Culture Night at CMC - Composer Hub Videos
CMC presents the Composer Hub project for Culture Night 2020. This project was devised with a view to developing practice among composers and specialist performers, in partnership with Kirkos Ensemble which CMC is currently hosting as an Ensemble-in-Residence 2020/21.
One of the main objectives of the Ensemble-in-Residence is to enable the ensemble to collaborate among themselves, and with other artists both within and beyond their art form, in the development of contemporary music and the creation of new work.
Five early career composers have been selected to take part in the project - Sean Ó Dálaigh, Susan Geaney, Darragh Kelly, and CMC 2020 Emerging Composers Áine Mallon and Ultan O’Brien. Each participating composer is being mentored by an established CMC composer requested by them. The mentors are Donnacha Dennehy, Ann Cleare, Deirdre Gribbin, Karen Power and Jennifer Walshe.
The participating composers have also been collaborating across a number of months with the Kirkos players (Hugh Murray, Yseult Cooper Stockdale, Miriam Kaczor, Hannah Miller and Tom Roseingrave), and their Artistic Director Sebastian Adams, in the development of new works in a series of workshops and recordings with a view to a live performance of the completed works, Covid restrictions permitting.
CMC’s Ensemble-in-Residence is an initiative supported by the Dublin City Council Arts Grants. Kirkos Ensemble is in receipt of an Arts Grant from the Arts Council of Ireland for this Ensemble-in-Residence project, and its participation in the Composer Hub project is also supported by IMRO Ireland.
An interview with Kirkos Ensemble’s Sebastian Adams and panel discussion with some of the mentored composers led by CMC Director Evonne Ferguson was streamed on Culture Night 2020.
Darragh Kelly
Composer performer Darragh Kelly, who is currently based in London, talks about his new work Fod for the project, in which he draws on snapchat culture, traditional Irish music and musical instrument protective covers, among other topics, for inspiration.
Describing his own work as music theatre, Fad is composed for violin, cello, flute, french horn and actor.
Darragh is being mentored for the project by Jennifer Walshe.
Susan Geaney
Kerry-born composer, improviser and sound artist Susan Geaney, who is currently based in Dublin, talks about her new work Tape Melt for this Composer Hub project and her difficulties in communicating her ideas through scores.
Based in meditative practices, Tape Melt is composed for violin, cello, flute, french horn and actor.
Susan is being mentored for this Composer Hub project by Karen Power.
Ultan O’Brien
Composer performer Ultan O’Brien, who is currently based in Dublin, talks about his new work Night Owl for this Composer Hub project and describes how musicians compete, in a sense, with the sound that he has in his head as a composer and how he enjoys his composition being ‘interrupted and changed’ by them.
Ultan acknowledges how valuable the workshops were in developing this composition for an actor (performing the role of the owl) and ensemble. Night Owl is composed for violin, cello, flute, french horn and actor.
Ultan is being mentored for this Composer Hub project by Deirdre Gribbin.
Áine Mallon
Composer performer Áine Mallon, who is currently based in Manchester, talks about her new work Meditation for this Composer Hub project, and describes how she used the workshops to draw on the performers’ experience of breath control and try out different ideas for this work.
With breath being used in a very focused way in a shared experience for both the performers and audience, this work is composed for french horn and baritone voice, and workshopped by Kirkos Ensemble performers Hannah Miller and Tom Roseingrave.
Áine is being mentored for this Composer Hub project by Donnacha Dennehy.
Sean Ó Dalaigh
Composer Sean Ó Dálaigh, who is currently based in Kerry, talks about his new work for this project and, currently focusing on transcription, how this new work is an experiment on transcribing purely visual means as instructions for the performer.
With the score consisting of a collection of drawings, paintings and collages based on baroque dance notation, this work will consist of a video with a soundtrack.
Seán is being mentored for this Composer Hub project by Ann Cleare.