Contemporary music festival Music Current has announced its programme for this year’s event. Taking place from 2 to 6 April at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin, the event will include performances from Black Page Orchestra, Tak Ensemble, lovemusic collective and Nadar Ensemble. The festival is also currently seeking composers for a new music commission. 

Music Current 2024 will present five concerts and a series of workshops, talks and panel discussions. Opening the festival on 2 April is US group Tak Ensemble who will perform a programme of works by contemporary American composers including Erin Gee, Bethany Younge, Jessie Cox, Eric Wubbels and Tyshawn Sorey. Also on 2 April is the festival’s annual Dublin Sound Lab concert – a collaborative music project – which this year includes new works by John McLachlan, Daniel MacDermot and Eryk Salvaggio as well as a 2014 work by Alexander Schubert. The concert will also feature a Music Current commission – For M for clarinet, violin, electronics and video by Portuguese composer Joao Pedro Oliveira.

The festival will also present a new piece by Irish composer Amanda Feery that has been commissioned by Vienna-based ensemble Black Page Orchestra, who will be performing in Ireland for the first time. Feery’s work is for saxophone, e-guitar, piano, percussion and electronics, and will be performed along with works by Mirela Ivicevic, Matthias Kranebitter, Fergal Dowling and Vladimir Gorlinski. Also performing at the festival is Belgian group Nadar Ensemble, who will play a programme of works focusing on light and darkness, with works by Serge Verstockt, Simon Steen-Andersen and Thierry De Mey (5 April); and Strasbourg new music group lovemusic who will perform Lara Gallagher’s AUTRE, which is part installation and part performance. The group will also play pieces by composers Sasha Blondeau, Neil Luck, Ann Cleare, Bára Gísladóttir and Finbar Hosie.

‘Music Current Festival always aims to reveal the real excitement of experiencing live music,’ said Festival Director Fergal Dowling.

This year’s programme has a special focus on video, light (and darkness), and the human voice, with programmes exploring the relationship between music and visual image, and sound in darkness. Music creation is always central to the festival and this year we have three new works written especially for Dublin Sound Lab, three workshops focusing on music creation, and special composer events. As always, every piece in every programme is an Irish premiere. So this really is music that has to be experienced, not just heard.

There will also be a series of workshops on topics such as AI and electronic music, a session on composition with Lara Gallagher, talks with composer Peter Ablinger and Nadar Ensemble, as well as a panel discussion on new technologies in music and composing.

Music Current is currently seeking submissions from composers for works to be performed in 2025. Find out more: www.musiccurrent.ie.

For further information on Music Current 2024, and to book tickets, visit: www.musiccurrent.ie/2024.

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