I first moved to Ireland at the end of August, 2016, and I was amazed when a week or two later I received an email from a woman named Katharine Mac Mághnuis at the Athenry Music School, asking if I might be interested in composing something for the students there. Athenry was a only a short drive away from where I had moved to in County Galway, and Katharine had no idea I had just moved to Ireland! So the next thing I knew I was having lunch at Katharine’s house, discussing a commissioned work for the school.
For this occassion I wrote a piece called ‘When Everything Breathes’, for string orchestra and choir. I’ll be the first to admit that I may have written something a bit on the difficult side for these young students, but they did an amazing job with it, along with the help of the amazing Katharine conducting. I have just been sent this lovely video which I’m happy to share with you all, along with the choir lyrics below.
Everything that breathes
Has a wish for perfect air
And the air just wants to be appreciated
It goes both ways
Everything does breathe
And have a dream of perfect air
Dreams will take us where we long to be
And let us stay there
Breathing
Breathing
WoW! Loved that. No easy task for them but was really well performed.
Sounded like a Broderick composition 😉 Special. See you in August!
Beautiful, even the cough at 3:29 doesn’t disrupt anything. Love seeing/hearing kids getting involved in your music.