Worthing-based cellist Carina Drury marks album launch with home-town gig

As part of a small release tour for the recording, Carina and her classical and traditional ensemble Irlandiani will be giving a live performance of the album at the Worthing Pavilion Atrium on September 16 at 6.30pm (tickets through Worthing Theatres).

The project has been funded by the Continuo Foundation and Angel Early Music.

As Carina says, the album draws inspiration from the musical life of 18th century Dublin at the Smock Alley Theatre and its neighbourhood, exploring connections between Italian and Irish musicians working there with the atmospheric, rich and earthy sound of multiple bass instruments.

“It relates to the first album which I did which explored the connection between Italian musicians and Irish musicians in the 18th century. For this album I have zoned in on Dublin and there was one particular musician that I was interested in, Giordani. He wrote a set of cello duets which were obviously of interest for me as a cellist but he also worked at the Smock Alley Theatre. Smock Alley was in Dublin and theatre was quite a big thing for people to do at that time. Dublin was quite a cultural hub back in the 18th century... and it still is! But there was a busy theatre and it's a place where people could go and experience music from all walks of life. The theatre was something that many people could go along to and in fact it has actually recently been refurbished and is still open. You can see the original building now which is quite nice. I've never played there but I would like to. I need to make those connections but the connection with the history when you walk through Dublin centre is really quite tangible when you see the building.

“For the album I started with the cello duets by Giordani which I have recorded with another cellist and I decided to focus on that bass instrument sound world. We have got the two cellos and I've got a friend who plays double bass. He came in and we did a lot of our own arrangements. There are some Irish tunes from the 18th century and I also wrote a piece of my own based on an Irish tune. The piece is called Caoineadh which means lament. The piece is based on an Irish air, The Lament of The Three Marys. But really the album is about exploring the connections and the cultural cross-over with Italian musicians incorporating Irish music and Irish musicians incorporating Italian so I thought it would be nice to do my own composition using my own musical language.”

Carina is originally from Dublin but moved to England 20 years ago when she came to study at the Royal Academy of Music: “And I ended up staying. I moved down to Brighton at the beginning of the pandemic – nicer than being stuck in London!”