New Notes

Video of the second workshop of the New Notesproject, a collaboration between the Contemporary Music Centre and Galway Ensemble-in-Residence, recorded on 11 February 2009.

New Notes aims to develop active dialogue between the ConTempo String Quartet and Irish composers, and build an audience for contemporary music outside the urban centres with which it is most often associated. It continues the good work of the successful New Music Connects initiative which the Contemporary Music Centre and Galway Ensemble-in-Residence piloted in 2007.

Composers Rhona Clarke and Gráinne Mulvey were commissioned as part of the project to each write a string quartet for the ConTempo Quartet, and the works received workshop performances in GMIT, Galway on 11 and 12 February 2009. The workshop, which took place in front of a group of students, enabled the composers to meet with the quartet members to discuss their pieces and allowed them to hear their music and make any changes before the first performances.

The composers will also undertake associated workshops in secondary schools in the Meath and Roscommon prior to the performances. Their new pieces will then be premiered, with the school students in attendance, in the Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, and the Roscommon Arts Centre on 18-20 March.

New Notes is funded by the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon under the Projects: New Work award.

The views expressed in this video are those of the persons concerned and are not necessarily the views of the Contemporary Music Centre.