Dr. Kevin McNally is a musician, facilitator and composer from west Cork with research interests in ecomusicology, ethnomusicology, popular music and community music. In his composition and facilitation he focuses on work that involves non-professional musicians and encourages the use of sound to forge interconnection between humans and our ecosystems. As a community musician, he leads a gamelan ensemble in Skibbereen, Co. Cork as part of an innovative arts for health scheme.

He has recently completed a PhD in arts practice. His research considers sound as a form of ecological perception by highlighting the vibratory resonance that links performers, instruments and listeners in any sounding event.

As a performer he has played in traditional Irish music bands and rock bands. In 2010, he founded the West Cork Ukulele Orchestra, with whom he recorded, performed and led workshops at festivals all across the country. He has over twenty years’ experience as a music educator and workshop facilitator and has created concerts, installations and film soundtracks featuring new music for ensembles of non-professional musicians.

Kevin is also assistant director of the Irish Gamelan Orchestra. The professional gamelan ensemble has toured to Indonesia, and last year gave a run of performances in London’s Coronet Theatre with Gare St Lazare’s production of Samuel Beckett’s How It Is Part 2.

He currently teaches gamelan and Irish music in the Department of Music at University College Cork and The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick.

‘Ra Ra Rasputin’, performed by the West Cork Ukulele Orchestra, 2011, Dartmouth Square, Dublin, video by Myles O’ Reilly.
Performance by the Gamelan Orchestra, 2018, Skibbereen Arts Festival.