“I am immensely proud that this centre exists in BT15. I used to walk past the building on the way home from school, when Belfast was still a wasteland for the arts, and think that creativity and the excitement around it was something that only happened in other places.”

One summer, when musician Conor Caldwell had just started working full-time in music, he brass-necked it, walked into The Duncairn, and asked Creative Director Ray Giffen if he would give him a space to teach fiddle to some local kids for a few days. It’s been Hotel California ever since for the musician, musicologist, QUB Teaching Assistant, and music tutor. He can check out, but he can never leave.

Any regulars to The Duncairn, or viewers of the Virtual Cabaret, will know Conor as a familiar face – as one of the people who connects the segments, as the MC, as a musician, even as a regular audience member on his nights off. However, with the present closure of the arts centre and the consequent creation of the Virtual Cabaret, Mr Caldwell has been working in a different mode with The Duncairn team. “I suppose most of the background work is being done by Ray [Giffen] and Barry [O’Kane - editor and producer] but I have been contacting and liaising with a number of the artists who have featured thus far and helped to promote the stream by doing some promotional slots on radio and so on.” The bulk of his work is done on a Friday though. That’s when they hold their socially distant production meetings, followed by Conor and co-presenter Lynette Fay working out how they proceed for the following day’s show.

It’s been a steep learning curve for Conor, more familiar with a live setting and a clear and present audience. “I've been trying to look at it as a challenge and I'm trying to get better every week and learn from my mistakes. Working with Lynette is brilliant as she is one of the very best out there at what she does - it's an amazing learning opportunity to study how she does things so naturally. I suppose I have a good bit of experience speaking in front of crowds, but more often with notes etc, whereas this needs to be more from the heart, so it's a challenge but a good one… There is a little more control in this environment so you have very specific slots to fill which I suppose can make it easier. In the live environment anything can happen, and you have to riff which can be challenging. On the flip side, because you're in total control it can be tempting to keep re-taking and re-taking in search of the perfect delivery, which is likely not ever going to come - the imperfections are sometimes what creates character in these things and I probably need to learn to live with these a bit more.”

If truth be told though, he wouldn’t have it any other way. As an artist, he knows first-hand how hard the current crisis has been on musicians, and is proud to be working on a project that can offer some support. “… creative people tend to live on a financial knife-edge... I think the time of year that this crisis hit is particularly devastating for the artistic community. If you consider how skint most people are after Christmas and then add in that January and February are largely dead months in the creative sector, people were only really starting to get out and earn in the month of March, after which there is a dash through April-August to earn your keep for the year through the festival season. It's now abundantly clear that live entertainment in person is going to be out of the question for not just the next 6 weeks, but maybe many more months than that. It's not just a case of once the regulations are relaxed that everyone will surge out again. Vulnerable people will still be cocooning - I think especially older people who are very loyal concert goers - and once things get back up and running there is no guarantee that people will be confident to land into a venue with 100 seat etc. I think that's why we need to make a strong start to moving performance into different arenas and build infrastructure to support artists over the summer. I think it's also essential that the Arts Councils etc., are proactive in telling festivals etc., to move their offerings online and that financial support is kept in-place for this year and not simply deferred until 2021.”

So, for all of that alone, the Cabaret is worth the hard work. However, there have been other highlights for Conor as he has worked on the series. “I think seeing the reality of where people live and make their art has been amazing,” he explained. “Highlights have been all the babies running about and getting involved and the wide variety of music we’ve put together. All the performances have been amazing, but it has been really great to see some musicians playing outside of their ensembles - I love solo music and Alannah Thornburgh's harp solo in Episode 2 really blew me away.”

The initial episode of the Virtual Cabaret, not only featured Conor as a host of the show, it also boasted a one-off performance by the musician as he performed a couple of reels - The Glen Road To Carrick, and The Silver Spear. “The one place I would love to be but can't is on The Glen Road to Carrick which is this beautiful 10km stretch around the back of Sliabh Liag in southwest Donegal where I spend a lot of time with my amazing wife Sarah. Every time we go up, we drive around that stretch, swerving around the sheep and taking in the views. The story goes that the famous Doherty clan were walking that road back in the early 1900s and stopped at a bridge to play a tune together. There was no name for the tune, so they called it The Glen Road to Carrick, and it stuck.”

Conor Caldwell is knowledgeable of his craft and its heritage, a talented musician, and a growing light in Irish traditional music. When he approached The Duncairn’s Creative Director Ray Giffen about a space in the centre that would enable him to teach fiddle to local children, the pair agreed a rate for hire of the room. However, that deal fell through. “ [Ray] refused to take any money off me at the end of the week… he gave me an unbelievable amount of support in opportunities to perform. His ethics, and those of all the team behind the scenes really captured me. From there we built a friendship that eventually turned into the Club 50/Club 100 series and general gig promotion. I think it's important to say that I am immensely proud that this centre exists in BT14/15. I used to walk past the building on the way home from school when Belfast was still a wasteland for the arts and think that creativity and the excitement around it was something that only happened in other places. But The Duncairn has given new life to this area of our city and is such a force for good that I'm delighted to stay involved and help in any way I can.”

The Duncairn Virtual Cabaret will continue throughout May with the support of sponsors NIAVAC. You can tune in every Saturday from 8.30pm on Facebook and YouTube.

Images by Stanislav Nikolov with additional stills from The Duncairn Virtual Cabaret