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Front Row: Live from Belfast with Ruth McGinley, Conor Mitchell, Claire Keegan

Ruth McGinley, Conor Mitchell, Claire Keegan

Live from Belfast with Ruth McGinley, Conor Mitchell, Claire Keegan

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Live from Belfast with Ruth McGinley, Conor Mitchell, Claire Keegan

Pianist Ruth McGinley on her album AURA and Conor Mitchell on Propaganda:  A New Musical.

Front Row is in Belfast to hear about some of the highlights of the Belfast International Festival, including Conor Mitchell's new musical, Propaganda.

Front Row comes from Belfast where Steven Rainey hears about some of the highlights of this year’s Belfast International Festival.

Pianist Ruth McGinley talks about her new album AURA, a collection of traditional Irish airs re-imagined for classical piano. Ruth found success at a young age after winning the piano final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition but felt burnt out by the pressure and demands of life as a concert pianist.  She discusses her return to playing and the freedom she’s found in collaborating with other musicians and composers. 

Composer and theatre maker Conor Mitchell is known for his ground-breaking operas covering topics including the trial of Harvey Weinstein and homophobic comments from a DUP politician. His new musical, Propaganda, is set during the Berlin blockade and asks questions about the ransoming of supplies. He discusses Propaganda’s contemporary parallels and using a musical to explain political turmoil. 

Claire Keegan has been shortlisted for this year’s Booker Prize for her novel Small Things Like These.  Set in the 1980s in County Wexford, Ireland, at a time when the infamous Magdalene laundries were still operating, the book follows a coal merchant and father of five daughters who is faced with a moral choice.  

Presenter: Steven Rainey
Producer: Olivia Skinner

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Live from Belfast with Ruth McGinley, Conor Mitchell, Claire Keegan

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