Calling all aspiring young composers from Co Sligo who are aged 12 or over
Music Generation Sligo (MGS) is looking for young composers who would like to learn from a master – and have their work performed by school children from throughout the county early next year.
As part of its mission to introduce every young child and adult in the county to performance music, MGS has announced the appointment of Belfast-born Brian Irvine as Composer in Residence.
The composer, who has collaborated with everyone from Seamus Heaney to Snow Patrol and was associate composer with the Ulster Orchestra for four years, will play an integral role in MGS’s Composition Project 2012 to 2013.
Over the coming months, the composer whose output of work includes everything from operas to film scores and chamber pieces, will hold a round of workshops with Sligo children at five hubs (Coola, Grange, Tubbercurry, Easkey and Sligo) around the county .
As MGS’s Composer in Residence he will also create a piece of music to be performed by children participating in MGS’s Performance Programme.
The five young composers aged from 12 to 18 who are about to get the opportunity of a lifetime can also look forward to having their work performed by their peers at this unique event next year.
The creative manager of the ground breaking Composition Project is Niamh Crowley founding director of the Sligo Academy of Music.
“We are looking for young composers or song writers, not necessarily in the classical tradition, but they must have a demonstrable interest in music,” explained Jessica Fuller MGS’s coordinator. “They may be part of a choir or an orchestra, they could play in a band or they could have a genius for music technology. The standard will be high,” she stressed.
MGS in conjunction with Sligo County Council’s Public Art Programme has established the Composition Project under its Performance Programme 2012-2013
Fuller pointed out that Brian Irvine’s association with the programme was a coup for Music Generation Sligo given that his work has been commissioned and performed by such Irish and international artists and organisations as the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the RTE National Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Moscow Chamber Players, the Roald Dahl Foundation, BBC Radio 3, Welsh National Opera, the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and Valle d’Aosta Symphony Orchestra from Italy.
"I am totally delighted to be part of the Music Generation Sligo Composer Project and very much look forward to working with theSligo Academy of Musicand the various groups of talented composers and musicians throughout the county on what is a really innovative and inspiring initiative,” said Brian Irvine.
“Our aim is to work together to create a new piece that will be premiered next year”. The composer said he was looking forward to a public performance which would contribute a new dimension to the already vibrant musical thinking and practise which exists in Sligo. On a personal level I love the ambition and the challenge of the project and am thrilled by the sonic possibilities that lie before us".
More details on the Sligo Composer Project with details about the applications process will be available later this month on the MGS website www.musicgenerationsligo.com
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