Caterina Schembri's 'Ode to Psyche' selected for the 2026 ISCM World New Music Days Festival in Bucharest
Photo: Caterina Schembri. Credit: Néstor Romero Clemente.
Caterina Schembri's 'Ode to Psyche' (2024-25) will represent the Irish Section at the 2026 ISCM World New Music Days Festival in Bucharest, Romania.
Schembri's piece was one of six works nominated by CMC Ireland/The Irish Section of the ISCM, following an independent panel review of the Irish Section's Call for Works in 2025. The Romanian Jury received 480 submissions for the festival programme, selecting 70 works by both established and emerging artists, representing 48 countries and regions, and a diversity of styles. The list of selected works was announced by The Union of Composers and Musicologists in Romania (UCMR) and the ISCM Romanian National Section (SNR–SIMC) and is available at the official festival website here.
'Ode to Psyche' for SATB choir was composed by Caterina Schembri as part of Choral Sketches, an artist development programme delivered by CMC Ireland and Chamber Choir Ireland. The piece was first performed by Chamber Choir Ireland with conductor Nils Schweckendiek at a public read-through in 2025.
Caterina shares the following note on her work:
The piece uses excerpts from 'Ode to Psyche' (1819) by John Keats as found in "JOHN KEATS AND PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY: Essential Poems" edited by Duncan Wu (Keats-Shelley House Rome, 2016).
The text is Keats’ personal adoration written for Psyche, the Greek Goddess of the soul. The scene is set while he walks through a forest and finds her statue: lost, hidden, decadent — he starts his adoration towards this forgotten figure with no shrine, promising that he will be her priest and will build her a temple in an “untrodden region” of his mind.
I am mesmerised by the striking imagery of this poem and also by the duality presented in it— on one side there is idea of the soul, the spiritual, and the infinite quality of the Goddess, and on the other there is the actual statue, marked by time, earthly and grounded. The poet tries desperately to bridge the gap between the two with his adoration. This piece is an exploration of that particular aspect of the poem.
With gratitude to Rhona Clarke, the Contemporary Music Centre, and Chamber Choir Ireland.
Caterina Schembri is an Italian-Colombian composer and producer based in Dublin. Described by the Journal of Music as as a new voice with a “distinctive sound”, her work is characterised by harmonic explorations, symbolic meaning, and different orchestration possibilities. Her music frequently engages with visual imagery and written word, often incorporating original texts. Schembri’s debut album 'Sea Salt & Turpentine', featuring Ficino Ensemble and Michelle O’Rourke, was released in 2024 under Ergodos, with a performance in the National Concert Hall of Ireland. She has composed pieces for a variety of ensembles including Ficino Ensemble, Tonnta, Chamber Choir Ireland, Lumiere Quartet, ConTempo Quartet, and the Spilliaert Trio. In recent years, Schembri has received commissions from New Music Dublin, Ergodos, The National String Quartet Foundation, The Museum of Literature Ireland, The Contemporary Music Centre Ireland, Sing Ireland, and the Department of Foreign Affairs.
The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) is an international network of more than 60 organizations in over 50 countries, devoted to the presentation, dissemination and interchange of new and contemporary music.
The 2026 World New Music Days Festival is hosted by the Romanian Section in Bucharest and is subtitled “Columna Infinita” after the famous sculpture by 20th-century Romanian artist Constantin Brâncuși. The festival will take place from 23-31 May at multiple landmark concert venues including the Ateneul Român, National Opera Bucharest and The Sala Radio amongst others. The artistic director for the 2026 ISCM WNMD is composer Dan Dediu and festival partners include the Romanian Ministry of Culture, Artexim, UNMB, New Europe College, Goethe-Institut Bukarest, the Cervantes Institute, the Austrian Cultural Forum, the National Peasant Museum, the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company, and TVR Cultural. For more information, visit the ISCM website here.