Cashel Day-Lewis is a composer and violinist steeped in both traditional Irish and Baroque music. Their inspiration is primarily drawn from their background in traditional Irish music, time spent living in Ireland, and historically-informed performance.
Having recently completed a Bachelor of Music in Composition at Oberlin Conservatory, Day-Lewis is currently based in Dublin, where they can be sighted bartending and playing the fiddle.
Cashel Day-Lewis' NCH commission Missing Ballbough will be performed by Crash Ensemble in the National Concert Hall on Saturday 12th April as part of the NCH's Cruellest Month season of concerts.
We asked Cashel for their choice cultural picks...
FILM
For a long time, my favourite film was A Serious Man by the Coen brothers — I only say "was" because I’ve seen it so many times now. The performances are all great, the writing and dialogue is drily funny and just relentlessly infuriating in the best way. The score, by Carter Burwell, is a masterpiece. It accentuates the existential unease and questioning at the core of the film.
MUSIC
One album I’ve had on repeat at the moment (that is the way I tend to listen to music; obsessively), is Deadly Buzz | Aoibhinn Crónán by Mick O’Brien and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh. It’s a beautiful addition to the long tradition of pipes / fiddle albums, with the twist of dark, sweet tuning— I think the pipes are pitched at B-flat and the fiddle might be as well. Gorgeous sets and really soulful playing.
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BOOK
I’ve been devouring books since I finished my undergrad, so it’s hard to choose, but I Could Read the Sky by Timothy O’Grady, about the thousands who emigrated from Ireland to England and were never able to come back, is incredibly powerful and beautifully written. I couldn’t read anything for a while after it; it’s just one of those books. More recently, I read Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, a book which felt appropriate for this transitional period of my life.
THEATRE
One of my favourite plays, at least of contemporary ones, was written by a friend of mine, Zoe Senese-Grossberg: At the End of the World. It’s set in New York in 1938, just after Kristallnacht, and explores Jewish identity in the face of American antisemitism. Currently, with the catastrophic human rights crisis in Gaza, I think it’s as relevant as ever, just in a different light.
TV
I just finished The Sopranos a few months ago and watching that was just one feast after another. Almost every single episode was beautifully shot and meticulously edited so that it was, in the end, quite a strange piece of art. The music, too, never missed once. I enjoyed every crazy minute of it.
GIG
The Netherlands Bach Society is performing Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in April, in the Netherlands, and I’ll be seeing them (and hearing the piece live) for the first time! It’ll be my first time in the Netherlands. I’m also looking forward to the tulips.
ART
The last art piece I found really moving was Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party at the Brooklyn Museum. It was my first time there, and seeing all of these women represented so abstractly and yet with such reverence — especially since I had just finished reading both Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and Orlando — was very powerful.
TECH
I think the app I use most, outside of WhatsApp, Instagram etc., is voice memos. There are so many tunes out there that I have to learn and, in my head at least, if I record them, I can learn them that way. Listening back to the three-hundred-odd recordings is going to be another story... My tuner app is very handy as well.
THE NEXT BIG THING...
Trees. My friend, Steve Doody, is a multi-media artist and activist who also does a lot of work planting trees and doing workshops on how to plant trees. Steve is a one-of-a-kind person. We need many more like him, and many more trees.
Cashel Day-Lewis' Missing Ballbough will be performed by Crash Ensemble in the National Concert Hall, Dublin on Saturday 12 April as part of The Cruellest Month - find out more here.
