Linda Buckley
Biography Linda Buckley
Iarla Ó'Lionáird
has carved a long and unique career in music both internationally and in Ireland. From his iconic early recording of the vision song “Aisling Gheal” as a young boy to his ground breaking recordings with Dublin's Crash Ensemble and New York’s Alarm Will Sound, he has shown a breadth of artistic ambition that sets him apart in the Irish Music fraternity.
He’s a child of traditional music, born and bred in Cúil Aodha, in the belly of the West Cork Gaeltacht, with Seán Ó Riada a neighbour and indisputable early influence. His great aunt, the traditional singer Elizabeth Cronin, had forged a reputation for rich interpretation before him, paving the way for the young Ó'Lionáird to still audiences with his plaintive, textured voice at Mass, and later, in parlours, front rooms, snugs, town halls and concert halls. The truth is, it’s the individual sonic qualities of Iarla Ó'Lionáird’s voice that define him. That voice, with all its midnight depth and soaring breadth, transcends anything that might box or classify him as one thing or another.
A twice Grammy nominated artist, Ó Lionáird has worked with a stellar cast of composers internationally including Donnacha Dennehy, Dan Trueman, Nico Muhly, Gavin Bryars and David Lang and he has performed and recorded with such luminaries as Peter Gabriel, Nick Cave, Robert Plant and Sinead O'Connor. His unique singing style has carried him to stages and concert halls all over the world, from New York's Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House and beyond.
Also an accomplished broadcaster, Ó'Lionáird’s recent radio series “Vocal Chords” on the mysteries of the human voice, for Ireland’s National Classical Music Broadcaster, RTE Lyric FM, won both Gold and Silver Awards at the “New York Radio Festival” 2017.
His voice has graced the silver screen also, with film credits extending from "The Gangs of New York" to "Hotel Rwanda" and most recently as featured singer in the film “Brooklyn” starring Saoirse Ronan. He is the vocalist with the critically acclaimed Irish/American band "The Gloaming." He holds a Masters Degree in Ethnomusicology from the University of Limerick where he is currently completing a PhD. Appointed as Global Scholar 2017-'20 he is Visiting Lecturer in Music and the Humanities at Princeton University
Darragh Morgan
has performed extensively throughout Europe, USA, Africa and Asia. He has performed concertos with orchestras including European Union Chamber Orchestra, Istanbul Symphony, Cyprus Chamber Orchestra, Johannesburg Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Ulster Orchestra, RTE Concert Orchestra, and Kolner Kammerorchester.
As a highly active and renowned interpreter of contemporary music, Darragh Morgan has worked with and premiered the music of many of the most important composers of our time, including Arvo Part, Philip Glass, John Tavener, Kevin Volans, Michael Nyman, Gerald Barry and Michael Finnissy. He regularly leads London Sinfonietta, and has also guest led Ensemble Modern, Musik Fabrik, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Remix Ensemble (Porto) and Athlesas Sinfonietta (Copenhagen ). Darragh was violinist with the acclaimed Smith Quartet from 2005-2011 and previously Artistic Director of Barqoue 2000 in South Africa. From 2009-19 he was on the violin faculty at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and has given masterclasses at Curtis Institute, Peabody Conservatory, Central Conservatory Beijing and YST Singapore. Darragh has recorded over 50 albums for Naxos, Resonus, NMC, Metier, Delphian and Signum. He plays an 1848 Giuseppe Rocca violin, generously on loan from The Morgan-Rocca Instrument Trust which is administered by The Royal Society of Musicians and a fine bow made by Alfred Lamy.
Joby Burgess
One of Britain’s most diverse percussionists, Joby is best known for his virtuosic, often lissom performances, daring collaborations, extensive education work, and regularly appears throughout Europe, the USA and beyond.
Joby commits much of his time to three chamber music projects - Powerplant, New Noise and ensemblebash - of which, he is either the artistic or co-artistic director. Founded in 1999 his duo New Noise, with oboist Janey Miller, has given well in excess of two hundred performances, whilst creating an entirely new repertoire and distinctive sound.
Dedicated to the development of the percussion repertoire, often in combination with electronics, Joby spends much of his time commissioning and recording new music. Recent highlights have included extensive tours with Peter Gabriel’s New Blood Orchestra and Graham Fitkin’s all star band; releases of Gabriel Prokofiev’s Import/Export on Nonclassical and Frozen River Flows on Oboe Classics. Future plans include a new duo - Uncharted - with cellist/vocalist Matthew Sharp, and a large-scale multimedia commission from Max de Wardener.
Joby regularly performs, records and collaborates with artists including Stewart Copeland, Michael Finnissy, Graham Fitkin, Peter Gabriel, John Kenny, Akram Khan, Sarah Leonard, Joanna MacGregor, Peter Maxwell Davies, Nitin Sawhney, Andy Sheppard, Keith Tippett and Nana Vasconcelos, along with many of the world’s leading chamber ensembles. He is also a member of Stephen Deazley’s Edinburgh based ensemble, Music at the Brewhouse, for which Joby was commissioned to arrange A-ha’s pop classic Take On Me, for the 2008 St Magnus Festival in Orkney.
In 2004 Joby was appointed professor of percussion and director of percussion ensembles at Junior Trinity College of Music, Greenwich.
Linda Buckley
is an Irish composer who has written extensively for orchestra (BBC Symphony Orchestra, Dresdner Sinfoniker, RTé National Symphony Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra), and has a particular interest in merging her classical training with the worlds of post punk, folk and ambient electronica. She is ‘one of the leading figures in the thriving Irish new music scene’ (Christopher Fox, Tempo) with her work being described as ‘exquisite’ (Philip Clark, Gramophone) ‘strange and beautiful’ (Richard Dyer, Boston Globe), and ‘fantastically brutal, reminiscent of the glitch music of acts such as Autechre’ (Liam Cagney, Composing the Island). Collaborations include work with experimental folk duo Anna & Elizabeth, Crash Ensemble, Liz Roche Dance Company, Iarla O’Lionaird, Icebreaker and Ensemble Mise-En. Linda studied Music at University College Cork, holds a Masters in Music & Media Technologies and PhD in Composition from Trinity College Dublin, a Fulbright Scholarship to New York and lectures in Composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Crash Ensemble
is Ireland’s leading new music ensemble; a group of world-class musicians who play the most adventurous, ground-breaking music of today.
Crash Ensemble, an Irish new-music collective with international cachet and considerable chops. -The Washington Post Founded in 1997 by composer Donnacha Dennehy, some of the most distinctive living composers have written for the group, including Terry Riley, David Lang, Michael Gordon, Louis Andriessen, Arnold Dreyblatt, Kevin Volans, Glen Branca, Nico Muhly and Gerald Barry.
Many well-known artists from diverse musical backgrounds have performed with the ensemble; Gavin Friday, Dawn Upshaw, Julie Feeney, Lisa Hannigan, Íarla Ó Lionáird (The Gloaming), Bryce Dessner (The National), Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire), Sam Amidon and Beth Orton.
Crash have recordings on NMC, Cantaloupe, Nonesuch and the Bedroom Community labels.
As well as performing throughout Ireland, Crash regularly perform internationally, with appearances in the last few years at the Edinburgh International Festival, The Royal Opera House (London), The Barbican (London), Carnegie Hall (NYC) The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington DC), Virginia Tech (Virginia), GAIDA Festival (Lithuania) and residencies at The Huddersfield Contemporary Music festival (UK) and Princeton University (NJ).
Crash Ensemble are adventurous, innovative and ambitious.
ConTempo QuartetString Quartet
Formed in 1995 when its members were students at the Music University in Bucharest, Romania, the ConTempo String Quartet has toured the world extensively and has won a record 14 international prizes in competitions including the London String Quartet Competition, in Rome, Munich, Graz, Berlin, Prague and Hamburg.
In 1999 the quartet took up a Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music where they taught chamber music classes and had the chance to meet and work with world-famous quartets such as the Amadeus, Alban Berg, Hagen, Tokyo and Emerson. Since 2003, the ConTempo has been Quartet in Residence on the West Coast of Ireland.
