New Music

Contemporary music is apparently alive and well and living in Dublin – at least for the month of November anyway. There’s already been something of an outpouring in the new music arena, with concerts from NewSoundWorlds and the Contemporary Music Centre, and lots more to come. First the freebies: the final concert in the CMC’s Salon series is at the Goethe Institut on Sat 19 Nov @6pm, when the Cashell Trio play Raymond Deane’s Marche Oubliee and Benjamin Dwyer’s Quasi una fantasia. www.cmc.ie Contemp mus veterans Concorde are at the Hugh Lane on Sun 22 Nov @12 noon playing works by Judith Ring, Massimo Davi, Feis Ceoil prizewinner Hugh Boyle, Finnish composer Erkki Jokinen (featuring Dermot Dunne on accordion), and Sungji Hong – the Korean composer will attend for the Irish premiere of Shades of Raindrops. Meanwhile the Fidelio Trio’s Schumann Plus series also features Ben Dwyer’s Piano Trio on Sun 29. www.hughlane.ie And finally, it’s not contemporary but it is free - All you ever wanted to know about Wagner but were afraid to ask, a daytime session at the Merrion Hotel on Sat 21 Nov as part of Opera Ireland’s 2009 Season, a musical analysis of the Ring Cycle by composer/pianist Derek Watson, plus an exhibition of rare Wagner Memorabilia. Booking via info@wagnersociety.ie

Meanwhile the Irish Composers Collective’s Ensemble ICC are at the NCH on Mon 16 Nov with no less than 7 world premieres. Cellist Kate Ellis, percussionist Maeve O’Hara and singers Liz Hilliard and Marian Hughes perform works by emerging Irish composers. www.irishcomposerscollective.org Siobhan Cleary’s NewSoundWorlds continues a fascinating exploration of all things contemporary with The Medical Composers at the NCH on Tue 17 Nov, music from composers who’ve also had careers in the field of medicine. Clarinetist Carol McGonnell and flautist Erin Lesser play works by Cleare, Furrer, Gaussain, Hurel and Nono on Tue 24 and on Tue 1 Dec there’s a solo show from the very creative Jennifer Walshe, with works for voice, violin, psaltery, cd and dictaphones. www.nch.ie And the RTE National Sympony Orchestra give the world premiere of Cleary’s Cokaygne at the NCH on Fri 27 in the company of works by Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky. www.rte.ie

A couple of interesting gigs from Note Productions include Hauschka – billed as a cross between Erik Satie and Kraftwerk - on prepared piano at the Sugar Club on Thur 19 Nov, and (like him or loathe him) Iarla O Lionaird at St Audeons on Sun 29, playing with Steve Cooney and Graham Henderson. www.note.ie ArtPolonia’s Lutosphere brings experimental music to Liberty Hall on Wed 30 Nov, with a mix of jazz piano, classical cello and experimental electronics inspired by the works of Lutosławski. www.artpolonia.org Coming up, Dec 5 sees the launch of new all-female vocal quartet Ergodos Voices at the NCH performing five new works by Irish composers including Linda Buckley, Judith Ring, Garrett Sholdice, Seán Clancy and Benedict Schlepper-Connolly. www.ergodos.ie