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28th October 2013

New projects, finished works

Ian has recently completed two works - Matter, for narrator and string trio, was premiered at Tallaght Hospital Dublin on 23rd October by actress Ingrid Craigie and members of the Irish Chamber Orchestra; this was the third work in a trilogy of pieces on the three main old-age diseases - Stroke, Dementia and Parkinson's - which Ian has been working on as composer-in-residence to the geriatric medicine unit in Tallaght over the past four years.

Then just this past week Ian completed the final part of another trilogy - Causeway is the last part of Ian's 'Ulster' trilogy of orchestral works inspired by Northern Ireland's history, culture and, in this case, geology. Causeway will be premiered on March 26th 2014 by the Ulster Orchestra under the baton of JoAnn Falletta, its principal conductor. The work features a concertante quartet of principals (flute, oboe, horn and trumpet) as well as specially-created electronic samples made in collaboration with Chris Ryan, a very talented final-year music technology student at Queen's University Belfast's Sonic Arts Research Centre.

As Ian was finishing that orchestral work, he was beginning a major new choral project with the Cork Chamber Choir. This project has just begun but will result in a 35-40 minute spatialized site-specific work in Triskel Christchurch, Cork, next May.