New Music Commissions for Ruaille Buaille ’24
Ruaille Buaille, Lucan Children’s Music Festival is delighted to announce that this year we will commission 3 composers to write for the young people of Ruaille Buaille.
Funded by South Dublin County Council Arts Office.
Matthew Berrill
(composer, saxophone, fiddle & guitar)
The Lucan Waters
An Interactive, Participative, Fun & Celebratory piece drawing on local history and geography.
The theme of the piece focuses on the importance and the power of water.
Multi-instrumentalist Matthew Berrill leads a diverse career as a performer, improvisor, composer, arranger and curator. An integral member of numerous ensembles in the jazz, improvised and traditional Irish music spheres, he plays regularly with singers Iarla Ó Lionáird and Mick Flannery. With Ensemble Ériu, Matthew recorded three critically-acclaimed albums. In 2024, Matthew was commissioned to compose for Ballad of a Bandit, a production by Branar. He works with Macnas and has arranged music for The Whileaways, Pauline Scanlon, Niamh Regan and Inni-K. Matthew appeared at Ruaille Buaille 2023 as part of The Memory Orchestra Ensemble.
This project was hosted by Scoil Mhuire Girls NS, Lucan. Thank you to to the Nina O’Donnell, Claire Sherry and the school music ensemble.
Listen to the new composition created by composer Matthew Berrill at Ruaille Buaille, June 2024.
“The main aim of the workshops and composition will be to ensure that they are as inclusive as possible and to have all students involved in the devising, the process and the performance” Matthew Berrill.
Suitable for 3rd/4th or 5th class students.
NOTE: Please contact us as soon as possible so we can organise rehearsal/devising days as well as the final performance date (the final performance date must be during the Ruaille Buaille festival dates June 12 – 15), the days in advance can be scheduled at your convenience.
Peter Moran
Composer and Music Director
Listen to the new composition created by composer Peter Moran and puppeteer Niamh Lawlor at Ruaille Buaille, June 2024.
The Dinosaur, Unicorn, Star and Waterman
Peter Moran will compose and present Ruaille Buaille Shadow Puppet Play for Indonesian Gamelan Music and Shadow-Puppetry created by Niamh Lawlor (Puca Puppets)
Peter Moran is a composer and music director whose interests include performance, teaching and composing.
He has held artistic residencies with the Creative Futures Academy in Dublin, the soundSCAPE Contemporary Music Festival in Italy and the Frédéric Chopin Conservatoire in Paris. He has been shortlisted for the Sean O’Riada Composition Prize and has been the recipient of the Bill Whelan International Music Bursary.
Peter is the artistic director of Ireland’s National Concert Hall Gamelan Orchestra, which he founded in 2014 when he acquired for the NCH a complete double gamelan as a gift from His Royal Highness the Sultan of Yogyakarta in Java. Since then, his ensembles have performed traditional and contemporary gamelan music across Ireland, the UK and Indonesia.
Peter is currently Assistant Professor in Composition and Performance at UCD where he teaches composition, songwriting and gamelan music.
Niamh Lawlor is Ireland’s leading puppeteer and has been director of PUCA puppets for many years. Niamh facilitates workshops right across Ireland and is in great demand for both her performance and creating skills.
This project was hosted by Scoil Áine NS, Lucan. Thank you to 3rd class and their teacher Aileen Ryan
FOR RUAILLE BUAILLE Peter & Niamh will work with 3rd/4th or 5th classes in a series of in-class workshops to help the students create shadow puppets, and devise a script for a short play inspired by the Indonesian wayang kulit. Pre-Workshops of Indonesian gamelan music with Peter preparing the music for the play will also take place in advance of the final rehearsals and a live performance, of the finished production, will take place on one of the days of the Ruaille Buaille Festival.
NOTE: Please contact us as soon as possible if you wish to host this special project, so we can organise rehearsal/devising days as well as the final performance date. The final performance date must be during the Ruaille Buaille festival dates (June 12 – 15). The days in advance can be scheduled at your convenience and the availability of Peter and Niamh. This is a more complex commission as it involves two mediums – Music & Puppetry – therefore it is important that the participating class can make the pre-performance devising dates available.
Aoife Kavanagh
Composer and Sound Designer
Listen to the new composition created by composer Aoife Kavanagh at Ruaille Buaille, June 2024.
A Sonic Adventure
Aoife Kavanagh will join the ranks of commissioned composers for Ruaille Buaille ’24. Aoife is an Irish composer and sound designer, active across a variety of music disciplines, including theatre, dance, film, and contemporary instrumental music.
Aoife’s background in dance has influenced her interest in the interaction between music and movement. Dance credits include ‘The Glasshouse’ with Ballet Ireland (2022); ‘The Galaxy of Occupations’ and ‘Man Down’ with Roisin Whelan Dance (2022); ‘Nasc’ with Infinite Pants aerial dance company (2022). and ‘Post Dance’ with Oran Leong and Sarah Muthi (2019).
Aoife was one of two awardees of the Contemporary Music Centre’s Emerging Composer Scheme 2022-23 and has written for choirs and instrumentalists throughout Ireland, most recently for the Irish Youth Training Choir.
Aoife also has a strong interest in music education. She teaches piano and music theory at Waltons New School of Music and has facilitated composition workshops at primary schools in Dublin. She holds a BA Double Hons in Music and German from Maynooth University and a Masters in Composition from Trinity College Dublin.
This project was hosted by Griffeen Valley Educate Together NS. Thanks to 5th class and their teacher Audrey
This May and June, I’ll be working with a class to help design a sonic adventure for their school. Together in a creation workshop, the class will brainstorm places they might go on an adventure to – it could be to the jungle, the sea, space, a chocolate factory – and then together, they will create a piece of music inspired by the sounds, sights and smells of these places. The class will explore how they can use their use their own voices, body percussion and found sounds to invoke these places of adventure. After the creation workshop, the composer will bring back the finished piece of music to the class and help them to prepare to perform it in front of their school. Looking forward to working with one of you classes out there!
Aoife Kavanagh
Aoife Kavanagh will compose and present with class students 3rd to 6th class
Medium: Music, Movement and Sound Design
