Sorcha Coller is a composer from Co. Wicklow studying in her final year of Music. She has previously had pieces performed by Trinity Singers, Avalon Ensemble, and Lucilin Ensemble. Sorcha is very interested in choral composition, influenced by her experience in Trinity Singers, Irish Youth Choir, and the Campanile Consort. She has been playing piano since the age of 7, and The Woods was originally written for solo piano, then re-arranged for string quartet, harp, and piano for NODE Ensemble.

The Woods (Sorcha Coller) - Node Ensemble 2014

Stephen O’Brien plays a cooler instrument than any of you. He is one quarter of the Quintessential Sax quartet, one fifth of the committee of the Irish Composers’ Collective, and one-seventieth of the foundation scholars in Trinity. His hobbies include setting objects on fire and playing with goldfish.

One eighth of Node’s concert consists of his latest piece, Assortmental, which itself consists of ten parts, which are mental, sentimental, advertisemental, sentimental again, disappointmental, vehemental, curtailmental, merrimental, sacramental, and developmental.

Stephen's Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/stephenrobertobrien

Assortmental (Stephen O'Brien) — Node Ensemble 2014

Aedín Donnelly is a third year student of Music and English Literature. She studied piano with Siobhan Kilkelly and flute with Ciaran O’Connell in the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama. Aedin is currently studying Musicology and English literature in the University of Paris - Sorbonne, where she takes part in choir and chamber music concerts. Drifting is a lighthearted jazzy piece which floats through the various ranges and colours of the three instruments (alto sax, flute, and piano).

Drifting (Aedín Donnelly) — Node Ensemble 2014

This piece is based on a juxtaposition of a tree in autumn, whose ability to ‘let go’ of its leaves in autumn (represented by the guitar) inspires a person to try let go of his/her past (represented by the violin). The flute represents both the wind and the will of the person to let go. It is the moving force in the piece that carries the music along, blowing the leaves off the trees and forcing the person to keep moving forward. The piano chords from the beginning then return (this is the ‘renewal’), where the tree has let go of all its leaves and is bare, and the person has finally let go of the past and is free.
Maria Johnston is a fourth year Music student in TCD. She began playing the guitar and piano in her early teens. Although Maria had been expected to go to art college, she decided to shock everyone by applying for music in Trinity. They all told her she would fail; her parents thought she had gone mad. But, by some miracle, Maria proved them all wrong by getting a place in the course. Now she spends her days writing music in the hope that someone in the film industry might hear it and love it enough to make her a successful film composer.

Let Go Let Fall Renew (Maria Johnston) — Node Ensemble 2014

The themes are subject to eloquent soliloquy, soliloqueloquent, soliloquent, soliquent, soleloquent, soloquent, quento solo. Ultimately, punning is not the meaning of this piece but does a rhetorical question mean if ducks? Very ducks. Very ducks, lord on high, give us this day our gale and stribismatic toddler.
Elliot Murphy is a composer and cellist in his final year of music in TCD. His musical influences span a wide range of genres from jazz to psychedelia to the traditional music of India and Japan. He hopes to pursue composition full time next year.