For two weeks in September, Dublin will be captivated by theatre, dance, music, visual art, live art and street performance from Ireland, and around the globe.

 

amiina is a band based in Reykjavík Iceland. At present the band counts six people - Edda Rún Ólafsdóttir, Hildur Ársælsdóttir, María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir, Sólrún Sumarliðadóttir, Magnús Trygvason Eliassen and Guðmundur Vignir Karlsson (aka Kippi Kaninus). The bands origins go back to the late 1990s when four girls studying string instruments at the Reykjavík College of Music formed a string quartet, playing classical music, but increasingly moving on to playing all sorts of music with various bands in Reykjavík. In 1999 the quartet joined Icelandic band Sigur Rós on stage.

 

Dutch violinist, conductor, and composer best known for creating an international revival in waltz music with his "Johann Strauss Orchestra".

 

Dave Rooney is a multi instrumentalist, singer/songwriter hailing from Dublin. A passionate musician, he has gigged across Europe for 15 years.

 

This exhibition will pay homage to the Dutch seventeenth-century artist, Gabriel Metsu (1629-1667) and his exquisite scenes of daily life, which rank among the finest of the Dutch Golden Age. It will also highlight some of Metsu's lesser known achievements in the fields of history painting, portraiture and still life. Metsu started his career in Leiden, where he painted biblical scenes on a large format. After his move to Amsterdam in the middle of the 1650s, he changed his specialisation to intimate scenes of daily life. As Metsu's style became more meticulous in the 1660s, he focused increasingly on representing the pastimes of the upper class. He died at the age of thirty-seven, having painted a varied oeuvre of more than 130 paintings. Few of his colleagues were as versatile as Metsu and his handling of the brush was almost unrivalled. Moreover, his paintings display a unique approach to daily activities, marked by a psychological interest in the people he portrayed. An accompanying catalogue will be published to coincide with the exhibition.

 

Michael Steven Bublé, born 9 September 1975, is a Canadian singer-songwriter and actor. He has won several awards, including two Grammy Awards and multiple Juno Awards. His first album reached the top ten in the UK and Canada. He found worldwide commercial success with his 2005 album It's Time, and his 2007 album Call Me Irresponsible was an even bigger success, reaching number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, the Australian ARIA Albums Chart and the European charts. Bublé has sold more than 25 million albums worldwide.