Media Release 24 June 2015

National Concert Hall announces winner of the Jerome Hynes Young Composers’ Award 2015

The National Concert Hall is delighted to announce 26 year old Dublin-based composer Eoghan Desmond as the winner of this year’s Jerome Hynes Young Composers’ Award.

The award is for the commission of a new work for mezzo-soprano and piano and Eoghan will have the unique opportunity of working collaboratively with the 2014 Bernadette Greevy Bursary Awardee, mezzo soprano Gemma Ní Bhriain on this new work. The new work will be premièred during the Bernadette Greevy Bursary Recital on 7 October 2015, giving the young composer a platform to showcase his talent.

Judges Bernadette Marmion and Professor Gerard Gillen deemed the Cork-born composer, conductor and bass-baritone a worthy winner of this unique prize, as well as the €2,500 prize fund, based on his submission of two pieces Phrases for mid-voice and piano and Ave Maris Stella for piano trio (violin, cello and piano).

Simon Taylor CEO of the National Concert Hall said “The National Concert Hall offers a number of bursaries and awards to young musicians each year. For the first time we have asked our young composer to write for another of our bursary winners. This not only gives the composer and the performer the opportunity to work together but places the new work in the context of a high-profile recital programme.”

Eoghan holds a BA in music and an MPhil in composition, both from Trinity College Dublin, where he studied under Evangelia Rigaki, Matthew Barnson and Donnacha Dennehy.  A choral musician since the age of 9, he composed his first mass at the age of 12, and has since had his choral music performed by such leading Irish ensembles as the National Chamber Choir (now Chamber Choir Ireland) and both of Dublin's Cathedral Choirs. His music has recently been in demand in the UK, the US and Australia and he is also this year’s winner of the Sean Ó Riada cup for choral composition.

Former winners of the Jerome Hynes Young Composers’ Award include Alex Dowling (Co. Dublin) and Amanda Feery (Co. Offaly) as joint winners in 2013 and Emma O'Halloran (Co Westmeath) in 2012.

ENDS
For further information please contact: Ruth Moloney, Marketing Executive, National Concert Hall, Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2. Tel: 01 417 0084 / 087 278 6382