Composer Gráinne Mulvey has a two very contrasting ‘centenary’ commissions reaching fruition shortly. The first is from Trinity College, Dublin, for a fanfare for two trumpets and organ to celebrate the centenary of the admission of women to Trinity. This will be premiered at a special Honorary Degree ceremony on 9 July to honour women who have made a contribution to all facets of life in Ireland and abroad.

The second commission relates to the centenary of the Fastnet Rock lighthouse off the south-west coast of Ireland. The Commissioners of Irish Lights have commissioned a new work from Mulvey to be premiered in June 2004 in celebration of the completion of the lighthouse, an extraordinary feat of civil engineering constructed four-and-a-half miles offshore at the gateway to the Atlantic ocean.

Mulvey, who is currently Head of Composition in Dublin Institute of Technology Conservatory of Music, will be a guest composer at this year’s Maynooth Summer Composition School in August 2004. She will also be a jury-member for the Guido d’Arezzo International Composition Competition in Italy in June.