The first of two workshops for the Contemporary Music Centre and Galway Ensemble-in-Residence’s joint project New Music Connects took place in Galway on 30 March 2007.

New Music Connects is a collaborative project between the Contemporary Music Centre and the Galway Ensemble-in-Residence. It is funded by the Arts Council/An Comhairle Ealaíon’s Project: New Work Award Scheme 2006.

The project enables three Irish composers to compose a new string quartet for the ConTempo String Quartet by collaborating with the quartet at a number of workshops and through ongoing communication. The composers selected to participate in the project are Ed Bennett, Rob Canning and David Flynn. The new works will be performed by the ConTempo String Quartet at a concert in Galway and Dublin in December 2007.

The workshop started off with a traditional flavour, with composer David Flynn bringing along traditional fiddle player Liz Coleman to participate and show the quartet some traditional Irish playing techniques that the composer hopes to use in his piece.

Ed Bennett experimented with some sketches for a piece and talked with the quartet about his idea for a work inspired by the paintings of artist Bridget Reilly.

Rob Canning explored different ideas he had for his piece, including calling on the members of quartet to improvise at certain stages throughout the workshop with various vocal sounds.

Each composer had a completely different take on the brief and came away with lots of new ideas and concepts to include in their works, thanks to the informal and collaborative atmosphere of the workshop. The next stage of the project will be a public workshop with the quartet and composers in Galway on 28 September 2007.

For further information and updates on how the project is progressing, check out our New Music Connects blog or contact Aoife Fitzpatrick, Administrative Assistant, The Contemporary Music Centre, 19 Fishamble Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 8. Tel: 01 673 1922 or email afitzpatrick@cmc.ie.

Posted: 9 May 2007