Dundalk native Donnchadh Mac Aodha has been announced as this year's winner of the Seán Ó Riada composition competition.
The competition, which has been running for over 50 years and takes its name from one of Ireland’s most revered traditional music composers and arrangers, provides a platform for Irish composers to have their work judged and rewarded solely on its own merits.
Submissions are made under pseudonyms, ensuring anonymity until after the judges have made their decision.
This year’s judges found that Mr Mac Aodha’s award-winning piece 'Babel' makes a "rich contribution to Irish choral literature."
Mr Mac Aodha is a composer and multi-instrumentalist who graduated last year from UCC with an honours degree in Music and Irish, where he was a Quercus Creative and Performing Arts Scholar.
His current compositional work is said to draw inspiration from his grounding in traditional music and the Irish language, intermingled with his training in contemporary composition.
The Seán Ó Riada competition aims to present Irish choirs with fresh, authentic material for their programmes and has attracted renowned composers throughout its history. More than 250 compositions have been submitted in the past ten years of the competition’s new format.
The competition is held in collaboration with the Cork International Choral Festival and Chamber Choir Ireland.
Composer and Chamber Choir Ireland member Eoghan Desmond, conductor Orla Flanagan, and Guest Conductor of Chamber Choir Ireland Gabriel Crouch evaluated this year’s winning piece, 'Babel'.
They said: "The contemporary relevance of Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh's Irish-language poem is striking, with an unsettling sense of lofty ideals soured by arrogance and pride. The composer’s musical setting reflects this and is both sensitive and expressively impactful.
"The phrases inflect upwards, yearning for something, but falter in the (quite deliberate) absence of harmonic stability. The effect is sobering and captivating. It has a distinct musical identity and shows great fluency in its approach to choral writing."
Mr Mac Aodha’s winning composition ‘Babel' will have its world premiere as part of the Cork International Choral Festival during a collaborative concert, which will take place at St Fin Barre's Cathedral in Cork in May.
