Photos from the Premiere Concert

Photos from the premiere concert of the New Music Connects project, in the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, on 2 December 2007.

Rob Canning String Quartet Online

Rob Canning has posted examples from his string quartet for Con Tempo entitled 'Melencholia I for String Quartet'. He has created non-traditional score structure (above) for the musicians to improvise with. The score and more info are on www.robcanning.info

Second New Music Connects Workshop

A video of the final workshops between Galway’s Ensemble in Residence, the ConTempo Quartet and composers Ed Bennett, Rob Canning and David Flynn held in the Galway Education Centre on 28 September 2007.


Composer Deirdre Gribbin facilitated the second of two workshops, during which the ConTempo String Quartet rehearsed the pieces by the three composers. The workshop, which was open to the public, enabled each composer to try out their pieces with the quartet and gave them the opportunity to work out any technical difficulties with their pieces on the day.

The three new pieces will be premiered in Dublin on 2 December and Galway on 4 December.
See www.cmc.ie for details.

Photo/Audio From Workshop 1

Left - right: Andrea Banciu (va), Adrian Mantu (vc), Ed Bennett.

Bogdan Sofei(vn), Ingrid Nicola (vn).

>>Listen to audio excerpt and interview from Ed Bennett's session with ConTempo [4:10]

Adrian Mantu (vc), Ed Bennett.

Composer David Flynn & fiddle player Liz Coleman.

>>Listen to audio excerpt and interview from David Flynn's session with ConTempo [4:10]

David Flynn with Adrian Mantu (vc)







Bodgan Sofei (vn).

Rob Canning, Bogdan Sofei (vn)




Andrea Banciu (va)

New Music Connects
The first in a series of workshops for CMC and Galway Ensemble in Residence’s joint project New Music Connects took place in Galway on 30 March 2007.

New Music Connects is a collaborative project between the Contemporary Music Centre and the Galway Ensemble in Residence, the ConTempo String Quartet and is funded by the Arts Council/An Comhairle Ealaíon’s Project: New Work Award Scheme 2006.

The project enables three young Irish composers to compose a new string quartet by collaborating with the ensemble through a number of workshops. The composers selected to participate in the project are Ed Bennett, Rob Canning and David Flynn. The new works will be performed by the quartet at two concerts in Galway and Dublin in December 2007.

The workshop started off with a traditional flavour, with composer David Flynn bringing along traditional fiddle player Liz Coleman to participate and show the Romanian quartet some traditional Irish playing techniques that the composer hopes to use in his piece.

Ed Bennett experimented with some sketches for a piece and talked with the quartet about his idea for a work inspired by the paintings of artist Bridget Reilly.

Rob Canning explored different ideas he had for his piece with the quartet, including calling on the members of quartet to improvise at certain stages throughout the workshop with various vocal sounds.

Each composer had a completely different take on the brief and came away with lots of new ideas and concepts to include in their works, thanks to the informal and collaborative atmosphere of the workshops. The next stage of the project will be a public workshop with the quartet and composers in Galway in September.

For further information and updates on how the project is progressing, check out our New Music Connects blog or contact Karen Hennessy, Promotion Manager, CMC. Tel: 01 673 1922 or email khennessy@cmc.ie.