A group of veteran musicians – some who had not played for years – took up their instruments for a performance at the National Concert Hall
A UNIQUE orchestra fills a room in The National Concert Hall, practising diligently with a composer.
The leader of the orchestra, Joe Csibi, says "if you think you're not going to make the note, don't play it," and then praises the 30 musicians after they play a beautiful rendition of Over the Rainbow.
The group is focused and excited to be performing at their first concert, planned for the following Friday. They are also up to 90 years old and some haven’t touched an instrument in decades before joining the orchestra.
“This is for the social aspect more than anything,” says Csibi, the leader of the project. “There’s no better place to be social than in an orchestra. You have to work together and are forced to participate.”
For the two Mondays preceding this rehearsal last Tuesday morning Csibi met interested musicians for “jam sessions”.
He wrote new arrangements for classic romantic songs such as When I Fall in Loveand What a Wonderful Worldto match their abilities as they arrived. Last Monday they had their first rehearsal and the following Friday at 3.30pm they are to perform at the National Concert Hall.
“How brave for the people to come in here and do this,” Csibi says. “It’s going brilliantly, and there is a huge effort being made.”
The project is part of The Bealtaine Festival of Creativity in Older Age, and The National Concert Hall hopes to host the initiative again next year. Some 86 per cent of festival participants says it improves their quality of life, according to Ann Leahy, assistant chief executive at Age and Opportunity, which co-ordinates Bealtaine.
This figure comes from a report released recently by the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology at the National University of Ireland in Galway, which found that the festival brings people together, makes them feel better, is beneficial for communities and has a positive impact on the arts.
“The research illustrates the benefits the Bealtaine festival brings to older people and to Irish society more generally,” says Eamon O’Shea, one of the professors who conducted the study. “In the longer term it provides enhanced quality-of-life, increased social interaction, inter-generational solidarity and community networking. The many benefits it brings to the artistic, cultural and social life of Ireland make a compelling case for the development of a dedicated arts policy for older people,” he says.
By 2036 the population of people aged 65 years and older will increase from 11 per cent to 22 per cent, according to the report.
Monica-Ann Dunne, 75, joined the orchestra after 30 years without playing piano. The Hall has a Steinway grand for her to play, which she cherishes as a special opportunity. She runs a hand over the top of it, wondering aloud what accomplished musicians might have played it before her.
“Playing an instrument can be quite a solitary thing, so the ensemble is extraordinary,” she says.
Dunne retired this year as the president of the National Federation of Pensioners Associations where she did advocacy work for older people in Ireland.
She says part of the reason this “incredibly ambitious” project is so successful is that it targets the elderly who are physically able to do things like play instruments.
She says there are 149,000 older people in Ireland living by themselves, many of whom are less physically able but who need to be reached out to, which is an enormous “challenge and opportunity” for Ireland.
Leahy says Bealtaine reaches people who would not traditionally be able to participate in the arts at all. It also makes people who live in homes aware that they have the right to participate in the arts. “People are demanding access to the arts.
“It’s very hard, without a lot of resources, to reach people who are confined to their homes but it is an area that we are interested in doing more work in,” she says.
“Growing old is a wonderful part of the journey,” Dunne says. “Ageing is a wonderful time of life. You have a lot of life experience and coping mechanisms, you’re not as fraught as you were when you were in your 20s.”
She says the orchestra is a “wonderful example of people ageing gracefully” and staying socially connected to others their own age.
Dunne started playing the piano when she was four years old. “I feel energised by the whole thing. I feel starved for music,” she says.
“This was the first time in years that I was among people who actually play instruments; it is like arriving at a desert oasis. It feels pretty great.”
She says that she had given up music partly because making a living was so hard in Ireland that it wasn’t easy to indulge in art forms.
Dennis O’Callaghan, who says he is the oldest person there but declines to give his age, has been playing the violin since he was eight.
He says the orchestra is a great opportunity to mix with other people near his age and play in a group rather than by himself. O’Callaghan, who was private secretary to Charles Haughey when he was the Minister for Agriculture in 1966, likes having the opportunity to make friends with the other musicians.
Writer Mary Russell took up saxophone about three years ago. “Everyone thinks the saxophone is dead sexy. I don’t know why, but I’m prepared to go on thinking that,” she says.
She says she is not nervous about the performance because she has “tolerant” family and friends who she has played for before. “The great thing is playing with all the people here, everybody says that.”
She points around the room where small groups of musicians have stayed behind to practise together during lunch. “It’s just evolving, which is marvellous.”
After lunch, one of the musicians stands up to announce that she is investigating a place to practise on behalf of a group of people who had expressed interest in continuing to rehearse after the concert.
There are murmurs of appreciation and excitement around the room at the prospect of keeping the orchestra together.