Irish Composition Summer School [40th edition]

The Irish Composition Summer School will run at Irish Institute of Music and Song, Balbriggan, T.U. from July 10th to 18th. (www.irishinstituteofmusic.com)

Prospective participants should be composers at the early stages of their career, and students taking composition and considering it as a career.

Course Directors: Martin O’Leary and Garrett Sholdice

Guest Director: Jane O’Leary

Instruments/Performers: clarinet with Deirdre O’Leary, accordion with Dermot Dunne and percussion with Richard O’Donnell

Technology director: Ian Brabazon

Admin: John McLachlan

Sponsored by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon

Supported by IMRO—the Irish Music Rights Organisation

We will offer a full day timetable that allows for composing time: the days feature group seminars (mostly mornings) and individual tutorials (afternoons). The option of staying on location in accommodation at the IIMS is recommended but not compulsory. See www.irishinstituteofmusic.com/accommodation

COURSE INFORMATION

This year’s school will offer a range of lectures, presentations and demonstrations on all aspects of contemporary composition, focusing on writing for any combination of the available forces* with optional electronic fixed media.  The school offers advice on writing for the instruments, and on all aspects of contemporary art music composition. There is considerable one to one guidance on your piece as you write it, therefore we welcome composers at any stage of their development.

At the end of the course, the students’ works will be presented in workshop, rehearsed and recorded by the performers. Throughout the course, students will receive guidance from experienced course directors and nationally and internationally renowned composers. This year, the ICSS is delighted to welcome Guest Director Jane O’Leary who will present seminars on her own work, as well as giving individual tutorials to all students.

Due to the limited duration of the course students are expected to come with some sketches/ideas prepared.

LEVELS

The course involves a great deal of individual tuition and so is suitable for a range of music students from postgraduate to undergraduate. The course involves a combination of one-to-one tutorials with the participating composers, and seminars for the whole group. These will cover the major aspects of contemporary composition such as harmony, rhythm, formal structure, the use of music technology and instrumental writing.

MORE INFORMATION

The Irish Composition Summer School started as the Ennis Composition Summer School, founded in 1983 by John Buckley, and has been responsible for over thirty years of excellence in composition teaching by Irish and international composers. Previous directors have included Nicola LeFanu, James Wilson, John Buckley, Kevin O’Connell and Michael Alcorn. A majority of the most successful Irish composers of the last three decades have attended the Summer School. It has provided them the opportunity to work with leading names in composition—including Bent Sorensen, Poul Ruders, Christopher Fox, Liza Lim, Kevin Volans, Simon Bainbridge, Michael Finnissy, Jo Kondo and Clarence Barlow—and in performance, including Dorothy Dorow, Collette McGahon, Sylvia O’Brien, the Prey Trio, Jane Manning, the Fidelio Trio, the Clarion Horn Trio, The Ficino Ensemble and the ConTempo Quartet.