Elaine Agnew’s widely commissioned body of work ranges from opera, games/animated graphic novels and contemporary dance to orchestras and choirs, reaching audiences across the world from the BBC Proms and gamers to outreach workshop participants. Her music has been described as “compelling from beginning to end” (Edward Whitney, Bachtrack) with “a talent for melodic invention, a neat handling of fold idioms and an inclination towards wit” (Glasgow Herald).
Orchestras including Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Cuba, Magogo Kamerosrkest, Ulster and RTÉ Concert Orchestras and the Irish and Scottish Chamber Orchestras have all championed her work under eminent conductors including Jane Glover, Kenneth Montgomery, JoAnn Falletta, Jac Van Steen, Jaime Martín and Andrew Litton as well as ensembles such as the Škampa and ConTempo Quartets, Concorde, Ensemble Antipodes, Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble and Brass Band Oberösterreich.
Elaine’s substantial list of choral works include those for the Boston Children’s Chorus, Chamber Choir Ireland, Kaunas Chamber Choir, New Dublin Voices, Cappella Caeciliana, Ghostlight Chorus NY and Choral Scholars of UCD, working closely with directors James Grossmith, Lynsey Callaghan, Mary Amond O’Brien, David Hill and Desmond Earley. Soloists who have championed her work include pianists Iain Burnside, Simon Lepper, Finghin Collins and Angela Hewitt, violinists Isabelle Faust and Katherine Hunka and singers Jane Manning and Ben McAteer.
Her music has featured at the London BMIC Cutting Edge Series, the Spitalfields and Slovenian Unicum Festivals, RTÉ Composing the Island and Horizons Series, Is Arti Festival Lithuania, Barossa Music Festival Australia, Tilberg Festival, Charles Wood Festival, FairPlay Chamber Music, Valdres Sommersymfoni and Piano Biënnale as well as Berlin’s Classical:NEXT and performed in prestigious venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall and Czech Centre, London’s South Bank Centre, Wigmore and Royal Albert Halls and the Konzerthaus Berlin.
Collaborators include playwrights Veronica Coburn and Deirdre Kinahan, choreographers Jennifer Rooney and Fiona Quilligan as well as poets Michael Longley, Ciaran Carson and Jessica Traynor, who created the libretto for Paper Boat, an opera commissioned by Music for Galway and conducted by Sinead Hayes. With Vienna-based Game Developers Causa Creations, Elaine created the soundtrack for Songs of Travel (iOS and Android),
Her works feature on 18 discs including Signum, Metiér, Lorelt, Doyen, Hibernian Music, Diatribe, Black Box and RTÉ lyric fm labels and her choral music is published by Boosey & Hawkes, Cailíno Music and Seolta Music.
Upcoming premieres include a song-cycle at the Oxford International Song Festival as well as commissions from New Music Dublin, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and the Californian girls choir iSing Silicon Valley. Recent premieres include The Offing by the Belfast Philharmonic Choirs with a specially commissioned text by Sinéad Morrissey.
A member of Aosdána, Ireland’s state-sponsored body of creative artists, and former Composer in Residence with RTÉ lyric fm, Elaine’s 2012 BBC Proms commission Dark Hedges was premiered by Ulster Youth and Ulster Orchestras with international flautist Sir James Galway in London’s Royal Albert Hall and described by one London reviewer as ‘compelling from beginning to end’.
I like to write music which is direct: sudden disruptive jolts contrasting with ritualistic still textures and whispers. The gestures of the performers as they play give direction to my work.