This year’s Sligo New Music Festival takes place from Friday 24 to Sunday 26 March in the Model Arts and Niland Gallery.

The featured composers are Luigi Nono and Morton Feldman, with major works by each composer forming the backbone of the programme (Nono’s La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura for solo violin and live electronics, performed by Ioana Petcu-Colan of the Callino Quartet, and Piano and String Quartet by Feldman, performed by the brilliant young British pianist Sarah Nicolls with the Callino Quartet).

As well as other works by the featured composers, there will be the world premiere of a major new Festival commission from Jürgen Simpson in collaboration with poet Sinead Morrissey for soprano, ensemble and live electronics, plus music by Kurtág, Ferneyhough and Siobhán Cleary.

There will also be a Critical Voices discussion panel, with expert guest contributors from the UK including Lamberto Coccioli from Birmingham Conservatoire, in conversation with Festival director Ian Wilson, Jürgen Simpson and Ioana Petcu-Colan, placing Nono and Feldman in a wider musical and aesthetic context.

The Festival is delighted to have as its guest artists the wonderful Callino Quartet and the highly acclaimed pianist and new music specialist Sarah Nicolls, as well as the brilliant flautist Nancy Ruffer and Ireland’s own excellent percussionist Richard O’Donnell. English soprano Nicole Tibbels will be the soloist in the new Simpson work.

This year’s Festival promises to be the best yet, and the warm and intimate surroundings of the Model will add to a very enjoyable experience. Concerts will take place in the Black Box performance space, with the exception of Nono’s La Lontananza, which will be heard in the atmospheric open environment of the building’s Atrium.

For details of the Irish works please visit the Calendar. For full festival details, go to its web site, www.modelart.ie/NewMusic/2006.html

Posted: 27 February 2006