Presented in partnership with the Arts Council of Ireland, the National Concert Hall and RTÉ, New Music Dublin 2021 returns, against the odds, to launch an online Festival with a mix of live-streamed concerts, pre-recorded shows, interviews with the performers and composers, workshops, the annual NMDX international new music conference, outdoor projections and live listening parties on Twitter.

Performing at the National Concert Hall on the first night, the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra will be performing an all-female programme with 3 premieres from Irene Buckley, Anne-Marie O’Farrell and Caroline Shaw.

A strong female line-up courses through the Festival’s veins, as is apparent with Irish Ensemble Evlana’s first performances in New Music Dublin, presented live from Smock Alley, featuring works from Linda Buckley, Gráinne Mulvey and Amanda Feery, as well as John McLachlan.

Soprano Michelle O’Rourke and harpist Richard Allen will be premiering new works from Deirdre Gribbin and Ed Bennett in Grounded – a project inspired by the growing numbers of performers who, for ecological reasons, travel only by sea and land, and refuse to fly.

On Saturday Night the RTÉ Concert Orchestra will give the premiere of Atomic Hope by Natasa Paulberg, four movements “exploring the component parts of the atom as a metaphor of our current human experience”.

In For Private Use composer Sebastian Adams and Kirkos will be curating a set of pieces for audience members to perform by themselves on Sunday morning – an “experimental anthology” to help audiences hear, see and even taste their environment in new ways.

Given lockdown restrictions this year we’ll be bringing the ever-popular Brian Irvine’s Totally Made Up Orchestra online, with his unsurprisingly creative and imaginative solution to create this year’s world premiere composed by musicians of all ages, abilities and backgrounds.  Brian Irvine’s Big Mistake projections from last year’s festival will also be projected across iconic Dublin landmarks for the duration of the festival.

Chamber Choir Ireland will also be performing live from the National Concert Hall on the final evening  of the festival with another stand-out performance of premieres and new works for chamber choir.

Warmest wishes to you all! Keep healthy, keep safe, keep creative – and see you all as soon as we possibly can.

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