Donnacha Dennehy in Canada

Donnacha Dennehy in Canada

Friday, 2 May 2014, 8.00pm

“magnificently energetic” (New York Times)
“a wonder to hear” (The Guardian)

Opening Canadian ears to a fresh new voice, Contact performs a portrait concert featuring works by the Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy on Friday, May 2, 2014 at The Music Gallery in Toronto. Highlighting the program is the world premiere of Turn, commissioned by Contact with funding from The Arts Council of Ireland.

A much sought after composer, Dennehy is also founder and director of Ireland’s Crash Ensemble. Contact’s Jerry Pergolesi was introduced to Dennehy’s music by composer and Bang on A Can co-director David Lang when both Contact and Crash were on the same bill at Bang on A Can’s New York Marathon: ”It’s refreshing to find like minded, kindred spirits in an often diverse world of new music, and it’s quite ironic that I had to go to New York to hear an Irish composer who I very much want to introduce to Canadian audiences” says Pergolesi.

Rounding out the program are other exciting works by Dennehy: Bulb, for trio; Overstrung for violin and audio track; Stainless Staining, for piano and audio track; and Glamour Sleeper, for quartet and audio track.

Listing Information:
Friday, May 2, 2014 8pm
The Music Gallery
$20/$10 members
Contact performs chamber music by Donnacha Dennehy
Box Office: 416-204-1080
www.contactcontemporarymusic.ca

Biography
Born in Dublin in 1970, Donnacha Dennehy has received commissions from Dawn Upshaw, the Kronos Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Bang On A Can All-Stars, Lucilin, Contact (Toronto), Electra, the Fidelio Trio, Icebreaker, Joanna MacGregor, Orkest de Ereprijs, Orkest de Volharding, Percussion Group of the Hague, RTE National Symphony Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra (BBC Radio 3), Smith Quartet, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players among others. Collaborations include pieces with the writer Enda Walsh (Misterman and a forthcoming opera), the choreographers Yoshiko Chuma (To Herbert Brun) and Shobana Jeyasingh, (Hinterlands), and the visual artist John Gerrard (Composition for Percussion, Loops, Blips and Flesh).

His work has featured in festivals such as the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in the UK (which opened its 2012 Festival with a portrait concert devoted to Dennehy’s music), ISCM World Music Days, Carnegie Hall’s Contemporary Music Subscription Series (in 2013 and forthcoming in 2014), WNYC’s New Sounds Live, Bang On A Can, Ultima Festival in Oslo, Musica Viva Lisbon, the Saarbrucken Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, and the Gaudeamus Festival in Amsterdam. In 2010 his large single-movement orchestral piece, Crane was ‘recommended’ by the International Rostrum of Composers.

Returning to Ireland after studies abroad at the University of Illinois (USA), Ircam (France) and the Netherlands, Dennehy founded the Crash Ensemble, Dublin’s now renowned new music group, in 1997.  Crash Ensemble is very much associated with the performance of many of Dennehy’s landmark works, including the pieces Grá Agus Bás (with the singer Iarla O’ Lionaird) and That the Night Come (with Dawn Upshaw) which feature on Dennehy’s 2011 release on Nonesuch Records (entitled Grá Agus Bás).  The Guardian, in a 5-star review of that disc referred to the music’s “startling freshness”. NPR named the disc one of its “50 Favorite Albums” (in any genre) of 2011.  In July 2012, Cantaloupe released an EP of his piano music, played by Lisa Moore. Previous releases include a number by NMC Records in London.

Normally a lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, Donnacha was appointed a Global Scholar at Princeton University in the Autumn of 2012.  He was also appointed composer-in-residence for the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in Texas (2013-14).

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Published by Toner Quinn 1 on 17 March 2014

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