Ronan Guilfoyle’s ‘Life Cycle’

Ronan Guilfoyle (bass) Michael Buckley (saxophone) Chris Guilfoyle (guitar) Jim Black (drums)

In March 2018 one of Ireland’s leading composers and jazz musicians and a major figure in Irish musical life for several decades, Ronan Guilfoyle reached the milestone of turning 60 years of age. To mark the occasion, Ronan has composed a suite of music called ‘Life Cycle’, and assembled a world class ensemble to perform it.

Ronan has had a very full and creative life – married at a young age, self taught as a musician yet ended up writing music for symphony orchestras, touring the world with some of the greatest musicians in jazz, recording more than 50 albums, and founding Ireland’s first non-classical performance degree programme. The Life Cycle suite will explore Ronan’s life, both personal and musical, and will represent it though the medium of jazz composition and performance

The group performing the suite will include Ireland’s finest saxophonist Michael Buckley, Ronan’s son Chris who is making a name for himself as a leading Irish jazz musician in his own right, and the great US drummer Jim Black

“Despite our best efforts to contol it, our lives are often improvised as we deal with everyday occurrences. ‘Life Cycle’ will also be both composed and improvised, and in so doing will mirror both the controlled aspects of our lives and the spontaneity necessarily contained within it. The audience will hear material that is the same each night, as well as improvised music that will only occur on the nights they are there – unique moments in their lives as well as ours. My, and our life cycle is a combination of planned and unplanned events, with many surprises along the way – this piece will reflect that aspect of all our life cycles.” Ronan Guilfoyle