See the Music, Hear the Art

Name: See the Music, Hear the Art
Start: 2026-09-18T20:00:00+01:00
End: 2026-09-18T23:00:00.944000+01:00
Location: The Séamus Ennis Arts Centre

About the event

As part of Culture Night, the Séamus Ennis Arts Centre is delighted to welcome acclaimed violinist, visual artist and educator Ioana Petcu-Colan for a unique and intimate evening of music, art and conversation inspired by her current exhibition, Refractions.

Well known to Irish audiences as a performer, collaborator, educator and Leader of the Ulster Orchestra, Ioana's creative curiosity has led her beyond the concert stage and into the world of visual art. Her drawings have been exhibited at both the Royal Ulster Academy (RUA) Annual Exhibition in Belfast and the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) Annual Exhibition in Dublin, as well as online and in print. Alongside her work as a visual artist, she continues to explore the rich relationship between sound and image through improvisation and collaboration with her violin.

Reflecting on her creative practice, Ioana says:

"As a highly-trained classical musician but mostly self-taught visual artist, I'm really curious about the push and pull between what's learned and what's intuitive. The thread across my various collaborations is this elasticity between the known and the unknown."

"Drawing parallels; colour, tone, texture, range, composition, palette, light and shade, dynamics, structure, perspective, form and narrative are relevant in both music and visual art, as are materials – wood, hair, metal, paper, graphite, ink."

"Continually finding new points of comparison and overlap, my current focus is on exploring alternative forms of expression that merge visual art and music in unusual and personal ways – through my drawings, graphic scores, violin-playing and collaborations."

Refractions is a deeply personal collection of memories, associations and reflections on Ioana's life as a professional musician. In this special Culture Night event, visitors are invited to experience the exhibition through the artist's eyes, guided by her insights, stories and live violin performance.

Blurring the boundaries between the visual and the musical, this is a rare opportunity to explore the connections between sound and image, to see music, hear art, and discover the creative space where the two meet.

This event is free of charge, but advance booking is essential as places are strictly limited to 25 attendees.