Thomas Larcher, West Cork Chamber Music Composer-in-Residence

Every year, Bantry’s West Cork Chamber Music Festival runs a composition competition open to Irish composers under thirty, in association with the Contemporary Music Centre. This year’s competition called for scores for piano trio (piano, cello and violin) or string quartet, and received nineteen submissions.

The three pieces chosen as winners were Solfa Carlile’s Saul and the Witch (piano trio), Bill McGrath’s Prelude and Fugue (string quartet) and J. Harry Whalley’s Compression (string quartet). The three pieces will receive their premieres during the festival, and the composers will have an opportunity to take part in a masterclass with the festival’s Composer-in-Residence, Thomas Larcher.

The West Cork Chamber Music Festival will take place in Bantry on 29 June – 7 July, and will feature performances, masterclasses and a violin and bow making exhibition. The focus of the festival is on strings throughout, with performances by The Vanbrugh Quartet, Benz Quartet, The Young European Strings Chamber Orchestra and a number of solo string players. These will be joined by a piano trio, and handful of solo performances by pianists, singers and woodwind players.

westcorkmusic.ie