The 2016 Seán Ó Riada Composition Competition is Launched!

The Cork International Choral Festival is delighted to announce that we are now accepting entries from Irish composers for the 2016 Seán Ó Riada Composition Competition. Composers take note of an exciting new parameter: for the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising, we have, as one of its main contributions to this remembrance, designated that the competition would have the 1916 Rising – the event, its impact, its significance, its outcomes, and the Gaelic/Anglo Irish Literary revival – as its central theme.

Judged by a panel of experts and composers of international renown, the competition awards a cash prize (kindly donated by the Ó Ríada family) and the Seán Ó Riada Trophy to the winning composer, and the selected piece will in turn be given its premiere performance by Chamber Choir Ireland at a Gala Concert conducted by Paul Hillier.

Last year’s competition was won by Eoghan Desmond with his entry Mother Goose’s Melodies, a piece based on nursery rhymes from his childhood. Other previous winners of the competition include such well-known names as Rhona Clarke, Patrick Connolly, Frank Corcoran, Séamas de Barra, Michael Holohan, Marian Ingoldsby, Simon MacHale, Michael McGlynn, Kevin O’Connell, and Solfa Carlile.

Applications should be forwarded in hard copy by registered post to:

the Cork International Choral Festival,
Civic Trust House,
50 Pope’s Quay,
Cork

before the deadline of the 11^th December 2015. The composer must use a pseudonym on the printed score. Five unbound copies of the score should be provided in a sealed envelope along with the attached form detailing the name and contact details of the composer, with the pseudonym detailed on the exterior of the envelope.