Stephen Graham is a lecturer in music at Goldsmiths, University of London. He blogs at www.robotsdancingalone.wordpress.com.
Stephen Graham
Cois Cladaigh will perform a programme of American music in Galway on 25 February.
A new festival of experimental music, film, art and ideas begins in Glasgow on 24 February.
Crash Ensemble digitally release Kevin Volans' piece Trumpet, Vibe, Cello and Piano.
The Fidelio Trio perform two concerts in London this month, with a special focus on the music of Robert Schumann as well as works by Simon Bainbridge, Morgan Hayes and John Woolrich.
Tributes to conductor, composer and musician Noel Kelehan, who died last week at the age of seventy-six, pour in.
Gloria, Dublin's lesbian and gay choir, are currently seeking to appoint a new Musical Director.
Stephen Graham attends the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group's premiere of Seán Clancy's Findetotenlieder and performances of Barry, Grisey and Weir.
Principal Conductor Alan Buribayev will make his debut outside Dublin with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, in a concert at the WIT College Street Chapel in Waterford on 23 February at 8pm.
The eleventh book in the Irish Musical Studies series is entitled Irish Musical Analysis. It seeks to highlight the broad range of work that is being done by musicologists working in Ireland, or Irish musicologists working abroad, within the sub-discipline of music analysis.
On 9 February, the pianist Rolf Hind opens a new series of concerts hosted by the new Music Composition Centre in Trinity College, Dublin.
Madonna's new single seen in light of the tendency she has displayed throughout her career for obsessive pursuit of the new.
The Irish Chamber Orchestra (ICO) will give the premiere of John Kinsella’s tenth symphony in University Concert Hall, Limerick on 9 February.
The International Composer Pyramid (ICP), a joint initiative of the Sounds New contemporary music festival and Coups de Vents, seeks to give composers born after 1974 the opportunity to be mentored by senior composers and have their works performed by the ICP Ensemble.
NewSoundWorlds is a concert series presented by Ireland Promoting New Music, and curated by composer Siobhán Cleary. Its next concert will take place on 15 February in the Kevin Barry Room of the National Concert Hall, and features the new music specialists Argento Chamber Ensemble.
The RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet begin their spring tour on 9 February at the Cork School of Music. The tour continues on the 23, 24 and 25 of February, with shows in Siamsa Tire Theatre in Tralee, Birr Theatre and Arts Centre in Offaly, and Black Abbey in Kilkenny.
Dave Flynn and Aoife Ní Bhriain appear at the National Concert Hall for new music::new Ireland.
Stephen Graham talks to Irish composer Seán Clancy ahead of the premiere of the latter's Findetotenlieder by BCMG and Susan Narucki.
Stephen Graham rounds up classical news, including Resurgam celebrating Gabrieli, an exciting line-up for MaerzMusik 2012 in Berlin, Cara O'Sullivan in Sligo, the first EPTA Piano Festival and Concorde at the Contemporary Music Centre.
Stephen Graham discusses the phenomenon of internet releases, and listens to three recent internet singles.
Stephen Graham's classical music news, including live opera from New York, the Quiet Music Ensemble celebrating John Cage, Linda Buckley performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Irish Composers' Collective and a John Kinsella premiere.
Stephen Graham profiles Irish independent record label Trensmat Records, who specialise in drone and psychedelic noise music.
Stephen Graham's round up of classical music news and events, including New Sound Worlds, contemporary opera in London, Winter Music Weekend in Clare, Maria McGarry and a call for participants for the Open Music project.
Three recent recordings of twentieth and twenty-first century Irish orchestral composition reveal a persistent ambition to fuse an Irish musical heritage with European styles of composition.
One moment — BBC presenter Zane Lowe's on-air dismissal of Beyoncé's Glastonbury performance — has haunted Stephen Graham for months. To him it shows up layers of predjudices about music still rife in our society.
The music of Martin Creed communicates on the simplest, most obvious terms – just like his visual art, but wilder.
In an age when music is available anywhere, anytime, where do you find the underground, and what defines it?
"The story of how Cowell came to love ‘Jedward’ is the story of how capital, given enough time, consumes even that which appears to be inconsumable." Despite its cheapness, music is the winner in The X Factor, argues Stephen Graham.
Jenni Roditi / Andrew Poppy, LIFEM (London International Festival of Exploratory Music), Kings Place, London, 4 November 2009