Jennifer Walshe

Jennifer Walshe (born 1974 in Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish composer and librettist.

Biography

Jennifer Walshe was born in Dublin. She studied composition with John Maxwell Geddes at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and Kevin Volans in Dublin. She graduated from Northwestern University, Chicago, with a doctoral degree in composition in 2002. While at Northwestern, her chief teachers were Amnon Wolman and Michael Pisaro. In 2003-04 she was a fellow of the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, and from 2004-05 she lived in Berlin as a guest of the DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm. From 2006 to 2008 she is the composer-in-residence for the In Context 3 project in South Dublin. In 2007 she was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York.

Her works have been performed throughout Europe, the US, and Canada by groups such as Alter Ego, Ensemble Récherche, Ensemble Resonanz, Apartment House, Ensemble Intégrales, Neue Vocalisten Stuttgart, the Crash Ensemble, ensemble ascolta, Champ d’Action, the Rilke Ensemble, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the Irish Youth Wind Ensemble, the Bozzini Quartet, Concorde, Ensemble Musica Nova, Ensemble Chronophonie, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra Wind Quintet, the Hebrides Ensemble, Psappha, and Q-02 among others. She has received commissions from RTÉ, Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), Sudwest Rundfunk (SWR), Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Darmstadt, Musik der Jahrhundert, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Dresdener Tage der zeitgenössischen Musik, Wien Modern, the Dresden Semper Oper, ZKM (Karlsruhe), the Irish Chamber Orchestra, Crash Ensemble, the Project Arts Centre and the National Concert Hall, Ireland, as well as commission awards from the New Music Scheme of the Arts Council of Ireland and the Scottish Arts Council.

From 2003-04, she was composer-in-residence at the National Sculpture Factory, Cork. In 2000 she won the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, and received first prize in the SCI/ASCAP 2002 Commission Competition. In July 2002 she returned to Darmstadt to lecture in composition at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Music. Her works moving in/love songs/city front garden with old men and been in a room and a room and a room and a room were shortlisted for the 2002 and 2003 Gaudeamus Foundation compositions respectively.

In addition to her activities as a composer, Jennifer Walshe frequently performs as a vocalist, specialising in extended techniques. Many of her recent compositions were commissioned for her voice in conjunction with other instruments. She is also active as an improviser, performing regularly with musicians in Chicago and Europe. Forthcoming projects include a portrait concert in Parma, Italy, with Alter Ego, solo performances in Chicago, Belgium and Belgrade, and commissions for the 2006 ISCM World New Music Days and 2007 Maerzmusik festivals. She is currently living in Berlin as a guest of the DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm. [ [http://www.cmc.ie/composers/composer.cfm?composerID=114 Composer [Jennifer Walshe / CMC ] ]

Compositions

Ensemble

1996 "cease to resist", for flute and harp

1997 "Universal Neorth", for brass quintet

1997 "i suspect my dog is slowly turning into a retrograde amine", for clarinet, flute, percussion, piano and violin

1997 "Composizione 110140", for alto saxophone, bassoon, clarinet, horn, small drum and violin

1997 ":blurt", for two violin, viola and cello

1998 "isH", for flute and violin

1998 "(rows of houses)", for two guitars and bassoon (or bass)

1998 (five short pieces for saxophone quartet)"

1999 "running and running and running and running and ...", for flute, trumpet (+ crystal glass), viola, cello and piano

1999 nothing too deep"need", for two viola, cello and bassoon

2000 "like in a mirror glass on a window pane", for wind quintet

2002 "unbreakable line."hinged waist, for flute, oboe, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, viola and cello

2002 "Theme from, for violin and piano (with walkie-talkies )

2003 "minard / nithsdale", for 2 violins, viola and cello [2 boomboxes, torch]

2004 "THIS IS WHY PEOPLE OD ON PILLS / AND JUMP FROM THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE", for variable ensemble (2 to 10 instruments and voices)

2004 "a sensitive number for the laydeez", for alto saxophone, viola, piano, percussion and video

2006 "passenger"

Vocal and Choral

1995 "Sixteen Haiku"

1998 "your name here"

1999 "exercise"

2000 "As mo cheann"

2001 "warm/cold"

2001 "NOW WASH YOUR HANDS"

2001 "Ná déan NÍL CEAD"

2001 "moving in/love song/city front garden with old men

2002 "Here we are now"

2002 "Happiness is a Warm Gun"

2002 "dirty white fields"

2002 "been in a room and a room and a room and a room"

2003 "XXX_Live_Nude_Girls!!!", opera for 2 female voices, 2 pupeteers, 2 camera operators, accordion, CD, clarinet, trombone, trombone - libretto: Jennifer Walshe

2003 "he wants his cowboys to sound like how he thinks cowboys should sound"

2004 "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Conductor"

2004 "Kommander Kobayashi Journal #17: set phasers on KILL!", opera for 2 male voices, 3 females voices, CD, cello, trombone, piano, slides, video, viola - libretto: Jennifer Walshe, Sven Holm, Sebastian Bark, Tobias Dusche

2005 "G.L.O.R.I.-"

2007 "Physics for the Girl in the Street"

Quotations

By Her

“The sounds I am interested in include those that we hear all the time but are normally considered flawed or redundant: twigs snapping in a burning fire, paper tearing, breathing, instrumental sounds that aren’t considered ‘beautiful’ in standard terms. I think these sounds have their own beauty in the way that pebbles on a beach or graffiti can have.”

About Her

"Without a doubt, hers is the most original compositional voice to emerge in Ireland in the last 20 years.” – Michael DervanThe Irish Times, March 30th 2002]

References

External links

[http://www.milker.org/personnel/walshe/walshe_bio.html Biography]

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