There have been a number of appointments and awards in music and arts this month, including jazz and experimental residencies; writer residencies in universities across the country; and a new composer in residence for Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. 

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Improvised Music Company has announced that So-Young Yoon, Max Zaska and Eimear Reidy have been awarded residencies as part of the 2024 NAVIGATOR residency programme with partnerships in An Grianán Theatre in Letterkenny, Ballina Arts Centre and Source Arts Centre in Thurles this summer.

The programme offers jazz and improvising musicians time and space to develop and perform their work while building creative relationships.

Dublin-based jazz pianist and composer So-Young Yoon has been partaking in a residency at An Grianán Theatre in Donegal this month. As part of her residency, she has organised an improvisation workshop that takes place tomorrow (26 June) and has collaborated with Donegal fiddle virtuoso Seamus Gibson, creating piano arrangements of his compositions.

Guitarist and songwriter Max Zaska will complete a residency at Ballina Arts Centre in Mayo in July. Known for his blend of modern funk, neo-soul, and indie jazz, Zaska will experiment with a number of new musical concepts during his residency and lead a workshop for a local jazz group in Ballina.

Cellist and composer Eimear Reidy will also complete a residency in July at the Source Arts Centre in Thurles, Co. Tipperary. Reidy’s work spans baroque and experimental music and during her residency she will focus on creating live mixes of found sounds and field recordings from the River Suir, incorporating them into live cello performances. 

Visit www.improvisedmusic.ie.

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Lina Lapelytė has been announced as Composer in Residence for the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2024 (hcmf// 2024). The 47th edition of the festival of new and experimental music will take place from Friday 15 November to Sunday 24 November.

Lapelytė, born in Kaunas, Lithuania, is known for her performance-based practice that covers themes such as pop culture, gender stereotypes and nostalgia. Her works involve both trained and untrained performers, blending mainstream music and opera to create collective and affective events that explore vulnerability and acts of silencing. Lapelytė’s residency at hcmf// 2024 is part of a partnership with the Lithuanian Culture Institute and Music Information Centre Lithuania.

Visit hcmf.co.uk.

Lina Lapelytė (photo: Andrej Vasilenko)

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David Brophy has been appointed to the role of Chief Conductor of the WDR Funkhausorchester in Cologne. His inaugural concert will take place in November 2024.

A former Chief Conductor of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Brophy has collaborated with a wide range of artists throughout his career including U2, Lang Lang, Nicola Benedetti and Sinéad O’Connor. He has also premiered work by many Irish and international composers, most recently Linda Buckley’s Tuile agus Trá at New Music Dublin 2024.

Brophy has broadcast on RTÉ, BBC, CBC (Canada), Sky Arts 2 and across the EBU and has recorded for Silva Screen, Lyric FM, Tara Records, V2 Records, New World Records and Compass Records. 

Aside from his work as a musician, Brophy also presented the RTÉ television series Instrumental and fronted the IFTA award-winning High Hopes Choir.

For more, visit www1.wdr.de.

David Brophy

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Cork singer-songwriter Cian Ducrot has been presented with the Vanguard Award at the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) London Awards. The award, which recognises innovative artists, was presented on 18 June at an event in The Shard in London. 

Ducrot released his debut album Victory in 2023, reaching number one on both the UK and Irish charts. His single ‘Heaven’ won the RTÉ Choice Music Prize Award for Irish Song of the Year, and he recently co-wrote American R&B singer SZA’s single ‘Saturn’.

Visit www.ascap.com.

Cian Ducrot

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The Arts Council has announced that writers Muireann Ní Chíobháin, Aingeala Flannery, Michèle Forbes, John Patrick McHugh, Catherine Prasifka, Ian Maleney and Colin Barrett have been awarded Writer-in-Residence and Fellowship appointments for 2024.

These positions, awarded annually in partnership with universities across the country, support creative writers to develop their practice and provide university students with opportunities to interact with practising writers. Each writer provides a number of teaching and office contact hours a week and is also granted time and space to concentrate on their own writing. The Arts Council provides a fund of €20,000 for each writer, with the universities contributing up to €10,000. 

Muireann Ní Chíobháin has been appointed Irish-language Writer-in-Residence at Dublin City University. Ní Chíobháin is from Cork with roots in the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht and is known for her screenwriting and children’s fiction in both Irish and English. 

Aingeala Flannery has been appointed Writer in Residence at the School of English at Dublin City University. Flannery, a writer, journalist and broadcaster, won the Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Prize in 2019. Her debut novel The Amusements was published in 2022.

Michèle Forbes has been appointed Writer in Residence at Maynooth University. Forbes, a novelist, short story writer, playwright, and actor, is known for her novels Ghost Moth and Edith & Oliver.

The University of Galway Writer in Residence position will be held by John Patrick McHugh. McHugh’s work has appeared in various literary journals including The Stinging Fly, Winter Papers, Banshee, The Tangerine and Granta. He is the fiction editor of Banshee magazine and his debut collection of short stories, Pure Gold, is published by 4th Estate.

Dublin author Catherine Prasifka has been appointed as Writer Fellow at Trinity College Dublin. Prasifka’s debut novel None of This Is Serious was shortlisted for Newcomer of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards in 2022. Her second novel This Is How You Remember It is set to be published in May 2024.

Writer, editor and documentary producer Ian Maleney has been appointed as Writer in Residence at University College Cork. His first book Minor Monuments was published in 2019 by Tramp Press and was shortlisted for the Michel Déon Prize and the Butler Literary Award. He is also the founder of online journal Fallow Media.

Author Colin Barrett has been appointed Writer in Residence at University College Dublin. Barrett is known for his story collections Young Skins and Homesickness. His first novel, Wild Houses, will be published in 2024.

Visit www.artscouncil.ie.

Michèle Forbes

In other recent news, Rachel Holstead has been appointed Chief Executive of Ealaín na Gaeltachta. See more here.

For May appointments, see here.

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