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A Conversation with Musician and Filmmaker Philip King
November 8, 2013 @ 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Free
Philip King is a curator and producer of bespoke cultural events, and a film director, writer, musician, broadcaster, commentator and contributor to national and international forums on the role and contribution of culture and arts in a world where we are more connected and more isolated than ever before.
In 1987, with writer and director Nuala O’Connor, he produced for BBC Television the groundbreaking and National Primetime Emmy award-winning series Bringing It All Back Home, the story of Irish Music and America, its extraordinary odyssey from kitchen to dancehall, from concert platform to international rock stadium and back featuring performances from Bono, The Everly Brothers, Ricky Skaggs, Emmylou Harris and Elvis Costello.
Since 1991, King has directed and produced numerous series, documentaries and events exploring Irish music and its international influence, including The Juliet Letters (1993), featuring Elvis Costello and The Brodsky Quartet. In 1994 came A River of Sound, a seven part documentary on the changing course of Irish traditional music for RTÉ and BBC Northern Ireland. In 1997, King co‐produced the soundtrack for the feature film This Is My Father starring Aidan Quinn, James Caan and John Cusack. In 1998 he directed The Joshua Tree, a Classic Albums documentary on the making of U2’s album of the same name.
As a documentarian, he has photographed every important Irish musician over the last 25 years.
King conceived and created Other Voices ‐ Songs From a Room in 2002. Originally presented by The Frames frontman Glen Hansard, and now hosted by Aidan Gillen (The Wire and Game of Thrones), the series has been through 11 iterations and has captured bare and intimate performances from Amy Winehouse, The National, Elbow, Ellie Goulding, Glen Hansard, Damien Rice, Jarvis Cocker, Snow Patrol, Ryan Adams, Florence and The Machine, Marina & The Diamonds, Laura Marling and many many more.
In 2011, Other Voices travelled to New York City to the heart of the East Village for what The New York Times called “Two Sides Of The Atlantic Meet In New York City”.
On certain nights in the tiny town of Dingle, Ireland, residents can hear the strains of music coming from an ancient church, with musicians from around the world having made the long journey to the Western most edge of the country. And on other nights – the local fisherman will swear by this – you can hear the distant sounds of Manhattan traffic leaping across the Atlantic into the mists just off the coast. Those two sounds, one improbable and the other probably mythic, came together for two nights late last week when ‘Other Voices’ came to NewYork.
David Carr – New York Times – November 1 2011
2012/13 saw the most dramatic evolution of Other Voices to date. It branched into a multi-location, globally streamed event with some of the biggest names in music taking to three separate stages in St. James’ Dingle, The Glassworks in Derry/Londonderry and Wilton’s Music Hall in London.
King conceived and curated two large scale productions during the last 12 months. In August 2012, a large scale production brought Notre Dame: A Welcome Home to a live audience of 10,000 and the show was streamed and televised live to an international audience of 5 million.
In March 2013, King directed Glaoch: The President’s Call, a television production commissioned by The President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins. The program celebrated an abundance of Irish music, literature, art and culture and was presented to the world on St. Patrick’s Day 2013.
Philip is currently developing Other Voices America. He continues to tour with his band Scullion and presents a weekly radio show, South Wind Blows, from RTÉ studios in West Kerry.
