Mayo County Council announce award and bursary recipients for 2018

Mayo County Council Arts Service has announced the recipients of awards and bursaries for the 2018 Music Recording Assistance Award, Amateur Drama Award and Tyrone Guthrie Regional Bursaries.

Kathy Fahey and Michael Quinn are this year;s recipients of the Music Recording Assistance Award.

The response to the call for applications has shown once again the breadth and the quality of music making in the county.

There was a fantastic cross section of genres, and the high calibre of applicants made the selection difficult work for the assessment panel.

The Music Recording Assistance Award was established to support the recording of original music by musicians living in the county and the recipients receive up to €800 towards the costs of an original music recording.

Kathy Fahey is a conductor of music and choral director, based in Castlebar, working with and teaching eight choirs and one orchestra weekly. 

The award will go towards the recording of six orchestral compositions that will be part of a show that will premier in Mayo and travel to New York.

Michael Quinn is an organist, pianist and educator, with a passion for new music, improvising and experimenting. He has performed across many internationally renowned venues.

He will be recording a CD of new music for organ, Coastal Sounds, to include a new work by Louisburgh resident Anthony O’Brien, Episodes for Organ and his own composition, Six Mayo Scenes, inspired by the Mayo landscape, and by the Harry Clarke window of St Patrick’s Church, Newport, where the recording will be made.

Clann Machua, the amateur drama group from Kiltimagh have been awarded the Amateur Drama Award for 2018. Clann Machua was formed in 2010 and has become very active in the local community.

The group has a Youth Theatre to ensure the tradition of drama is passed to the next generation. Rehearsals are currently taking place for The Loves of Cass Maguire which we intend to bring on the 3 Act Circuit in 2019.

The writer, Morag Prunty, and musician Daragh Quinn are recipients of residencies at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig, County Monaghan.

The Tyrone Guthrie Centre is a residential workplace for artists, dedicated to supporting and facilitating creativity and is the largest residency of its type for artists in the country.

As a fiddle player, guitarist and songwriter Darragh Quinn has performed across the UK and Europe with a diverse range of projects including his own solo project Lost Architect. He is currently completing a course in electronic music production in Strasbourg, France where he is exploring the boundaries where traditional and electronic music meet.

Born of Irish parents in Scotland, Morag Prunty began her career as an editor on many of Britain’s most successful young women’s magazines before returning to her native Ireland in the 1990’s to edit Irish Tatler.

In 2000 she left and began her career as a full-time writer. She writes fiction under the pen name Kate Kerrigan, and her historical and era novels have been translated into over 20 languages. Morag lives with her husband and two sons in Killala, County Mayo.

Describing herself as a ‘writing evangelist she also teaches Creative Writing at National University Ireland Galway (NUIG). 

Mayo Arts Service wish the very best to all recipients. These awards and bursaries reflect some of the opportunities for professional artistic development that Mayo Arts Service provides to arts practitioners in Mayo.

The Arts Service recognises the rich contribution which artist make to the cultural life of the county. The range of applications for this award highlights the wide range, quality and diversity of established and emerging arts practitioners and groups in Mayo.