Dawn Upshaw and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra premiere a new work in the US by Donnacha Dennehy

The work, If he died, what then, will be performed on 10-12 February 2012 in St Paul and Minneapolis by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) and soprano Dawn Upshaw.

If he died, what then, is based on an eyewitness account of the Great Famine in Ireland by an American writer, Asenath Nicholson. The book, Annals of the Famine in Ireland, chronicles the horrifying effects of the Great Famine on the Irish population and Dennehy’s work focuses on the story of an interaction between an old man trying to feed his starving family and a government-appointed officer in charge of the distribution of the food to the starving.

This is the second work which Donnacha Dennehy has written for Dawn Upshaw. That the Night Come was premiered by the American soprano and the Crash Ensemble in 2010 and was subsequently recorded and released last year on the Nonesuch label.

Another one of Dennehy’s works will also receive its premiere in late February. One Hundred Goodbyes (Céad Slán) is a 25-minute string quartet specially written for the Kronos Quartet and will be premiered by the quartet on 28 February 2012 at the Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall, New York.

Listen to an interview with Donnacha Dennehy about the work ‘If he died, what then’
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