Derek Bell

Although most widely known because the harpist using the Chieftains, Derek Bell’s career carries a raft of musical achievements and credits extending in to the worlds of both traditional and folk music — and he didn’t begin playing the harp until he was in his thirties. A significant body in music education in addition to music efficiency, Bell could very well be the best Irish harpist on earth, and did more to raise the device to an even of worldwide respectability before a wider viewers than every other musician today. Delivered George Derek Fleetwood Bell in Belfast in 1935, Bell was the boy of a normal Irish fiddler, from whom he received his first musical schooling. His very own musical inclinations, starting at age group nine, had been originally aimed in formal traditional direction. Being a youngster, he regarded the harp to become “an incentive for goodness to become performed in heaven.” He used the piano and discovered the xylophone, and became an extremely proficient reed participant, excelling in the oboe and cor anglais. Bell received a qualification with honors through the Royal University of Music in London in 1957, along with a Bachelor of Music level from Trinity University in Dublin 2 yrs afterwards. His initial musical post was behind the moments, as supervisor of the town of Belfast Symphony Orchestra in 1957. He started his performing profession in the oboe as well as the British horn (cor anglais), with which he proved helpful being a soloist with different ensembles thru the middle-’60s. Bell used the harp in his early thirties using the encouragement of Alan Tongue, the musician/composer/arranger who later on introduced him towards the Chieftains. He required his 1st lessons from Sheila Larchet-Cuthbert in Dublin, on a musical instrument he lent from your Irish Arts Council, and later on analyzed with Gwendolyn Mason in London. During this time period, he also offered as chorus repetiteur and deputy chorus grasp from the North Ireland Radio and Television Orchestra, under his previous instructor David Curry (1899-1971), a post he kept from 1965 until 1976. In 1970, he became a member of the faculty from the Belfast Academy of Music and Dramatic Artwork as a Teacher of Harp and Irish Harp. In 1975, Bell also started a career like a harp soloist, touring internationally. Nonetheless it is at 1972 that Bell required on probably the most noticeable musical activity of his profession, when he became a member of the lineup from the Irish folk group the Chieftains, simply with time for the documenting of their recording Chieftains 4. Bell’s introduction — which coincided with your choice from the Chieftains to become full-time profession after many years of semi-professional activity — and his existence on harp, oboe, and dulcimer significantly extended the number of the group, which acquired acquired a big following in Britain and, through the middle-’70s, became a global phenomenon. Their following record, Chieftains 5, their initial released by Isle Records in Britain and America, received even more exposure than some of their prior work, along with the group’s appearance in the soundtrack of Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon that same season, which gained them intensely radio play. A tour of america allowed the Chieftains to determine themselves on a fresh continent with thousands of brand-new fans. Partly because of his association using the Chieftains, Bell’s single albums, which time in the ’70s onward, have already been readily available in the us, not merely at shops providing to Irish and general Celtic passions but better general curiosity record stores aswell. With the entrance from the compact disk, his old albums have already been found for license in the us by the cultural area of expertise label Shanachie Information. Bell’s prominence was in a way that he became the concentrate and subject matter of several tv shows in Britain, including Derek Bell’s Concert Party for the BBC, where he was highlighted playing ten musical instruments. His curiosity about Irish folk music provides resulted in his writing many agreements of traditional Irish folksongs for different size ensembles. He in addition has composed many traditional works, and organized others produced from numerous cultural resources, including Hungarian and Peruvian dances; the Toccata Burlesca (a documenting which, with Bell playing eight devices, has been produced), two symphonies, and collection entitled The Violet Fire, and many functions for single harp and orchestra. His use the Irish harp, in repertory varying across many hundreds of years, offers helped elevate it from near extinction to 1 of the very most much loved of folk devices. Together with his use the Chieftains, Bell continuing in his educational function, teaching and playing in to the fresh century. Bell passed away suddenly on Oct 17, 2002 after going through minor surgery in america.