Composer Ed Bennett has been awarded the new Ireland Romania Cultural Foundation scholarship.

The award, which was set up in cooperation with the Contemporary Music Centre, will enable Bennett to travel to Romania four times during 2009 to work with the distinguished Romanian composer Dan Dediu (b. 1967), professor of composition and rector of the University of Music, Bucharest.

The opportunity also carries a commission to enable him to write a new piece for Professor Dediu's contemporary chamber ensemble, Profil. This will be premiered and recorded in Romania and it is hoped that it can be heard in Ireland at a later date.

County Down-born Ed Bennett works in the fields of notated, electronic and improvised music. He has been commissioned and performed internationally by many artists, ensembles and organisations, including the BBC, RTÉ, PRSF, Music Network, Moving On Music and the Arts Councils of England, Ireland and Northern Ireland. In 2008 he was composer in residence at the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris and is currently based at Birmingham Conservatoire where he is active as a teacher in the composition department.

The Ireland Romania Cultural Foundation promotes understanding between the two countries through cultural exchange. The composer scholarship is complementary to the John O'Conor Scholarship, established by the IRCF in 2007, which enables a young Romanian concert pianist to study with Dr John O'Conor in Ireland.

The Contemporary Music Centre welcomes these strengthening ties with Romania, which will augment its ongoing relationship with the ConTempo String Quartet, originally from that country but ensemble-in-residence in Galway for the last six years.

The Ireland Romania Cultural Foundation Composer Scholarship is supported by Coca-Cola Romania.

Posted: 8 December 2008