Ben Dwyer chosen as soundSCAPE Festival Irish Artist in Residence 2016

The Association of Irish Composers, the Contemporary Music Centre and soundSCAPE Festival are delighted to announce Benjamin Dwyer as the 2016 Irish Artist-in-Residence at the festival in Maccagno, Italy. 

soundSCAPE Festival is a contemporary music festival and summer school which takes place over two weeks each year in the beautiful town of Maccagno in the Italian Alps. The festival features daily concerts and seminars from faculty, students and guest artists. Students of the summer school receive regular one-to-one tuition in contemporary music performance and composition. Most importantly, artists from all over the world meet to exchange ideas and become part of a growing international network of composers and performers. In 2016, the festival will take place from 1st – 14th July. 

This is the fourth year of the Irish Residency, which is administrated by the Association of Irish Composers in collaboration with soundSCAPE and supported by the Contemporary Music Centre. The residency is made possible through funding from Culture Ireland. Previous recipients of the Irish Residency are Siobhán Cleary, 2013 | Kate Ellis, 2014 | Jennifer Walshe, 2015. Applications for the residency are invited through an open public call and the award is made through a selection by a panel featuring representatives of the AIC, CMC, soundSCAPE and an independent adjudicator.

Benjamin Dwyer is a composer, musicologist and performer, who has been dedicated to studying, performing and presenting contemporary Irish music at home and abroad. At the festival, he will present talks on his large-scale work Umbilical, and on Joycean Aesthetics in the music of Frank Corcoran. He will also perform a programme of Irish music for guitar and tape, with works by himself as well as Paul Hayes, David Hennessy, Peter Moran and Judith Ring.

'I am delighted to be participating as the AIC soundSCAPE Irish Artist-in-Residence this year. This will allow me the opportunity to share on an international platform my long-standing work in contemporary Irish music through performance, musicology and composition.’  – Ben Dwyer

For more information, visit www.composers.ie, www.soundscapefestival.org and www.cmc.ie