Yesterday, the Santa Ynez High School Vocal Ensemble, of which Oige was a member, performed the song ‘An Irish Blessing’ in his honor. Today, his family observed the anniversary of his birth together at home. Tomorrow, they plan to attend the Santa Barbara Peace Vigil and will donate blood and invite you to join them.

Thank you to everyone who sent cards or thoughts today. It is appreciated.

Happy Birthday Og

The evening before Oige died, he and Helen discussed schools Oige might consider applying to in the coming months. Among Oige’s top choices were Oberlin, Boston Conservatory of Music, Bard, Stanford, Yale, Peabody Institute of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, SF Conservatory, Jacobs at Indiana University, and UCSB.

The concert will be held at the Unitarian Chjurch at 1535 Santa Barbara Street in downtown Santa Barbara at 3:00pm. Tickets are $20 general admission and $9 for students. NPR will also be recording the performance for a later podcast.

Oige had been a member of the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony since 2002. He first played violin in the Junior Orchestra and then played the viola in the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony (and the Music Academy of the West’s MERIT Program).

The Youth Symphony’s Winter Concert will feature Rebecca Shasberger as cello soloist. The symphony is conducted by music director Andy Radford. The concert will begin at 3pm on November 22 at the Lobero Theatre.

Tickets prices:

• Adults – $15
• Seniors – $10
• Students – $10
• Children under age of 6 – free

Tickets are available at the Lobero Box Office, 963-0761, 33 E. Canon Perdido (map). The box office is open Monday through Friday from 10am to 5pm and on Saturday, noon to 5pm. You can also order tickets by phone or online.

Oige’s family wishes all the best to Oige’s fellow musicians of the orchestra and looks forward to attending the concert. Good luck to you all!

One project going on right now is the Prayer Flag Project. Prayer flags have been made in Tibet for centuries. Flags are carefully created with good intentions and they are hung in the wind. The wind carries the prayers written on the flags to the heavens. If you would like to make a flag for Oige, please visit the prayer flag page or consider attending the workshop on Friday morning after the tree ceremony (mentioned below).

Another project we’re in the process of setting up is an online scrapbook and wiki. This is at wiki.oigekeane.com and it will feature poems, songs, and stories Oige wrote as well as other information. Bear with us as this is under construction as we collect materials. If you have things you’d like to add to it, feel free to do so.

Also online is a streamable playlist of some of Oige’s favorite songs. Listen to it if you want to remember some of the artists he dug. It’s at oigekeane.com/opentape/.

Also, on Friday morning at 7:15am by the Little Theatre at Santa Ynez High School, a tree planting ceremony will take place and all members of the community are invited.

Soon we’ll have some photos online so check back occasionally. Thanks also for all your love and support. My family appreciates it.
Dia linn go deo,
-Liam

Oige on July 17, 2009, after being awarded the Margaret Monroe Brown Endowed MERIT Scholar award from the Music Academy of the West.

Permission is granted to use this photo for any purposes. Photo credit: OigeKeane.com