Mullingar artist Gordon Duffy, with his sketch portrait of Franz Schubert.

Collection of Schubert songs a real Mullingar team effort

The release of an album with new recordings of songs by the Austrian composer Franz Schubert was the result of a creative collaboration between two members of a well-known Mullingar family.

Paul Hughes

Published: Thu 29 Oct 2020, 10:59 AM

Last updated: Thu 29 Oct 2020, 11:32 AM

Celbridge-based mezzo-soprano Sharon Carty, whose mother is a native of Mullingar, recently teamed up with American pianist Jonathan Ware to record a collection of songs (lieder) composed by Schubert for voice and piano, which centre on the four seasons.

Sharon is a daughter of Angela Carty (née Duffy), who is from Mullingar, and a granddaughter of the late Paddy and Maura Duffy, St Brigid’s Terrace. While the Four Seasons project was released on the GENUIN Classics label in June, it required crowd-funding to cover the cost of recording and distribution.

With that in mind, Sharon came up with an idea – to devise a variety of rewards-based fundraising opportunities through the crowd-funding website, FundIt.ie, one of which would involve the artistic input of her cousin, Mullingar man Gordon Duffy.

Last August, Sharon commissioned Gordon to produce a one-off portrait of Schubert which could be sold on FundIt.ie at one of the higher pledge levels.

Gordon, an enormously talented artist (whose work is showcased on his Instagram page @gordon.duffy.art), spent seven months on the piece, which is titled ‘SchubART’ – a sketched portrait of the Austrian. A reproduction of first draft sheet music for one of Schubert’s songs, ‘Der Winterabend’ (which features on Sharon’s album) forms the background to the sketch.

“Gordon did an absolutely beautiful job, and a regular patron of opera in Ireland, Alan Ó Conchubhair, bought the art work, supporting both the CD production and Gordon’s art,” Sharon told the Westmeath Examiner.

The Schubert portrait was presented by Sharon and Gordon to Alan in Kilkenny recently, a moment captured on camera by Gordon’s dad, Joe.

Left to right: soprano Sharon Carty, opera patron Alan Ó Conchubhair and Sharon’s cousin, Mullingar artist Gordon Duffy. Alan bought a portrait of the Austrian composer Franz Schubert, produced by Gordon, which in turn contributed to crowd-funding for Sharon recently-released collection of Schubert songs for voice and piano.

Sharon and Jonathan hit their €11,500 for producing the album, which was recorded in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, England earlier this year. A launch was intended for the Goethe Institute in Dublin last June, but the Covid-19 pandemic put paid to those plans.

However, the album – which features nine Schubert pieces – is on sale and widely available online.

Sharon, who lived in Austria and Germany for 10 years, is an Artistic Partner to the Irish National Opera, is a creative associate on the Arts Council’s ‘Creative Schools’ Scheme.

She was recently appointed as associate artist on the Maynooth University campus, and later this month, will perform in ‘Mezzo Masterpieces’, an Irish National Opera initiative involving three live-streamed concerts from different iconic locations in Ireland.

Sharon’s concert will be broadcast from Castletown House in County Kildare on Hallowe’en night, Saturday next, October 31 (8pm). The programme includes suitably Hallowe’en-themed Baroque-era works by Vivaldi, Handel and Charpentier.

Gordon, who has been fascinated with drawing since an early age, takes 25-30 hours to complete his sketches. Inspired by the classical music theme, he is working on a portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach.