a cappella choral setting of Samuel Beckett 'je suis ce cours de sable qui glisse' commissioned by New Music Dublin for Chamber Choir Ireland, conducted by Grete Pedersen.
(Text used with kind permission of Beckett Estate)

Live recording of premiere, New Music Dublin, St Ann's Dawson St, Dublin, 3rd March 2019, on new music : new Ireland four, produced by the Contemporary Music Centre, Dublin

sable qui glisse

movement vi of vii from a pale yellow sky, integral visual art/ music/ haiku exhibition, with artist Jean Duncan, showing Naughton Gallery Queen's University Belfast & Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin

a pale yellow sky (vi)

spring rain   (a pale yellow sky: mov vi)

Vertavo string quartet live performance of little sails (string quartet #1, 2001, in 4 movements), commissioned by Music Network for nationwide Irish tour May 2001

Vertavo String Quartet

little sails ..mov iv

little sails ..mov iii

little sails ..mov ii

little sails (string quartet#1) mov i

Calefax Reed Quintet, live performance of Purple blue, commissioned by Music Network for nationwide Irish tour, April 1999

live recording Music Network Tour, April 1999

Purple blue

Handwoven (2018) Clíona Doris, concert harp, commissioned by RTÉ for 50th anniversary of Sunday Miscellany broadcasting

Cantares de la Frontera, released by Louth Contemporary Music, June 2021
Purchase on : Bandcamp / Apple Music / Amazon

Cantares de la Frontera

Handwoven

Chloë Hanslip (vn) + Danny Driver (pf) Music Network commission, live perf, 2016

a quarter million miles from the moon

in memoriam, Bob Gilmore, 
Elisabeth Smalt (vla) + piano pedal
live perf Café Oto, 2016

'for Bob'

RTÉ Con Tempo string quartet, live performance
Con Brio commission

mr shah stares to the heavens : movement i

RTÉ Con Tempo string quartet, live performance
Con Brio commission
image: Mr Peter Shah star clusters

mr shah stares to the heavens : movement ii

RTÉ Con Tempo string quartet, live performance
RTÉ Music commission

Snowline (excerpt)

Robin Tritschler (tenor), Ulster Orchestra, conductor David Brophy
live concert perf, BBC Radio 3 invitation concert, Ulster Hall (2014)
NI Opera commission to libretto by Richard Dormer

pic: Eamonn Mulhall (tenor) as 'Paddy Mayne', in staged premiere The MAC, Belfast (2012)

Driven (Fig QQ-end)

performed by Tasmin Little (violin) & Martin Roscoe (piano)

commissioned by Belfast Music Society, premiered Belfast Festival at Queen's

Secundum

performed by Andrew Zolinsky (piano)

Piece commissioned by composer/ pianist Ian Wilson

time, shining

music by Deirdre McKay, string quartet #1 
performed by Norwegian Vertavo string quartet

commissioned by Music Network, Ireland

little sails ..mov i

music by Deirdre McKay
setting last words of Oliver Plunkett
choral, a cappella
commissioned by LCMS, performed by State Choir of Latvija
Contemporary Music Centre, Dublin, new music :: new ireland one

new music :: new ireland one

Plunkett's last words

music by Deirdre McKay
setting Beckett's short (French version) poem, Dieppe 
choral, a cappella
commissioned & performed by Chamber Choir Ireland + Celso Antunes
Live performance, BBC Recording, Elmwood Hall, Belfast, October 2006
Contemporary Music from Ireland, volume 8

Dieppe

Irish Chamber Orchestra commission
Live performance, Ulster orchestra (strings) conducted by David Brophy,
BBC Radio 3 Invitation concert, Ulster Hall, Belfast, 2014

Meltwater

From rural County Down, Deirdre's work has featured at London’s Southbank, Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam, Gothenburg International Chamber Music Festival, Orléans Concours International, 
The Wigmore Hall, London, The National Sawdust, Brooklyn, The Phillips Collection, Washington, National Concert Hall, Dublin, Symphony Space & Carnegie Hall, New York.

Recipient of a Paul Hamlyn Composer Award, London, in 2018, previous awards include a Director’s Choice Award from Boston Metro Opera’s International Composers’ Competition and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s Major Individual Artist Award. In December 2023, her work represented Ireland at the ISCM World New Music Days, Cape Town, South Africa.

Commissions and performances include works for Northern Ireland Opera, State Choir Latvija for Louth Contemporary Music, Chamber Choir Ireland, BBC Singers, Ulster Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Boston Firebird Ensemble, RTÉ Con Tempo, Norwegian Vertavo, Vanbrugh and Swiss Terpsycordes string quartets, Access Contemporary Music Chicago, New Music Dublin, pianists Andrew Zolinsky and Antti Siirala, Matthew Schellhorn, Jessica Chan, Chloë Hanslip & Danny Driver, Tasmin Little & Martin Roscoe, Dutch violist Elisabeth Smalt, Calefax Reed quintet, Irish artists Clíona Doris, Robin Tritschler, Carol McGonnell, Eamonn Mulhall, Darragh Morgan and Mary Dullea, Catherine Leonard and Hugh Tinney, Elizabeth Cooney and Finghin Collins, Xenia Pestova, David Quigley, Concorde and the Crash Ensemble.

Former Composer in Association to the Northern Sinfonia’s affiliated Young Sinfonia, Deirdre was awarded an artist residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris.

Her work has been incorporated by filmmaker, Des Bell, into three of his films, showing at the Dublin International Film Festival, Belfast Festival at Queen’s and Montreal World Film Festival. Collaborations have included new work with visual artist Jean Duncan and writer/ actor Richard Dormer.

Her music has been released on the Lorelt, Diatribe, Métier and RTÉ Lyric FM labels and broadcast by BBC Radio 3, Deutschlandradio Kultur and New York’s WNYC and WQXR.

cmc.ie/composers/deirdre-mckay
https://mckaydeirdre.com/

Deirdre McKay

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