Young composer’s work showcased
Cork-born Solfa Carlile, 24, said it was a great honour to have the premiere in the National Concert Hall – and hopes that it won’t be her last.
“As a young composer, it is very important for me to have my work recognised in Ireland and it doesn’t get any better than the National Concert Hall,” she said.
“Although based in London I am very much an Irish composer and it shows in my music.”
Solfa, who is originally from Fermoy, won the Jerome Hynes Composers Competition earlier this month with her entry for voice and piano, entitled Sounds.
Set to Brendan Kennelly’s poem of the same name, the three-and-a-half minute piece was performed for the first time in Ireland last night by The National Concert Hall’s Rising Star 2010, mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught.
Judith Woodworth, director of the National Concert Hall, said the Jerome Hynes Competition offers an important platform for aspiring Irish composers.
“Endorsing and encouraging young musicians is an important part of what we do here at the Hall,” he said.
Solfa said she was always interested in music and always had a creative streak.
She began composing aged 11, and in 2003, she won the Eighth International Song Contest for Peace with There Comes a Rainbow.
After leaving school, she went to London to study music at the Royal College of Music and she is now studying for a Masters in Advanced Composition there.
She received the IMRO/Bill Whelan Composers Bursary in 2004 and again in 2007.
In 2007, she was commissioned to write a flute-concerto for International Soloist James Strauss. The Silkie Wife was performed in Brazil, in June 2008.
Her epic work, Deirdre and Naoise, was performed by the London Irish Symphony Orchestra in 2007, and Troika, a piece she wrote for clarinet and piano was performed at St Martin- in-the-fields in January 2010.
She was appointed composer- in-residence for the London Irish Symphony Orchestra (2005-07).
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