Following a call for submissions in October, Crash Ensemble has announced the five music creators that will take part in its Crash Works development programme for 2023–2025.

The five are Aoife King, Aleksandr Nisse, Cathal O’Riordan, Lara Weaver and Tim Doyle who have each been commissioned to write a work for Crash that will be premiered at the New Music Dublin festival in 2025. While working on the piece, they will receive artistic and professional support and development through workshops and experimentation with the ensemble’s musicians and creative team.

Crash Works creators
The five artists have a range of backgrounds. Aoife King is a composer and multidisciplinary artist based in County Cork. She completed a BMus degree in MTU Cork School of Music in 2022 and is currently undertaking a Master of Arts in Composition at the same institution. She has had a number of performances of her works including Ticcing featuring members of Crash Ensemble at Cork School of Music (2022), and Awakening with the Inclusive Music Ensemble (2023).

Aleksandr Nisse is the Titular Organist of St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral in Dublin. He has studied organ with Susan Landale in Paris, keyboard studies with Louis Robilliard at the Conservatoire National de Region de Lyon, and with Nicolas Kynaston and Lionel Rogg at the Royal Academy of Music in London. As a composer he was commissioned in 2019 by the Hochschule der Künste Bern, and his most recent piece, NOTINTUNE, was commissioned by Crash Ensemble.

Cathal O’Riordan is an Irish composer from County Meath. Primarily self-taught, his main instrument is guitar. His initial musical interests lay in rock and metal, but he developed a strong interest in classical music and electronic music during his studies at Trinity College Dublin, where he studied under Garrett Sholdice, Judith Ring and Nicholas Brown.

Lara Weaver is a composer and researcher currently undertaking a PhD at the Sonic Arts Research Centre at Queen’s University Belfast. She has a BA in Music and an MPhil in Musicology and Composition from the University of Cambridge, where she studied with Richard Causton, Christian Mason and Tim Watts. As a composer, her music draws from a diverse range of influences, from field recordings of resonating sand dunes to the envelope poems of Emily Dickinson. Recent performances include works at the BBC Proms, Electric Picnic and the Coventry City of Culture festival.

Tim Doyle is a composer, uilleann piper and music educator from Dublin. He studied music at Trinity College Dublin and then completed the MPhil in Music and Media Technologies at the same institution. He has written works for uilleann pipes and ensemble as well as electronic works. His compositions have been performed at the National Concert Hall, Dublin City Hall, and the Creative Connexions festival in Sitges. He also works for Music Generation in Carlow and Wicklow and is the co-director of the Rithim Traditional Folk Orchestra.

Postcard pieces
Crash received 96 applications for Crash Works and has offered a commission opportunity to eight other music creators to write a three-minute postcard piece for the group. The artists are Dani Larkin, Darragh Kelly, Elle Wadding, Jenn Kirby, Maeve Kelly, Michael Sullivan, Neil O’Connor and Paul Scully. In addition, Celsey McFadden has been selected to collaborate with Crash on a video installation for New Music Dublin in 2024.

For more details on Crash Works, visit www.crashensemble.com.

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