A new CD featuring Deirdre Gribbin's music is released

A new album by composer Deirdre Gribbin will feature a number of her works for string quartet and soloists. Funded by a Music Recording Scheme award from the Arts Council and Music Network, the album, entitled Island People, will be released in March by NMC Records.

With this release, Gribbin explores the dual influences on her work, the Celtic folk tadition and its myths, and the city life she has embraced since she moved to London. The album opens with Merrow Sang (a 2007 RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet commission), followed by the title work, a four-movement song-cycle of texts by Séamus Heaney, performed by Vanbrugh, trumpeter Mark O'Keeffe and soprano Patricia Rozario. Poetry by Séamus Heaney also features on the disc with Anahorish, a work recorded here for the first time. Also featured on the album are Crossing the Sea, a setting 7th-century Chinese poetry, and the composer's string quartet What the Whaleship Saw.

Island People features as the CMC CD of the month for March.