Laura Heneghan's Residency Reflections from ICON Arts Festival in Romania
In Summer 2025, CMC Emerging Composers Laura Heneghan and Santiago Kodela embarked on the CMC and ICON Arts Composer Residency at the ICON Arts Festival in Sibiu, Transylvania. Laura shares her experience.
Laura Heneghan and Santiago Kodela at their host accommodation, Copșa Mare House in Biertan.
In late July and early August, Santiago and I had the privilege of taking part in the Icon Arts Residency in Romania. We stayed in a small rural village outside Biertan called Copșa Mare with a lovely lady called Simona who welcomed us warmly and kept us well-fed with delicious, authentic Romanian food throughout our stay. We stayed at Simona’s with two other composers from Romania taking part in the residency, George and Anda, and also our mentor and pianist for the residency Mihai Murariu.
CMC Emerging Composers Laura Heneghan and Santiago Kodela with mentor Mihai Murariu (centre).
We hit the ground running on our first day arriving at 4am on Sunday and having breakfast at 8am to meet with Mihai and fellow composers also taking part in the residency. We weren’t as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as initially hoped for making first impressions, but soldiered on nonetheless! After a quick power nap, we had our first workshop with Mihai. We each had an hour to present our pieces, engage in group discussion, and receive feedback from Mihai and the composers. Of course, we had to break for lunch halfway through. The collaborative environment encouraged us not only to reflect on our own pieces but to learn from each other.
Later that day, we met with the flautist Matei Ioachimescu who gave us a very detailed workshop on the range of the flute, extended techniques, its limitations, and general considerations for writing. Again, we had the opportunity to go through our pieces, and Matei offered his feedback regarding what worked well and what could be improved. By the end of the jam-packed first day, we were both inspired and ready to work further on our pieces, and exhausted. The rest of the week was a little more relaxed. We had time to work individually and with Mihai if we needed guidance. On Tuesday, we had an online workshop with violist Ladislau Csendes, who also gave us individual feedback on our pieces.
The theme for the residency was the forest, with instrumentation for flute, viola and piano. Much of my work is centered around nature, so I was excited to get started! I titled my piece 'A Breath Between'. Through the music, I wanted to explore the subtle tension that lives in moments of stillness in the forest. While things may seem quiet and uneventful, in reality there are many minute things happening beneath the surface. The piece reflects these contrasting states in the forest, and particularly how even moments of stillness and quiet, there is always movement. To represent this, I used extended techniques on the flute such as whistle tones, bisbigliando, pitch bends, and air sounds. In the viola, I used harmonics, while in the piano I used glissandi directly on the strings. Together, these extended techniques created the unique atmosphere I intended, evoking the forest as a place where stillness and bursts of energy coexist. Because I relied on such a range of extended techniques, I felt I was taking a risk with this composition - I didn’t have an exact idea of the soundworld I was creating. However, I believe these techniques ultimately serve the piece well.
How could I get this far and not mention the weather! Unfortunately, the rain followed us to Romania, a little more than we are used to. On Monday afternoon as we were enjoying a deliciously prepared meal by Simona, we all received national alerts through our phones that there was a risk of flash flooding. That night, it rained extremely heavily and the temperature was in the low teens. Thankfully, this didn't last too long and we had the rest of the week to enjoy the Romanian sunshine at a bearable temperature.
The sights in Sighișoara, with George and Santiago.
Aside from composing, Icon Arts Festival provided us with a very special cultural experience and allowed us to discover parts of Romania we wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Many of the concerts took place in beautiful fortified churches in villages in rural Romania. Some were only 20 minutes away, while others were over an hour away. Thankfully we were lucky enough to have composers Mihai and George as our chauffeurs!
Sampling delicious Romanian cooking.
We visited and explored towns like Mediaș, Sighișoara, and Alma Vii which were all uniquely charming and rich in culture. Some of the concerts on offer included a percussion concert, a flute concert, and a singing concert - although I think the general consensus was that the percussion concert was the favourite! After an intense but very enjoyable week of composing, workshops, rehearsals, concert-attending, and sampling plenty of amazing Romanian food, our journey culminated in Sibiu for the performance reading of our works at the Philharmonic. This was a fitting and memorable close to a very enjoyable experience overall.
At the Sibiu Philharmonic, where flautist Matei Ioachimescu and pianist Mihai Murariu workshop Laura and Santiago's new works.
We're delighted that the pieces Santiago and I composed as part of our residency will have their Irish premiere in September as part of the InTERRActions tour from September 21st - 24th in Limerick, Dublin and Boyle. The programme is curated by composer and co-founder of the Icon Arts Transilvania Academy and Festival Diana Gheorghiu and will also feature contemporary works by Romanian composers Doina Rotaru, Șerban Marcu, Mihai Murariu, George Păiș and Anda Ștefania Baciu. We hope to see you there!
Words and photos by Laura Heneghan. For more details on the InTERRActions tour, see CMC Events here.
CMC wishes to warmly thank all the team at ICON Arts Festival for their collaboration and support throughout our 10 years of partnership.