Saxophonist Gerard McCrystal and guitarist Craig Ogden are to record Ciaran Farrell’s Shannon Suite for release on Chandos next year.

The duo will also be performing the work at the British Saxophone Congress at Birmingham Conservatoire on 13 February 2005.

The original solo guitar version of the Shannon Suite will also be included in an album of Irish contemporary guitar music issued by US-based publishers Mel Bay, edited by the Irish guitarist John Feeley.

A new Ciaran Farrell piece, Hopkins on Skellig Michael, is to be broadcast by Lyric FM at 3pm on St Stephen’s Day. The 36-minute orchestral work, based on a poem by Paddy Bushe, was commissioned by Lyric FM after receiving a letter from poet Seamus Heaney suggesting that Bushe’s poem would work well set to music.

Farrell is currently working on a piece for soprano saxophone and string quartet, commissioned by Gerard McCrystal and the Smith Quartet with funding from the Arts Council.