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Cello Concert Tour 2023

Music floated along the halls of Skibbereen Community Hospital this morning as Tess Leak and Diana Llewellyn brought their Cello Concert Tour to the hospital’s day room for residents and staff alike to sit back, relax, and enjoy!

The Cello Concert Tour, now in its third iteration, began last week in Schull Community Hospital, and will travel to Dunmanway Community Hospital and St. Joseph’s Ward, Bantry General Hospital in the coming days. 

Tess and Diana opened the concert with a piece by Tchaikovsky, bringing something beautiful and challenging to the hospital space. Later, residents sang along to old favourites like ‘The Galway Shawl’, ‘Somewhere’ from West Side Story, and ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love,’ with Tess playing a few of the songs on the autoharp. Tess said of the tour:

“This year on the cello tour our repertoire is more diverse than ever, with pieces by Offenbach, Breval and Vivaldi alongside arrangements of songs by Leonard Bernstein, Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley. There is hopefully something for everyone to enjoy and it is a pleasure to perform this music with another cellist in the Community Hospitals”.

Artist and musician Tess has developed a multi-disciplinary approach to arts participation since she joined the Arts for Health team in 2010. She has collaborated on a number of different projects with Arts for Health artists, and now enlists the support of guest musician Diana Llewellyn. Diana said of the experience so far:

“Taking live music into a hospital ward is a real privilege. Sharing our music with those that are unable to access live music easily is a joy. To see a brief smile or a foot tapping to the melody or lips moving to familiar words almost forgotten is the icing on the cake!”

Here are a few short videos of the duo’s wonderful performance – a perfect way to start the day!