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NCH Creative Lab
NCH Creative Lab
NCH Creative Lab, supported by Staycity and Department of Children, Disability and Equality is a twelve-month composition programme for young people (ages 14-18) from traditionally under-represented groups who are passionate about music.
The composition programme will consist of one-on-one tuition, mentorship, professional development, performance opportunities, and high-quality recordings of the young composers’ work. Thanks to the generous support of Staycity and Department of Children, Disability and Equality, the programme is offered at no cost to the participants.
About the Programme
Why are we running this programme?
Conversations about diversity in classical music have been happening for many years, and while some progress has been made, there is still a long way to go. Composers of traditionally underrepresented groups, for example, Black, Asian, Minceir/Traveller and Roma communities, other Minority Ethnic communities across Ireland, women, members of the LGBTQI+ community, and young people living in rural areas, continue to make up an overly small percentage of professional composers who are regularly commissioned, performed, and championed. To address and highlight this imbalance, the National Concert Hall is providing a Creative Lab to provide young composers (ages 14-18) from traditionally underrepresented groups with a year of one-on-one tuition, mentorship, professional development, performance opportunities, and high-quality recordings of their work.
Who is this programme for?
Creative Lab is for young people aged 14 - 18 who are passionate about music and come from communities that are traditionally under-represented in composition including Black, Asian, Minceir/Traveller and Roma communities, other Minority Ethnic communities across Ireland, women, members of the LGBTQI+ community, and young people living in rural areas.
How to apply:
You do not need to know how to read music in order to apply.
To apply, please fill out the following online application form: Creative Lab 2026-2027 Application Form.
If you need support completing this application pleas, please contact us at education@nch.ie to discuss how we can best support you in doing this.
Deadline for applications: 31st March 2026.
What will the programme look like?
Spring 2026: First steps
Once the participants have been selected, they will all come together with Emma & Amanda in the NCH for an introductory session where everybody gets to know each other before workshops and mentor sessions start.
Summer 2026: Exploration
The summer months will give the participants time and space to identify where their interests lie, what excites them, and what they are curious about, without the pressure of having to immediately begin with mentoring sessions and come up with material for their pieces.
During this time instrument workshops & demonstrations, listening workshops and talks with creative practitioners will give the participants the opportunity to explore what they would like to learn more about or focus on with their mentors.
Autumn 2026 to Spring 2027: Process
The participant, young composers will commence fortnightly online lessons with their mentors and will each develop a new piece that will premiere at Ireland’s foremost contemporary music festival, New Music Dublin in Spring 2027. These sessions will run up until scores/materials need to be ready for the ensemble to prepare and practice for the New Dublin performance.
This period will also involve at least two workshops with the ensemble, working on draft versions of the participants' pieces. These workshops give the participants the opportunity to meet again as a group, and the workshops also serve as a ‘workshare’ for each of the participants to see and hear what they have all been working on.
Spring 2027: Concert Finale at New Music Dublin
Participants can attend some or all of the New Music Dublin concerts alongside opportunities to meet other composers and musicians. Their musical works will be performed by the ensemble at the Creative Lab Finale concert at New Music Dublin. Participants will receive high-quality documentation of their work.
Emma O'Halloran
Composer & Artist Director
Emma O’Halloran is a GRAMMY-nominated Irish composer whose music is driven by a fascination with joy, wonder, hope, and human connection. Freely intertwining acoustic and electronic music, her work seeks to capture moments of intimacy and magic, and has been described as “intensely beautiful” (Washington Post) and “unencumbered, authentic, and joyful” (I Care If You Listen).
Emma’s work spans collaborations with folk musicians, chamber ensembles, turntables, laptop orchestra, symphony orchestra, opera, and theatre. Known for her distinctive fusion of pop, rock, and electronic influences with the rich colours and textures of acoustic instruments, her work has found a wide audience and has been featured at various music festivals such as Classical NEXT, Cork International Choral Festival, PODIUM Esslingen, New Music Dublin, Tokyo’s Born Creative Festival, and Bang on a Can LOUD Weekend. Additionally, her music has been performed by Crash Ensemble, Chamber Choir Ireland, ensemble reflector, Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, and the National Symphony Orchestra Ireland, amongst others.
In recent years, Emma’s passion for storytelling has led her towards multidisciplinary projects such as soundwalks and opera. She has written for Irish National Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, and Beth Morrison Projects, and her recent operas TRADE and Mary Motorhead received critical acclaim at LA Opera and New York’s PROTOTYPE Festival, with the Los Angeles Times describing her as “a kind of modern-day Monteverdi.”
Emma loves working with people of all ages to explore and create music, and she has served as a mentor for various composition programmes in Ireland and the United States. Emma holds a Ph.D. in Music Composition from Princeton University and is currently working as a freelance composer.
Photo credit Karen Cox
Amanda Feery
Composer & Artistic Director
Amanda Feery is a composer working with acoustic, electronic, and improvised music, with previous works for orchestra, opera, film, chamber ensemble, and electronics. Amanda was the Mark Nelson Fellow in Music at Princeton University, completing her PhD in Music Composition in 2019. Whilst in the U.S., she formed collaborative relationships with many ensembles and musicians including Alarm Will Sound, Third Coast Percussion, Ensemble Mise-en, Bearthoven, Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, and cellist Amanda Gookin.
Closer to home, past collaborators include Crash Ensemble, National Symphony Orchestra Ireland, Chamber Choir Ireland, and Lina Andonovska. Her work has been featured at the Venice Art Biennale, New Music Dublin, Music Current, and Dublin Fringe Festival, among others, and she has been composer-in-residence at Mizzou International Composers Festival, Bang on a Can Summer Festival, SOUNDscape, and Greywood Arts.
Recent projects include: NEST, an album and live performance for organ and electronics with Declan Synnott; My Year of Rest and Relaxation, commissioned by National Symphony Orchestra Ireland; and music for artist Eimear Walshe’s installation for the 2024 Venice Art Biennale, Romantic Ireland. Future projects include a new work for voices and electronics and a concert-length work for uilleann pipe quartet. Amanda is currently Lecturer in Composition at the University of Galway.
