Features 2004

An Interview with David Fennessy [December]
David Fennessy talks to Johnny Rodger about his training as a composer and his involvement in an innovative new music project which he calls 'Ken'.

What's it like to be David Fennessy? [December]
A short, informal question and answer interview with David Fennessy.

An Interview with John Kinsella [November]

John Kinsella talks on video to Jonathan Grimes about his ninth symphony, his experiences as a composer in Ireland during the 1960s and '70s, and how he ended up writing so many large-scale orchestral works.

What's it like to be John Kinsella? [November]
A short, informal question and answer interview with John Kinsella.

An Interview with Jennifer Walshe [October]

Jennifer Walshe talks to Jonathan Grimes about her early musical experiences, her philosophy of composition, her work as an improviser and how this has shaped her music.

What's it like to be Jennifer Walshe? [October]
A short, informal question and answer interview with Jennifer Walshe.

An Interview with Gerald Barry [September]

Gerald Barry talks to Michael Dungan about his early musical education, his unique working methods, and his third opera, 'The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant'.

An Interview with Eric Sweeney [August]

Eric Sweeney talks on video to Jonathan Grimes about his work as a composer, his musical background, the danger of pigeonholing composers, and his interest in minimalism.

What's it like to be Eric Sweeney? [August]
A short, informal question and answer interview with Sweeney.

An Interview with Gráinne Mulvey [July]

Gráinne Mulvey speaks on video to Jonathan Grimes about her working methods, the need to be versatile as a composer, visual references in her work, and her desire to write an opera in the future.

What's it like to be Gráinne Mulvey? [July]
A short, informal question and answer interview with Gráinne Mulvey.

An Interview with Michael Holohan [June]

Michael Holohan speaks on video to Jonathan Grimes about his early musical experiences, his interest in poetry, living in the Boyne Valley and his involvement in community music.

What's it like to be Michael Holohan? [June]
A short, informal question and answer interview with Michael Holohan.

An Interview with Frank Corcoran [May]

Frank Corcoran speaks on video to Jonathan Grimes about his upbringing on a farm in Tipperary, his development as a composer and his feeling of exile, as a German resident, which forces him ‘to go further to the brink’.

What's it like to be Frank Corcoran? [May]
A short, informal question and answer interview with Frank Corcoran.

An Interview with Rhona Clarke [April]

Rhona Clarke speaks on video to Ita Beausang about her development as a composer, her music, and her working methods.

What's it like to be Rhona Clarke? [April]
A short, informal question and answer interview with Rhona Clarke.

An Interview with John McLachlan [March]

John McLachlan, approaching his fortieth birthday this month, speaks on video to Bernard Clarke about his music, his theories of composition and the continuity of tradition.

What's it like to be John McLachlan? [March]
A short, informal question and answer interview with John McLachlan.

James Joyce and Avant-Garde Music [September]
Scott W. Klein of Wake Forest University, USA writes about the influence of James Joyce on Avant-Garde composers.

“The distant music mournfully murmereth...” The Influence of James Joyce on Irish Composers [September]
In a paper originally presented at the Contemporary Music Centre's ReJoyce in Music Seminar in June 2004, the German musicologist Axel Klein examines the true influence of Joyce on Irish composers from the earliest known settings of his poetry to recent works influenced by his prose.

Box Office Killer? [May]
New music, many say, is death at the box office. But is this because of the way it is promoted? An open forum in the Contemporary Music Centre looked at some of the issues. Eve O’Kelly reports.

Irish Composers and the Media [February]
Does the media under-represent Irish composers? Is new music too difficult, too abstract for the media and their audiences? These and other questions were explored at a seminar held at the Contemporary Music Centre on 28 January. John McLachlan reports.

Living Music in 2004 [February]
Michael Dungan previews the forthcoming RTÉ Living Music Festival 2004 which features contemporary French music as well as a number of Irish premieres.