Elaine Agnew has been announced as RTÉ lyric fm’s first Composer in Residence.

The appointment of the County Antrim-born composer will run until May 2009 and has been made in association with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra.

Elaine Agnew’s appointment is the result of a year-long selection process launched in March 2007. RTÉ says the scheme was established ‘to allow Lyric to build a relationship with someone who would not only write new music for broadcast, but also contribute to the station’s programming, education and outreach activities and website in the form of podcasts, a blog and other online events’.

A winner of RTÉ’s Composer of the Future prize in 1996, Agnew will write at least three pieces during her tenure, including the broadcaster’s contribution to the European Broadcasting Union’s Handel in New Clothes project and an orchestral work to mark RTÉ lyric fm’s tenth anniversary in 2009.

For more details, please visit www.rte.ie/lyricfm/composer.

Posted: 29 May 2008