New Ross Festival 2015 commissions five more works for the Ros Tapestry project

The New Ross Piano Festival, directed by Finghin Collins, marks its tenth event this year with an ambitious four-day programme of established performers and Irish debuts. The Festival also continues its Ros Tapestry commissioning project, featuring specially commissioned new works by Irish composers for the festival.

The Ros Tapestry is a unique community project started in 1998, involving over 150 volunteers hand-stitching a 15-panel tapestry telling the Norman history of Wexford, and in particular, the founding of the town of New Ross. For the Festival commissioning project, each of these 6 x 4 foot panels forms the basis and inspiration for a new work for solo piano by an Irish composer; last year the composers were Gerald Barry, John Kinsella, Elaine Agnew, Sebastian Adams and Gerry Murphy. 2015 is the second year of commissions with five new composers responding to five different tapestry panels: Eric Sweeney to Evening – the Lighthouse at Hook Head; Linda Buckley to William Marshall, the flower of chivalry; Sam Perkin to The marriage of William Marshal and Isabel de Clare; Deirdre Gribbin to Ex Voto: Tintern Abbey, William Marshal’s stormy crossing  to Ireland; and Andrew Hamilton Hunt in the Forest of Ros. The works, commissioned with funds from the Arts Council, will be integrated into the festival programming.

For more information about the Ros Tapestry project, visit www.rostapestry.com. For more information about the New Ross Piano Festival, see newrosspianofestival.com. The Festival takes place 24 – 27 September.