New Music Dublin 2025: Evlana Ensemble 'A Memory'

Featuring: Evlana Ensemble with special guest Paula Meehan.

Evlana, with special guest Paula Meehan, presents a captivating programme spanning four decades, blending ensemble and solo works by Salvatore Sciarrino, Deborah Cheetham, Siobhán Cleary and Keiko Abe—all showcasing the extraordinary virtuosity of Evlana's performers. The concert takes its title from Gemma Peacocke’s haunting setting of a poem by Lola Ridge, the Irish-born, New Zealand-American activist and poet. 

Judith Ring’s 'The River Was Never Afraid', a Finding a Voice commission, receives its second performance and Dublin premiere. At the programme’s heart is the New Music Dublin/Evlana commission: a new work by Stephen Gardner, which sets Paula Meehan’s poignant elegy 'An Eagle Feather', written in memory of the late Dr Eilish Cleary. Paula Meehan introduces and reads her poem before the performance. Closing the evening is Joan Tower’s 'Petroushskates', a vibrant, rhythmically charged chamber work that captures the icy grace of figure skating alongside the playful spirit of Stravinsky’s Petrushka.

Evlana Ensemble is made up of some of Ireland’s most accomplished performers. It is a flexible group, with programmes ranging from smaller ensembles to a sinfonietta-sized orchestra. It was founded by composer Siobhán Cleary in 2015. Evlana places contemporary music at the heart of its programming and provides an opportunity for Ireland’s most accomplished performers and composers to produce and perform their work.

Presented by New Music Dublin.
Sponsored by RTE/NCH/Arts Council Ireland.

Programme

Keiko Abe - Wind in the Bamboo Grove (1984) Marimba
Gemma Peacocke - A Memory (2022) Soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion, vibraphone
Salvatore Sciarrino - Morte Tamburo for solo flute
Judith Ring - The River Was Never Afraid - Flute, clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, piano
Deborah Cheetham - Permit Me - for solo cello   
Stephen Gardner - An Eagle Feather - Soprano, flute, violin, piano. World premiere. Evlana & NMD commission
Siobhán Cleary - Andalusian Dog for solo violin
Joan Tower - Petroushskates (1980) flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano

Tickets

€17.50. Booking at New Music Dublin.