Sebastian Adams announced as RTÉ lyric fm composer-in-residence

RTÉ lyric fm have announced Sebastian Adams as this year's composer-in-residence. Adams will be the third official composer-in-residence attached to the broadcaster, following from Linda Buckley and Elaine Agnew. As composer-in-residence, he will write several new works for broadcast on lyric fm, including Christmas carols, an orchestral suite, and a piece for use in school workshops, as well as new works for the RTÉ Orchestras, Quartet and Choirs. He will also write a blog on the lyric fm website, as well as take part in outreach programmes in schools and on radio.

"It's an incredible honour to have been invited to become RTÉ lyric fm's Composer in Residence, and one that was honestly completely unexpected. I have developed the view over the last couple of years that there is a lot more composers could be doing to help further the culture of classical (and of course contemporary) music in Ireland, and I'm excited about being given the chance to work with the people at RTÉ and put my money where my mouth is through outreach work, radio content and music written for the general public.

I'm also relishing the chance to write for some of the RTÉ Performing Groups over the next year, which is a dream come true for me (as it would be for any young Irish composer, I think). One of the specific works I will have to compose (one which I must admit I was initially dreading) is a popular suite for orchestra, and I'm already beginning to salivate at the prospect of attempting to jump through this challenging hoop in a way that is satisfying both for radio listeners and for myself.

Although this probably goes without saying, I am incredibly grateful to RTÉ for the faith they have put in me." – Sebastian Adams

Born in Dublin in 1991, Sebastian Adams is a composer, viola player, an organiser of concerts and new music groups: he is a former Chairman of the Irish Composers' Collective, and founder/director of Kirkos Ensemble. He studied composition at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and has studied with Karlheinz Essl in Vienna. Head of Music at RTÉ, Aodhán Ó'Dubhghaill, describes him as "very much in the vanguard of young composers in Ireland. He wants to communicate to his audience, is enthralled equally by the possibilities offered by writing for an eighty piece orchestra as by the role of technology in music making today."

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