Three new works by Jennifer Walshe will receive their first performances across Europe in August and September.

First heard in Israel in December 2007, i: SAME PERSON/ii: NOT THE SAME PERSON will be performed in a new arrangement for voice, ukulele and psalter by Walshe herself at the Kirche Rümlingen, Liestal, Switzerland on Sunday 31 August as part of the Festival Rümlingen. The work, says the composer, “explores extended vocal technique across a different intonation tuning system” and will be heard alongside works by Ukeorin O’Connor and Detleva Verens.

Part homage, part cover version, part “mash-up” of American rock icon David Lee Roth’s solo vocal in Van Halen’s Running With The Devil, the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart (who also commissioned the wok) will perform Paddy Reilly Runs With The Devil on Saturday 6 September in the St Evergisius-Kirche, Bonn, Germany as part of this year’s Beethoven Fest.

Commissioned with funds from the Arts Council, Thelma Mansfield is “a nod towards 1970s’ children’s Irish television”, includes a reference to the Angelus and is written with the theme – O, Horror Vacui – of this year’s reihe O Festival in Schwarzenburg, Austria in mind. It will be performed alongside i: SAME PERSON/ii: NOT THE SAME PERSON by the composer and the Berlin-based Trio Nexus on Friday 12 September.

For details, see our calendar.

Posted: 27 August 2008