The Context
Caldwell & Robinson is an all-Ireland law firm providing family law and corporate law advice for over 100 years, with offices in Dublin, Derry/Londonderry, and Belfast.
Walled City Music was founded as Walled City Music Festival in 2008 with the aim of bringing outstanding classical music making to the heart of cultural life in Derry/Londonderry. First held in 2009, Walled City Music’s summer chamber-music Festival (WCMF) has since attracted high calibre artists from around the world.
Both these organisations are driven by a strong commitment to developing the cultural offering of the city of Derry/Londonderry; the challenge was how they could deliver on this commitment in real terms…
The Solution
Caldwell & Robinson Solicitors first became supporters of the City of Derry International Choir Festival in 2018; this was prompted by their admiration of the scope, ambition, artistic quality and economic benefit to the city brought by the event. The Festival is a good fit with Caldwell & Robinson’s stated ambition to sustain and improve the cultural life of the city, through support of high-quality arts events; it is their goal to nourish Derry/Londonderry’s existing residents and attract new people to work in the city and make it their home.
In 2019, with matched investment from Arts & Business NI, Caldwell & Robinson sponsored the Festival’s flagship event, the opening gala concert. The gala featured the Festival Chorus, an ad hoc ensemble of around 100 singers drawn each year from across the choirs of Derry. The Chorus was formed in 2016, and has steadily grown in size and confidence under the direction of the Festival’s Artistic Director, Donal Doherty. The most recent concert was its most ambitious yet, featuring the choir in combination with the Ulster Orchestra, in a large scale performance of a work entitled ‘The Armed Man’ or the ‘Mass for Peace’, by the contemporary Welsh composer Karl Jenkins. The performance was led by the accomplished young conductor and 2019 Festival adjudicator Neil Ferris, and was held in the city’s principal civic space, the Guildhall, preceded by a Mayor’s reception for invited guests, stakeholders, funders and supporters.
The 2019 festival was the most successful yet, with more than 60 choirs participating from Brazil, Iceland, Latvia, Mexico, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Wales, England, and Ireland. It also included a community programme, Every Voice, which took choir singing out into local communities.
The partnership with Walled City Music enabled Caldwell & Robinson to fulfil their objective of improving the city’s cultural offering, whilst the opening night reception provided opportunities to invite guests and promote the firm’s brand at a high-profile arts event. It also offered opportunities for meaningful staff engagement during the run of the Festival.
“Caldwell & Robinson’s sponsorship participation in the City of Derry International Choir Festival allows the firm to be associated with brand values that we share, which are the bringing together seamlessly of global excellence and community engagement. Just like the Festival, we are proud to be headquartered in Derry, but embrace our connectedness with the global community.”
Philip Gilliland, Managing Partner, Caldwell & Robinson
”Caldwell & Robinson’s support of the Festival, the second year of the firm’s sponsorship with us, has meant far more than the monetary sums involved. It has sharpened our focus on the community side of our work, consolidated our key relationship with the Ulster Orchestra and enabled us to grow our sponsorship income well beyond 2018 levels, to 15% of turnover in 2019. We look forward to continuing this fruitful partnership into a third year in 2020.“
Matthew Greenall, Executive Director, Walled City Music
