“O’Riada” inspired performance by Pierce Turner

Pierce has always been influenced by Turlough O Carolan, the harpist from Sligo. They say that he married Irish traditional music to Italian romanticism. The Chieftains could’ve been his band but they were Seán O’Riada’s band instead.

O’Riada was to Irish children what Leonard Bernstein was to American children. They both did black and white television presentations for children. Bernstein was a brilliant pianist, composer and conductor. O’Riada was more inclined to play Harpsichord or harmonium and composed the masterwork score for the classic Irish Revolutionary movie “Mise Eire”. As Turner and Kirwan of Wexford performed their version of the main theme “Roisin Dubh” from the movie, on a treated Moog Synthesizer while opening for Pete Seeger at NYC’s Town Hall in the 70’s. Pete championed Turner and Kirwan from then on.

Pierce loved listening to Sean O’Riada playing the Harpsichord and talking about music on RTE (long live national television) it was the university he never attended. He received a tacit degree and now with the help of a star of Irish Cellist and wonderful singer Aongus MacAmhlaigh. Pierce would like to enjoy the content of his thesis in public – so to speak.

Many, many of Pierce’s songs have been influenced by Irish baroque composers, like O’Carolan and O’Riada.  Also by Sean’s son Peader, and his beautiful male choir-especially evident at the gorgeous Shane McGown funeral in Tipperary.

This will be a unique and sacred evening of music in tribute to the great O’Riada to behold in the intimate Wexford Arts Centre.  Limited seating.  Book in Advance.

Pierce Turner was born in Wexford, Ireland. The youngest of six children, his father Jem was a fireman, and his mother Molly had her own danceband and wrote her own songs. Pierce reckons that he become a musician because his mother wrapped the accordion around him when he was in the womb. He went from singing plainsong as a boy soprano to the tin whistle, and saxophone, to playing clarinet in The Holy Family Confraternity Brass and Reed Band. After teaching himself how to play piano, he discovered rock music and began writing his own songs, while working in the family record shop, where he also ran his own photography business. At seventeen, he got itchy feet and auditioned for an English/German soul band.

After playing organ and singing with seminal bands in Ireland and Germany, he set off for New York with his friend Larry Kirwan “To escape the restrictions of Ireland and self-inflicted restriction”. In New York Turner and Kirwan of Wexford were embraced by the legendary Pete Seeger, who singled them out as “the best new sound he’d heard” in an interview with Melody Maker (U.K). Billboard Magazine deemed their debut “Absolutely and Completely” America’s new and noteworthy album of the week.

Pierce later flew to London with the backing of the world’s most successful classical composer, Philip Glass, where they clinched a deal for Pierce’s solo career. His first solo album, “It’s Only a Long Way Across” was nominated for best debut by the New York Music awards and included the radio hit “Wicklow Hills”. He followed up with what Geoff Wallis called the stunning 1989 album, “The Sky and the Ground” after which a landmark Wexford bar is now named. Pierce continued to make another fifteen critically acclaimed albums, up to his latest “Terrible Good (StorySound, 2023), produced by Gerry Leonard (David Bowie, Rufus Wainwright, Suzanne Vega).

In the mid 90’s, Pierce was voted “Ireland’s solo performer of the year” by a panel of national critics.

“Easily one of the most important Irish artists of the last twenty years” The Irish Times

“Gestated in a tough, tenacious brew that begins with a bang and offers no let up throughout… a rugged repast that’s part and parcel of Ireland’s old country attitude” American Songwriter

 Seán Ó Riada was an Irish composer and arranger of Irish traditional music. Through his incorporation of modern and traditional techniques he became the single most influential figure in the revival of Irish traditional music during the 1960s. Ó Riada’s career began as a music director at Radio Éireann from 1954, after which he worked at the Abbey Theatre from 1955 to 1962. He lectured in music at University College Cork from 1963 until his death in 1971. He became a household name in Ireland through his participation in Ceoltóirí Chualann, compositions, writings and broadcasts. His best-known pieces in the classical tradition include Nomos No. 1: Hercules Dux Ferrariae (1957), but he became particularly famous for his film scores Mise Éire (1959) and Saoirse (1960). He left a lasting influence as founder and director of the ensemble Ceoltóirí Chualann (from 1961). His music still endures: his mass in Irish is still sung to this day in many churches in the Irish-speaking regions of Ireland.

Pierce Turner – Piano and vocals.

Aongus MacAmhlaigh on Cello and vocals and including local chorus.

Bookings  www.wexfordartscentre.ie Tel: 053 9123764