Children and Families

Attending concerts together is a great way for all generations to share the magic and joy of live music.

In 2012 we established a long-term strategic partnership with The Ark, a cultural centre for children, to develop new and original music performances specifically for children and family audiences.

The first co-commission, production and tour from this strategic partnership A Most Peculiar Wintry Thing by composer Brian Irvine and writer John McIlduff was presented for family audiences at The Ark and at nine other venues around the country in 2014 and was watched by 5,394 people.

In 2022 Brian Irvine was also commissioned to create Wires, Strings and Other Things a new show for children aged 6+. The show premiered at The Ark in Dublin in 2022 touring to 6 venues in Waterford, Ennis, Drogheda, Castlebar, Bray and Letterkenny before returning to The Ark for 22 further performances. The show was also presented later that year at the Lime Tree Theatre as part of the Future Limerick Festival, before travelling to Athens, Greece for a number of performances at the Big Bang! Festival and returned in 2023 as part of the Carlow Arts Festival.

The live music performances gave over 1,800 primary school children across Ireland the opportunity to see and hear these outstanding musicians perform brand new music on a range of instruments including the viola, bass clarinet and improvised musical instruments made from a variety of everyday objects. Following the live tour, Music Network and The Ark offered schools the opportunity to stream the show on-demand straight to classrooms. It was watched online by a further 11,200 children and 626 teachers, in 448 classrooms in 192 schools.