Posted on: 24 January 2012
An inaugural concert launching Trinity College Dublin’s Music Composition Centre took place on Saturday, January 21st, 2012.
The Music Composition Centre is the latest exciting development in Trinity’s Creative Arts, Technologies and Culture initiative (www.tcd.ie/catc). Music Composition is one of six flagship areas of creative practice for which Trinity is renowned along with the Visual Arts; Creative Writing and Literary Translation; the Creative Technologies; Cultural Heritage; and Dramatic Arts. The new Music Composition Centre joins Trinity’s recently launched The Lir – The National Academy for Dramatic Art and other well established centres such as the Oscar Wilde Centre for Creative Writing.
Inaugural concert of Trinity College Dublin’s Music Composition Centre.
Commenting on the significance of the new Music Composition Centre, Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast says: “Creativity is central to the human spirit. It’s also an economic force. The arts are intrinsic to any strategy for the social and economic regeneration of this country. Trinity is committed to fostering and harnessing creativity. The new Centre will be a creative forum, drawing on Trinity’s long tradition of music composition to produce the radical composers of tomorrow. I’m excited for the students, for Trinity, and for audiences around the world.”
The College has an illustrious record in music composition which in recent times has expanded to include a focus on bridging the gap between the conventional acoustic environment of concert music and the cutting-edge developments in music technology. The Music Composition Centre is providing a new platform to produce active, practical composers equipped for the emerging music of the 21st century.
The Centre is home to Trinity’s lecturers in music and internationally recognised composers Donnacha Dennehy (also artistic director of the Crash Ensemble) and Evangelia Rigaki who will lead it in this new phase of creative development.
“In essence, the centre will act as a focus for the dynamic activity in musical creativity at Trinity. A large amount of Ireland’s most successful composers now come from Trinity, and it is an area that is continuing to grow in College. The centre will highlight this original research and creativity by hosting concerts and events throughout the academic year. Music composition is in a very healthy and exciting state in Ireland at the moment. It can be quite an adventure, and we are thrilled that Trinity is at the centre of it,” explains Donnacha Dennehy
Renowned Riverdance composer and Trinity Adjunct Professor with the Music Composition Centre, Bill Whelan gave the Centre’s inaugural address and the evening also featured his work, along with that of his fellow adjunct professors in music composition Kevin Volans and Gerald Barry.
The inaugural concert’s programme included a performance by Ireland’s foremost contemporary music group, Crash Ensemble which performed works by Whelan, Volans, Barry, Dennehy and Rigaki among other Trinity composers. Crash Ensemble was supported by a performance of the latest in New Music by the Dublin Laptop Orchestra.
Programme:
Dublin Laptop Orchestra Crash Ensemble Gerald Barry: First Sorrow – String Quartet Kevin Volans: 1000 Bars – Violin, Cello, Two Pianists Bill Welan: The Currach – Piano, Violin, Cello, Clarinet Evangalia Rigaki: Ode to Debt – Voice, Clarinet, Violin, Cello Donnacha Dennehy: Aisling Gheal – Cello and Tape Linda Buckley: Do you remember the planets – Viola and Tape Enda Bates: Etude No.2 – Hexaphonic Guitar
