The Curly Organ – The Ari Files

Donal McConnon, from Galway, Ireland, performs under the name of “The Curly Organ.” A multidisciplinary performer, Donal is a man of abundant energy and creative daring: a singer and songwriter; a performance artist; a visual artist; a video artist; a filmmaker and podcast producer, a poet and teacher…and a founding member of “Clowns Without Borders Ireland.”

McConnon is driven in all his endeavors by, what he calls, a “burning need to reach out into my direct environment and inspire a sense of play with whoever is there.” And for this rare event, Donal’s “sense of play” will come to us with this evening of music and performance, stories and songs, brought to—direct from Galway…by the one, the only…The Curly Organ!

Donal McConnon ( AKA T h e C u r l y O r g a n ) is a performance artist/song-writer/producer who has for one month successfully merged his everyday experiences with record production (4 EPs(2017)), who regularly has conversations with strangers through a non-verbal musical binary (Do You Speak Bell? (2018/2019)) and has developed an all-encompassing live performance making use of hand-drawn visuals and guided meditations. As a founding member of Galway band, My Fellow Sponges, he has released two albums and toured Europe extensively and played at prominent festivals, such as Electric Picnic, Longitude and All Together Now.

During The Pandemic Lockdown, Donal turned his attention to podcast production. Weaving together whatsapp voice messages from people in his community and the recorded music of local artists, the result was three wholly unique sonic meditations on topics such as Fear and Enlightenment. These were later followed up with Note-Waves (2021), prompting prominent Irish writers to reflect on the creative process.

As a visual artist Donal has, on two occasions, been commissioned to produce original work for TULCA: Festival of Visual Arts (2015/2021). As a workshop facilitator he has worked with corporate team-building retreats for the Lebanese-based company, Myditude, as well as training the Wavemaker volunteers with Galway 2020.

What seems to drive all of Donal’s work is a burning need to reach out into his direct environment and inspire a sense of play with whoever is there.

The Socially Distant Orchestra (2020-2021), is a walkabout improvised performance in which members of the public are invited to conduct a fully-improvised piece of music with a willing and enthusiastic 8-piece brass band.

Cat-Calling Outside AIB (2022-2023), is a public performance art piece where Donal, along with other musicians, interact musically with the movements of regular passers-by on a semi-busy street.

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