Care, The National Deaf Children’s Society, RNIB, Pushkin Trust, BBC Children In Need, Sing Ireland, National Museum of Ireland, HMP Maze and Probation Board, European Union Chamber Orchestra and Opera Theatre Company, as well as collaborations with all the major orchestras and choirs on the island of Ireland.
Remarkable (2021)
for unison choir (optional 2nd part), SATB chorus and orchestra
(strings, harp, percussion)
Dur. 4’.30”
Commissioned by Arts Care and the Ulster Orchestra, supported by funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Department for Communities and the Ulster Orchestra Foundation.
Text by John Toal based on reflections gathered during the Covid-19 Pandemic from patients, NHS staff, key workers, families and Arts Care artists.
Recorded in the Waterfront Hall, Belfast on 25th August 2021 by the Ulster Orchestra, Codetta and Southern H&SC Trust Arts Care Choirs, conducted by Dónal Doherty.
Premiered by the Ulster Orchestra, Codetta and Southern H&SC Trust Arts Care Choirs and conducted by Dónal Doherty at the Opening Night of the City of Derry International Choir Festival, 20th October 2021 at the Millennium Forum, Derry.
The Remarkable project is a partnership involving Arts Care and the Ulster Orchestra that articulates the stories, voices and lived experiences of ordinary people who became extraordinary and ‘Remarkable People’ by their experiences and actions of the Covid-19 Global Pandemic. It is a project of reflection and hope.
The project also involved the production of a ‘Remarkable’ film, a beautiful and poignant message of hope that not only captures the recording of the music in the Waterfront Hall but also includes film footage gathered during the months of the pandemic in healthcare and home settings by young film-maker Francesca Elliott.
The Ulster Orchestra and conductor Donál Doherty came together with choirs Codetta and the Arts Care Southern H&SC Trust Choir to record Remarkable. The scale of the Waterfront Hall auditorium and the starkness of lack of audience due to Covid restrictions, as seen in the video, brought a greater awareness of how the arts and art venues have been impacted and our cultural life has been impacted by the pandemic.
From the Shannon to St Rynagh’s (2021)
for children’s choir and piano
Dur. 2’
Commissioned by Offaly County Council and recorded by St Rynagh’s NS choir with conductor Geraldine Relph and launched online as a short film in November 2021.
Text collated by Jessica Traynor.
The town of Banagher in County Offaly commissioned Dublin poet Jessica Traynor to produce a pamphlet of poetry A Place of Pointed Stones, inspired by its history and folklore. As part of this per cent for art project, a song was commissioned using a text collated by Jessica from writings with students at Banagher College, which was then performed and recorded by children at St Rynagh’s NS.
four short songs for youth choir and string orchestra
Dur.9’
Commissioned and premiered by the European Union Chamber Orchestra with Coleraine High School Choir in The Riverside Theatre on 10th May 2006 and with St Colman’s Academy Newry in The Market Place Armagh on 12th May 2006, conducted by Elaine Agnew.
Text directed by Kate Newmann.
I am a Miracle (2006)
I am a Miracle is a major education commission inspired by the life of Saint Benedict, the Patron Saint of Europe and involved students from Coleraine High School and St Colman’s College Newry, not only in its performance but also in its creation of words and music. The words come from the student’s experiences of being alive and they are haunting and true. They wrote about prayer, about sleep, about belief, about silence and the miracle which is ourselves, under the direction of poet Kate Newmann. The music workshops then followed and here we explored textures and sounds, working from initial thoughts through composing and text setting.
It has since been performed by Voici Chamber Choir, conducted by Anne Barry in WIT campus on 11th November 2006 and by the Donegal Youth Choir and Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Elaine Agnew, in Balor Arts Centre in Ballybofey on 17th February 2013.