How To Collaborate

Do you write? Do you play music? Are you curious about how to take the next step and collaborate on creative projects? Join us for a workshop facilitated by composer/performers Michael Gallen & Patrick O'Laoghaire. In this workshop participants will explore new and existing ideas both individually and collectively. We will be inspired by music, spoken word, written word & imagery. Our intention is the creation of a space to work with different artistic elements in an enjoyable day of collective making. We will also have a discussion about the experience of life as a professional artist/maker/creator.


This event has limited capacity.
It is designed for young adults aged between 15 - 21 years.

If possible, we ask that each participant submit some piece of creative work or an idea as a springboard for the day. (Note; this need not be a 'completed piece' at all- a few lines of writing, a piece of music- original or otherwise).

About the facilitators

Patrick O'Laoghaire
Described as one of Ireland's "most exceptional musicians" by the Irish Times, O'Laoghaire performs at the piano with improvised set lists and often changing arrangements. There is an elemental, instinctive nature to his work. He has toured with and opened for Bon Iver, Anna Calvi, Lisa Hannigan and Villagers, and was invited to take part in the People festival where he collaborated with This is the Kit, Feist, Little Scream and Damien Rice.O’Laoghaire translates his everyday engagement with life into his music. It is quite full of references to birds, land, light, water, love.
There is a timelessness in their delivery that reaches back to somewhere distant and at the same time, lands in the now: “I saw this written in the scriptures – I saw this written in your face.”

Michael Gallen
Michael Gallen is an Irish composer, writer and performer. Works of note include Wilde Stories, a suite for the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and Cór na nÓg responding to Oscar Wilde's fairy tales; What You Forget, a large-scale choral work commissioned for the Ireland 2016 project and Session, a co-creation with dance artists Colin Dunne and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui which toured across the main stages of Europe in 2019/20, including an Irish premiere at the Abbey Theatre. Michael also recently created and directed At a Loss, an opera-film starring soprano Orla Boylan, for Irish National Opera’s “20 Shots of Opera” project.

His opera Elsewhere, the company’s maiden production, premiered at the Abbey Theatre in November 2021 to critical acclaim, created in co-production with the Abbey, Once Off Productions and French ensemble Miroirs Étendus. The opera was nominated for the 2021 Fedora Prize.
Michael has been a recipient of a numerous Arts Council awards including a Next Generation Bursary, as well as several prestigious national and international residency opportunities. He has been commissioned to compose an evening-length piece for the Orchestre Nationale de Bretagne in 2024.

This event is supported by EXCEL Youth Arts from Mayo Arts Office.