CMC's New Notes project sees two string quartets being written for the ConTempo Quartet.

In a joint initiative between the Contemporary Music Centre and Galway Ensemble-in-Residence, composers Rhona Clarke and Gráinne Mulvey have been selected from a strong field of applicants.

New Notes aims to develop active dialogue between the ConTempo quartet and Irish composers, and build an audience for contemporary music outside the urban centres with which it is most often associated. It continues the good work of the successful New Music Connects initiative which the two organisations piloted in 2007.

As in 2007, Gráinne Mulvey and Rhona Clarke will again engage in a series of workshops with the members of ConTempo during the composition process, but this year they will also undertake associated workshops in secondary schools in the Meath and Roscommon. Their new pieces will then be premiered, with the school students in attendance, in the Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, and the Roscommon Arts Centre in March 2009.

The first workshop took place in Galway on 17 November 2008, during which the two composers got to meet with members of the quartet and discuss ideas for their pieces. The completed quartets will be rehearsed and discussed during the second and final workshop in February 2009.

The project is funded by the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon under the Projects: New Work award.

For further information on the project, please contact Aoife FitzPatrick, Promotion Officer, CMC. Tel. 01-673 1922 or email afitzpatrick@cmc.ie.

Photos from the first workshop, 17 November 2008, Galway