Young Longford musicians launch ‘Live and Lyrical’

Music Generation Longford, is delighted to announce the release of a new compilation album of original songs titled “Longford Live and Lyrical” which has been compiled by a group of young Longford Musicians.

Featuring musicians from Music Generation Longford programmes, the Live and Lyrical album is a compilation of original pop, rock, country and songs.

The original songs were composed during the Music Generation Longford Live and Lyrical programme; a series of songwriting workshops with young musicians to guide them to the next level of their music journey.

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The programme was designed to guide young musicians to compose and preform an original piece of work. Students worked alongside experienced, well-known, professional songwriters and producers to explore songwriting techniques.

The group met across seven sessions with professional songwriters including Longford’s Aidan Gray and Emily Doyle and renowned Irish spoken word artist Dafe Orugbo.

Throughout the sessions, the musicians learned specialist songwriting skills, expanding their creative thinking to create a vision for their original pieces.  The young musicians worked together to compose original songs which were recorded for a final compilation.

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Speaking about the programme, 15-year-old Dearbhla Gannon from Longford Town said “It was an inspirational experience which honed my abilities. It made me more confident in my songwriting abilities.”

Echoing this statement, 17-year-old Kyle Togbe from Longford Town praised the expertise from the professional musicians facilitating the programme “It’s opened my eyes to what I am capable of. Each of the musicians brought something different. I learned a lot with Dafe about the basics of how to produce a song. Aidan and Emily gave us a lot of creative space and really worked with us to explain when we weren’t sure of anything.”

Liam Doherty (15) from Ballinalee, spoke about the confidence it’s given him, “This experience helped me discover who I am as an artist. I found my style and confidence.”

The compilation will be launched on May 29 in a private end-of-term Music Generation Longford concert.

It will be available to stream on Spotify and Apple Music.

Music Generation Longford is managed by Longford Local Music Education Partnership, led by Longford and Westmeath Education and Training Board in partnership with Longford County Council. The Longford Live and Lyrical Programme was made possible with support from the Arts Council Creativity and Collaboration Fund”.