Deirdre McKay

(b. 1972)
Photo
Rory Moore

"exceptionally imaginative in the sound world she creates" Irish Examiner

From rural County Down, Deirdre's work has featured at London’s Southbank and Wigmore Hall, The Phillips Collection, Washington, Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam, Orléans Concours International, Gothenburg International Chamber Music Festival, The National Sawdust, Brooklyn, National Concert Hall, Dublin, Symphony Space & Carnegie Hall, New York.

Recipient of a Director’s Choice Award from Boston Metro Opera’s International Composers’ Competition and an Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s Major Individual Artist Award, Deirdre received a coveted Paul Hamlyn Composer Award, London, in 2018. In December 2023, Deirdre’s work represented Ireland at the ISCM World New Music Days, Cape Town, South Africa.

Recent performances include her Dublin International Piano Competition commission, Ash, performed by Danny Driver at Oxford’s Smorgaschord Festival, Litany to the Magdalene Dead commissioned and performed by Deirdre Brenner with Lotte Betts-Dean, West Cork Chamber Music Festival; GlasDrum Winter Chamber Music Festival commission setting Seamus Heaney’s The Owl, for The Fidelio Trio and soprano Daire Halpin, Ficino Ensemble winter tour of her Beckett Centenary Festival commission and performances by pianist Andrew Zolinsky in Dublin, London, Spain and at the Dark Music Days Festival, Iceland.

Previous commissions and performances have included works for Northern Ireland Opera, State Choir Latvija for Louth Contemporary Music, BBC Singers, Chamber Choir Ireland, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Boston Firebird Ensemble, Norwegian Vertavo, Swiss Terpsycordes, Vanbrugh and RTÉ Con Tempo string quartets, Access Contemporary Music Chicago, New Music Dublin, Sound Festival, Aberdeen, RTÉ’s Composing the Island and Living Music Festivals; Musici Ireland, Dutch violist Elisabeth Smalt, Calefax Reed Quintet, Finnish pianist Antti Siirala, Chloë Hanslip & Danny Driver, Darragh Morgan & Mary Dullea, Mairéad Hickey & Fiachra Garvey, Dušica Mladenović & Ian Wilson, Catherine Leonard & Hugh Tinney, Tasmin Little & Martin Roscoe, Ruth Morley & Laura Bowler, Clíona Doris, Robin Tritschler, Concorde and the Crash Ensemble.

Former Composer in Association to the Northern Sinfonia’s affiliated Young Sinfonia, Deirdre completed her bachelor and masters in music at Queen’s University, Belfast, and the University of Manchester, supported by a British Academy Award. She completed her doctorate in composition, on scholarship at Queen’s University, with Piers Hellawell. Whilst living in Dublin, Deirdre studied privately with Kevin Volans.

Her work has been incorporated by filmmaker Des Bell into three films, featuring at the Venice Film Festival, Dublin International Film Festival and Montreal World Film Festival. Collaborations have included new work with visual artist Jean Duncan and writer/ actor Richard Dormer.

Her music has been released on the Métier, Lorelt, Diatribe and RTÉ Lyric FM labels and broadcast by BBC Radio 3, Deutschlandradio Kultur and New York's WNYC and WQXR.

Events