Donnacha Dennehy
New Music Dublin Announces New Artistic Director
Irish composer and founder of Crash Ensemble, Donnacha Dennehy, has been announced as the Artistic Director of the second New Music Dublin festival, which takes place on 6–9 March 2014.
Commenting on his role, Dennehy said: ‘I am very excited to be curating New Music Dublin 2014. I see it as an opportunity to introduce Irish audiences to some of the most thrilling and interesting new music composed in recent times.’
‘I am especially happy to be able to include works by composers not very often heard in Ireland, such as Georg Friedrich Haas, Hans Abrahamsen, Claude Vivier and Harrison Birtwistle. Haas and Abrahamsen are two of the most individual voices around, producing some of the standout pieces of the last decade.
‘Two of these standout works – Abrahamsen’s hour-long Schnee (meaning Snow) and Haas’s 3rd string quartet, which is presented entirely in the dark – are cornerstones of this festival. The Canadian individualist Claude Vivier is represented by his haunting and beautiful Lonely Child, performed for the first time in Ireland, while the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra will give the Irish premiere of Birtwistle’s darkly energetic Earth Dances.’
Other highlights of the festival include Icebreaker performing an evening set built around the music of Kraftwerk, an electro-acoustic performance of Stockhausen’s Oktophonie (with an 8-channel set-up), Gyorgy Ligeti’s Chamber Concerto (in one of Crash Ensemble’s concerts), alongside music by Gerald Barry, Michael Gordon, Philip Glass and Osvaldo Golijov.
Jennifer Walshe will give a solo performance of her own work, and Thérèse Fahy will perform a programme of new Irish music for the piano.
‘I am delighted to be welcoming such dynamic performers as these and the Arditti Quartet, ConTempo, Crash Ensemble, Icebreaker, the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, and Andrew Zolinsky for the festival’, said Dennehy.
New Music Dublin is a partnership initiative of The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon, The National Concert Hall, RTÉ Orchestras and the Contemporary Music Centre
Further concert details available here (this list will be updated as details are released): http://journalofmusic.com/listing/23-11-13/new-music-dublin-2014