Date: Saturday 30th April 2022
Time: 5.30pm
Venue: The Studio, National Concert Hall
Tickets €12

Crash Ensemble -

Susan Doyle, flute
Léonie Bluett, clarinet
Colm O'Hara, trombone
Brian Bolger & Barry O'Halpin, guitar
Caitríona Frost, percussion
Eliza McCarthy, piano
Larissa O'Grady, violin
Lisa Dowdall, viola
Kate Ellis, cello
Caimin Gilmore, double bass
Diamanda La Berge Dramm, solo violin
Peter Biloen, conductor

Laura Sheeran, visuals & performance direction (Children in the Universe)

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Emma O’Halloran What I Was Gonna Say (2022) [World Premiere]
Sam Perkin Children in the Universe (2020-2022) [World Premiere]

Journey - to a place where only music can.

This is a concert of two halves - Sam Perkin’s bold new hybrid symphony ‘Children in the Universe’ journeys “to a place where only music can, where with open ears, we can dream.”

Sam’s work for ensemble and halo track marks the culmination of his time as Composer in Residence with Crash and features our new Artist in Residence, Diamanda Le Berge Dramm as soloist, with visuals and performance direction by Laura Sheeran.

‘What I Was Gonna Say’ by Emma O’Halloran explores the complicated and messy feelings of what it is to be alive. The highs and lows, the irritations, the revelations, the light, the heavy, all of it.

A new work for ensemble and electronics, co-commissioned by Crash and New Music Dublin, as we celebrate our 25th year.

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What I Was Gonna Say (2022) [World Premiere]
Composed by Emma O’Halloran

"In November 2019, I was living in New York and found myself at Comic Arts Brooklyn, a free annual festival of comics and graphics. It was an explosion of colour and shapes with hundreds of artists displaying and selling their work. At one stall, the well-known artist and muralist Stephen J. Powers (also known by the name ESPO) sat making free prints for anyone who brought their own paper. My friend Jess came prepared with several blank sheets and we both walked away with a print. The image was of an impossibly large black book with a white title in all capitals that said “WHAT I WAS GONNA SAY” and on the spine of the book, “Vol. 8”. I love this print, it’s hilarious and joyful but it also resonates deeply because that’s what my music is about. When I compose, I try to capture the things that I have difficulty putting into words, all of the complicated and messy feelings I have about what it is to be alive.

In a way, this piece is about getting to the root of why I write music, and Crash Ensemble are the perfect people to explore this with. They were the first group I ever saw performing contemporary music and that experience opened up a whole new world of possibility for what sound can do and express. What I Was Gonna Say is about trying to capture moments in time: the highs and lows, the irritations, the revelations, the light, the heavy, all of it, and there’s no better group to say it than Crash."

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Children in the Universe (2020-2022) [World Premiere]
Composed by Sam Perkin
A Hybrid Symphony for Crash Ensemble and Halo Track with Diamanda Dramm as Guide

I WE HOWLED LIKE WOLVES
II LIFEBLOOD
III TEARS OF PURE INTUITION

She goes into nature, into the dunes, and talks to the clouds.
She talks to the wind. I think it’s something adolescents do. - Bavo Defurne

"I have gone deep for this work, the deepest yet. There are two years of life in here. Our Guide, Diamanda, will take us on a sacred journey to a place where only music can. She will act as a medium through which, with open ears, we can dream much needed counsel. Together, we can use this guidance to create the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible. Dedicated to Kate Ellis, Diamanda Dramm and Charles Eisenstein.

"The Halo Track is a mirror of the Live element, creating a glow around the ensemble; a halo around the music. Each element, Live Performance and Halo Track, is a reflection of the other, acting like two resonant mirrors.This notion of a Hybrid Ensemble is part of what I have been exploring compositionally over the last decade."