New music group Crash Ensemble has announced a programme of events to celebrate its 25th anniversary. The group was founded in 1997 by composer Donnacha Dennehy, conductor and pianist Andrew Synott and clarinettist Michael Seaver and held its first concert on 23 October of that year.

The anniversary series of events will take place from late November to early December and includes an album release, a film screening, concerts at the National Concert Hall and an installation.  

On 3 December, the first of two concerts at the NCH will take place with the group performing Donnacha Dennehy’s Grá agus Bás with vocalist Iarla Ó Lionáird. The concert will also feature Voices, a work by violinist Diamanda La Berge Dramm and writer and visual artist Neva Elliott based around the voices and instruments of the group. Ryan McAdams will conduct.

The second concert, titled Crash 25! Living Perspectives, will take place on 4 December and will feature Australian composer Liza Lim’s Extinction Events and Dawn Chorus and Barry O’Halpin’s Wingform, a work for solo guitar and ensemble that premiered at last year’s New Music Dublin. The NCH will also host an installation by video artist and filmmaker Jack Phelan who has created a work responding to the visual themes of O’Halpin’s Wingform. The piece will be on display from 24 to 27 November in the NCH’s Studio space.   

Crash will also perform Wingform at this year’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival on 25 November, as part of a new partnership between the festival and Culture Ireland.

Recording and film screening
Due for release on 25 November, [REACTIONS] is the new limited edition double album by Crash. The record is the culmination of a series of commissions by the group of works by Sebastian Adams, Éna Brennan, Irene Buckley, Siobhán Cleary, Anna Mieke, Anna Murray, Deirdre Gribbin, David Fennessy, Bekah Simms, and Anselm McDonnell. Each work is accompanied by a film by Crash’s resident filmmaker Laura Sheeran. They will be screened at The Irish Film Institute on 30 November 2022.

For further information and tickets, visit: www.crashensemble.com/whats-on 

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