Irish Born Chinese

MUSIC21 presents 

 

Umbilical by Benjamin Dwyer (World Premiere)

The story of Oedipus, Jocasta and Laius in ten musical scenes for amplified baroque violin, double bass, harpsichord and tape

With

Maya Homburger (Baroque violin)

Barry Guy (double bass)

David Adams (harpsichord) 

Benjamin Dwyer: As one of the leading figures in Irish composition, a virtuoso guitarist and an innovative musicologist and curator, Benjamin Dwyer, PhD graduate of Queen’s University, is one of the most multifaceted artists working today. Dwyer’s compositions have been performed both nationally and internationally. His work has stood firm against what he sees as the non-commitment and shiny surfaces of much post-modern music. Deeply entrenched in myth and symbol, his music combines harmonically eclectic formulae and an obsessed rhythmic drive with an innate virtuosity that stems from his own mastery as a performer. In recent years he has completed a number of important large-scale works including his Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra (Rajas, Sattva, Tamas), Concerto No. 2 for Guitar and Orchestra, his major virtuosic work for guitar - Twelve Études, the multimedia work, Scenes from Crow, and In Memoriam Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for orchestra. Dwyer’s recent works have increasingly engaged with themes surrounding gender, sexuality and power. An elected a member of Aosdána, in 2009 the Royal Academy of Music (London) awarded Dwyer with the Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) - an honor bestowed upon those former students deemed 'to have made a significant contribution to the music profession'. Dwyer is on the faculty of the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Web: www.benjamindwyer.com 

Maya Homburger: A world-renowned Baroque violinist, Maya Homburger has worked with John Eliot Gardiner’s English Baroque Soloists, Trevor Pinnock’s The English Concert, Christopher Hogwood’s Academy of Ancient Music and other period instrument groups. Ever since meeting the composer and solo bassist Barry Guy, she has performed Baroque solo works in the context of free improvised music. Together, Maya Homburger and Barry Guy have given concerts in many major Jazz, New Music and Baroque Music Festivals all over Europe and in Canada. New works in her repertoire include Barry Guy’s compositions Celebration, Inachis, Aglais and Lysandra for solo violin, Ceremony for violin and tape, and Bubblets for violin and harpsichord. Recordings include the duo CDs Ceremony (ECM) and Dakryon (Maya Recordings), Bach/Guy Solo Works (Maya Recs.) and Folio (ECM) where she appears as violin soloist together with the Munich Chamber Orchestra. Web: www.maya-recordings.com 

Barry Guy: An innovative bass player and composer whose creative diversity in the fields of jazz improvisation, chamber and orchestral performance and solo recitals is the outcome of an unusually varied training and a zest for experimentation, underpinned by a dedication to the double bass and the ideal of musical communication. He is founder and Artistic Director of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra and the BGNO (Barry Guy New Orchestra) for which he has written several extended works. Guy continues to give solo recitals throughout Europe as well as continuing associations with colleagues involved in improvised, baroque and contemporary music. His current regular ensembles are the Homburger/Guy duo, the Parker/Guy duo, piano trios with Marilyn Crispell and Paul Lytton, Jaques Demierre and Lucas Niggli, and a recently formed trio with Agusti Fernandez and Ramon Lopez. He continues the longstanding trio with Evan Parker and Paul Lytton as well as projects with Mats Gustafsson.

David Adams: A former organ scholar of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Trinity College Dublin, David Adams studied in Freiburg (Ludwig Doerr) and Amsterdam (Piet Kee and Ewald Kooiman) winning prizes at international competitions in Speyer, Lüneburg and Dublin, and reaching the final of the Early Music Competition in Bruges. Since his début recital at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, at the age of 16, he has performed throughout Ireland, the UK and Europe, and is a regular guest at major international festivals. He appears with all the main Irish orchestras and is much in demand as an ensemble player in the fields of early and contemporary music. As a conductor he has worked with the Ulster Orchestra, English Touring Opera, Opera Theatre Company, The Orchestra of St. Cecilia and the Irish Baroque Orchestra. He has premièred many new works, including numerous compositions especially written for him. In addition to a solo CD recorded on the organ of Trinity College, he has recorded for Naxos, Black Box and Wergo. David has taught at conservatories in Freiburg, Berlin and The Hague, and lectures at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. 

 

For further information contact 

Gavin O’Sullivan

ph: +353-87-2456971

address: DUBLIN CITY GALLERY HUGH LANE, PARNELL SQ., DUBLIN 1, IRELAND

email: [email protected]

website: www.hughlane.ie 

The Sundays @ Noon Concert Series is funded by Dublin City Council and grant aided by The Arts Council/ An Chomhairle Ealaíon.