A new work by composer Ian Wilson, The Great Hunger, will receive its UK and Ireland premiere on 9 March at the Walled City Festival in Derry.

The work, inspired by Patrick Kavanagh’s epic 1942 poem of the same name, was commissioned by Trio Festivale with funds from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. 

Trio Festivale recently toured the work in the United States, with performances in Tennessee, Florida, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. A review in the the Boston Musical Intelligencer said the work

…offers moments of savagery juxtaposed with modified lyricism. … Trio Festivale … evinced ease with the manifest complexity of some of the passages and techniques Wilson created for them.

The Great Hunger is a 30-minute, single movement work. The performance at the Cultúrlann complements an exhibition of Great Hunger art-works currently showing there. The trio’s members are Sabrina Hu (flute), Gerald Peregrine (cello) and Cathal Breslin (piano).

The concert will also feature cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, formerly of the Kronos Quartet, who will perform a selection of works from New York’s new music scene.

For more information and tickets, visit walledcitymusic.com/festival.