Six works by Ian Wilson will be performed between October and January
Three string quartets by composer Ian Wilson will be performed in Ireland during the month of November, together with performances of a number of other works between October and January.
Ian Wilson has written no less than fourteen string quartets, the last of which, Tribe, was commissioned by ConTempo Quartet with funds from the Arts Council of Ireland, and will be premiered by them at Galway City Library on 5 November.
Following this, the composer's quartet no 10, Across a clear blue sky will be performed on 11 November at the Belfast Music Society by the Benyounes Quartet. Written in 2009, the work was commissioned to mark the 70th birthday of Seamus Heaney and premiered that year by the Vanbrugh Quartet.
On 22 November, the Vanbrugh quartet return to Wilson's early works with a performance of his first string quartet, Winter's Edge, which they will perform at the FUAIM Concert series in University College Dublin. Finally in January, Her charms invited, string quartet no. 12, will receive its Irish premiere by ConTempo at the Con Brio concert series in Sligo.
Other performances this year include the last of three projects based on the main old-age diseases at the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, with texts by Belfast-based poet Leontia Flynn. Entitled Matter, the work is for narrator (Ingrid Craigie) and string trio (members of the Irish Chamber Orchestra), and follows the 2010 work Bewitched, for soprano and string quartet.
Also in November, the fourth movement of Wilson's work Heaven lay close, originally written for saxophone quartet and tabla and first premiered in the Netherlands in 2009, will form part of a programme to be toured by the Chatham Saxophone Quartet. The tour is in association with Music Network as part of the Young MusicWide Award, and will visit Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, Solstice Arts Centre in Navan, Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge, Duiske Abbey in Graiguenamanagh, Station House Theatre in Clifden and Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar.