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For Immediate Release

The Contemporary Music Centre | Culture Night Programme 2011

5pm - 6pm | Launch of Concorde' concert series Up Close with Music.
6pm - 10pm | Live music and installation programme with the Spatial Music Collective.

8 September 2011

This year The Contemporary Music Centre celebrates Culture Night, 23 September 2011, and its 25th anniversary by bringing its entire building alive with music, inside and out, top and bottom, and in every room, inspired by the past, rooted in the present and looking to the future. The Centre' Culture Night programme 2011 also celebrates its historic location beside the site were Handel' Messiah was first performed.

Music will emanate from the front steps, the top floor window, the entire stairwell, the courtyard, the ground floor platform for performance space, the library and the gallery space.

The music programme, primarily influenced by Handel, and consisting of live music and sound installations, has been devised by Spatial Music Collective composers Enda Bates, Brian Bridges, Jonathan Nangle and Linda Buckley in conjunction with the Centre. An exhibition, Up Close with Concorde, celebrating 35 Years of Concorde contemporary music ensemble will feature a display of posters, programmes, photos and music and has been devised by Jane O'Leary to complement Concorde' forthcoming music series Up Close with Music.

Taking a journey throughout the Centre, Jonathan Nangle', solar activated installation entitled Trip the Light Fantastic will be experienced in the Centre' courtyard. Once inside Brian Bridges' sound installation, Collapsing Old Buildings, a microtonal extension and deconstruction of a processed sound clip from a 1916 recording of Messiah, will run up the entire stairwell leading visitors into the many different spaces in the building alive with music.

Dr. Cliona Doris, harp, will perform two specially written works for the night from Irish composers, Enda Bates and Linda Buckley. Cliona will perform in the library on the hour throughout the night, starting at 7pm. Enda Bates' piece for harp and live electronics, An Overture, an Elegy for G.F.Handel, is a reimagining of the overture to Handel's Messiah and is dedicated to the composer on the 270th anniversary of the completion of this famous and much loved work. Linda' piece, their sound is gone out, continues the theme of Handel, using original text from Handel' Messiah and is for harp, voice (Linda Buckley) and electronics. A second electronic piece by Enda, inspired by Handel, will also be played throughout the night through a hidden loudspeaker at the front of the building.

The Centre' gallery space at the very top of the building will exhibit Up Close with Concorde, a celebration of 35 years of Concorde contemporary music ensemble. This multi-media exhibition and Concorde' forthcoming music series Up Close with Music, funded by an Arts Council Project Grant Award 2011, consisting of 6 performance events in Dublin, and the commissioning of 6 new works by Irish composers will be launched by Dr. Cliona Doris in the Contemporary Music Centre at 5pm, prior to the Culture Night programme starting at 6pm.

"This year to celebrate our 25th anniversary we wanted to have a very special Culture Night programme and to bring the entire Centre alive through music. Through our partnerships with the Spatial Music Collective and Concorde contemporary music ensemble, CMC will be alive with music on Culture Night and we encourage everyone to come along and experience the many different aspects of what new music has to offe" says Karen Hennessy, Promotion Manager, The Contemporary Music Centre.

The Contemporary Music Centre is Ireland's national archive and resource centre for new music, supporting the work of composers throughout the Republic and Northern Ireland. The Contemporary Music Centre engages in an ongoing programme of development work to promote new Irish music at home and abroad.

The Centre celebrates 25 years in 2011 and the Culture Night programme is part of a series of celebratory events throughout the year. The Centre is supported by the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

The Spatial Music Collective is a group of like-minded Dublin-based composers working in the field of spatial music. Over the past four years, they have presented performances of new musical works with a dynamic and novel spatial component, incorporating both electronic and acoustic forces. www.spatialmusiccollective.com

Concorde contemporary music ensemble was founded in 1976 to promote new music on a regular basis and this November 2011 continue with a series highlighting past repertoire and specially composed pieces by Irish composers.

Culture Night is an initiative co-ordinated by Temple Bar Cultural Trust and supported by the Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism in partnership with the regional arts offices and local authorities. For full details of all events visit www.culturenight.ie.

For further details contact Karen Hennessy, Promotion Manager, The Contemporary Music Centre, 19 Fishamble Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 8. T: 01 673 1922 E: khennessy@cmc.ie
www.cmc.ie

Notes for Editors

The Contemporary Music Centre | Culture Night Programme 2011

5pm - 6pm Top floor gallery space

Launch of Up Close with Music and opening of Up Close with Concorde by Dr. Cliona Doris
A multi-media exhibition celebrating 35 years of Concorde contemporary music ensemble

Jane O'Leary | Up Close with Concorde

Jane O'Leary has been resident in Ireland since 1972. A member of Aosdána, Ireland' state-sponsored academy of creative artists, she holds a PhD in composition from Princeton University and an Honorary Doctor of Music Degree from the National University of Ireland. She has been artistic director and pianist of Concorde since its inception, is artistic director of Music for Galway and currently teaches composition at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama.

6pm - 10pm Groundfloor, Stairwell, Courtyard, Library and Top floor

Live Music and Installation Programme with the Spatial Music Collective

Jonathan Nangle | Trip the Light Fantastic  - sound installation 6pm - 10pm

Jonathan Nangle is a composer whose work explores many diverse fields ranging from notated acoustic and electro-acoustic compositions, through live and spatially distributed electronics, to video, interactive sound installation and electronic improvisation.
www.jonathannangle.com

Brian Bridges | Collapsing Old Buildings - sound installation 6pm - 10pm

Brian Bridges is an experimental composer and electronic musician from Dublin, currently based in Derry City where he lectures at the University of Ulster's School of Creative Arts. His main field of musical interest is microtonal composition—music for intervals smaller than standard note divisions—and he has explored this field through diverse media and forces.
www.brianbridges.net

Enda Bates | An Overture, an Elegy for G.F.Handel - Cliona Doris (harp) and live electronics (premiere) 7pm, 8pm, 9pm, 10pm
Electronic work - inspired by Handel' Messiah (premiere) 6pm - 10pm

Enda Bates is a composer, musician & producer based in Dublin, Ireland. In 2010, he completed a PhD in composition at Trinity College Dublin, where he now lectures. His music includes both acoustic, and electroacoustic contemporary music, and the use of spatially distributed sounds and electronics are major features of his work.
www.endabates.net

Linda Buckley | their sound is gone out - Cliona Doris (harp), Linda Buckley (voice), live electronics (premiere) 7pm, 8pm, 9pm, 10pm

Linda Buckley is a composer from the Old Head of Kinsale, currently based in Dublin. She holds a Ph.D in Composition from Trinity College, where she also lectures. Linda' work is performed widely nationally and internationally and she has recently been appointed RTÉ Lyric FM Composer in Residence 2011/12.
www.lindabuckley.org

Dr. Clíona Doris
Cliona Doris is one of Ireland' leading concert harpists. Clíona has extensive experience as a soloist and chamber musician. She has performed throughout Ireland, Britain, Europe and the United States. Clíona is Head of Orchestral Studies at DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama in Dublin.

For further information on these and other Irish composers and performers see www.cmc.ie