The fourth Sligo Contemporary Music Festival, which looks back to Queen Maeve and Irish mythology for inspiration, starts tonight in a novel way with performances from a sean nos singer and a group of schoolchildren.
Pupils from St Patrick's National School in Drumlease, Dromahair, Co Leitrim, working with contemporary composer John Buckley, and with rain sticks, triangles and glockenspiel, will perform a rhythm composition on the themes of land, sea and air. The free Music of the People concert will also feature the Sligo town band and sean nos singer Colm O'Donnell.
Later the Vogler Quartet, currently in residency in Sligo, will perform works by Haydn and Irish composer Ian Wilson as well as the Irish premiere of Wolfgang Rihm's Quartet No.1.
Tomorrow's lunchtime concert features Dutch soprano Judith Mok and Irish-language poet Gabriel Rosenstock.
Later in the evening members of the National Symphony Orchestra will perform the premiere of the Arts Council-commissioned Wind Quintet Sweeney's Wind Cries, composed by Frank Corcoran, artistic director of this year's festival.
All events take place in the newly refurbished Model Arts and Niland Gallery. For more information contact 071-41405.