In 1956 composer Brent Parker left New Zealand on a ship called the Otranto, which was bound for France via the Suez Canal. He was accompanied by two other young pianists and their teacher, Frank Cooper, a philosopher-composer and a specialist in piano technique who wanted to go abroad in search of opera houses in Europe. The trip took five weeks, during which the ship called into Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Freemantle and Perth, Colombo in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Aden, Port Said and Naples.
The musicians disembarked in Marseilles. They ran into difficulties in France. All piano lessons ceased, Brent contracted tuberculosis and he spent six months in hospital in London, where he was visited by a representative of the New Zealand embassy and was cared for by an Irish nurse, who told him about an opera house in Cork. When he recovered sufficiently, he and the other pianists headed for Ireland with their teacher.
The group dispersed but Brent stayed in Dublin, eventually becoming a teacher at the DIT College of Music, now the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, where he remained for 25 years. He wrote two piano concertos, both of which he performed with the then RTÉ Symphony Orchestra. In 1998 he retired to Achill Island, Co Mayo with his companion, this diarist, and her then seven-year-old son.
Now Brent and an international group of musicians have organised Voices for Chernobyl, a benefit concert at St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin next Saturday, April 29th, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, which the United Nations has called the greatest environmental catastrophe in the history of humanity.
"It's such a big issue," the Dean's Vicar of St Patrick's Cathedral, the Rev Charles Mullen, says, "and it hasn't gone away." Since children continue to be affected in Belarus, Ukraine and western Russia, all involved in the concert, including the musicians and singers, organiser Aidan Byrne of AIB, PR woman Tara O'Connor and master of ceremonies Tim Thurston of Lyric FM, are donating their services. All proceeds will go to Chernobyl Children's Project International (CCPI), of which Adi Roche is executive director, Ali Hewson is patron and Sheila Byrne is executive manager.
The Dean's Vicar, who is hosting the event, notes that 20 years ago the cathedral held a service of commemoration after the accident at the nuclear reactor. Given the number of people from Ukraine living in Ireland at present, it was fitting that St Patrick's should remember the past, look to the future and affirm the work of CCPI, he says.
Joining forces for Chernobyl on the night are the boys and men of St Patrick's Cathedral Choir, directed by Peter Barley, organist and master of the choristers since 2002 and former director of music at St Marylebone in London, together with Resurgam, a chamber choir of up to 24 men and women established in 2003 and comprising some of Ireland's finest choral singers. Resurgam's director is Mark Duley, another New Zealander, from Napier, who came to Ireland in 1992 to take up the post of organist at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, where he remained for 11 years. He is now organist at the Collegiate Church of St Nicholas, Galway.
The major work will be Rachmaninov's Vespers, opus 37. Composed in 1915 while the composer was touring Russia to give concerts in support of the war effort, and based on ancient Russian chants, it is one of the greatest choral works of the 20th century.
The programme includes pieces by Britten and Shostakovich, and the premiere of Credo by Brent Parker, a choral work inspired by the liquidators, the name used to describe the 800,000 men conscripted into the Chernobyl area from the former Soviet Union to "liquidate" or stem the radiation. A short work, it is "an anthem leaning towards a hymn," the composer says. It will be performed by the two choirs and the Brass Ensemble from the Dublin Concert Band under Fergus O'Carroll.
"Music transcends all boundaries, all languages, allowing us to communicate at a deeper, more profound level," Adi Roche says. "Brent Parker's composition is a testimony to his passionate desire to mark the self-sacrifice of the liquidators. The intercession of these hundreds of thousands of young men - miners, soldiers, fire-fighters, pilots - is unparalleled in history. Their heroism cannot be overstated as they prevented a highly likely nuclear explosion."
More than 13,000 children from regions most affected by radioactive contamination from Chernobyl have come to Ireland for rest, recuperation and medical treatment over the past 15 summers. Eilis O'Friel, a mother of two from Ballyboughal, Co Dublin, took in Karalina from Belarus, then aged nine, for three weeks each year for four years under the auspices of the Skerries-based charity, Chernobyl Children Appeal.
"She thrived," Eilis says. Karalina arrived looking "fairly small and very quiet", and within a short time "she looked bigger". She was amazed by the goods in the shops. Karalina was careful with her belongings, unaccustomed to washing machines and reluctant to hand over her clothes for washing. If something got torn, she wanted it mended right away.
"It makes you realise how disposable we are," Eilis said, "how disposable we've become." Money raised from the concert will go towards CCPI's hospice and palliative care programme for children.
The Voices for Chernobyl concert is at 8 pm on Saturday, April 29th. For tickets (€20, concessions €15) see www.ticketmaster.ie or phone St Patrick's Cathedral at 01-475-4817.