Featured Composer
2020
“exceptionally imaginative in the sound world she creates”
Irish Examiner
Irish composer Deirdre McKay’s work has featured at London’s Southbank, Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam, Gothenburg International Chamber Music Festival, Orléans Concours International, The Wigmore Hall, London, The National Sawdust, Brooklyn, The Phillips Collection, Washington, National Concert Hall, Dublin, Symphony Space & Carnegie Hall, New York.
Awards include a Director’s Choice Award from Boston Metro Opera’s International Composers’ Competition, Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s Major Individual Artist Award and a Paul Hamlyn Composer Award, London.
Commissions and performances include works for Northern Ireland Opera, State Choir Latvija (LCMS), Chamber Choir Ireland, BBC Singers, Ulster Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Boston Firebird Ensemble, RTÉ Con Tempo, Vanbrugh, Norwegian Vertavo and Swiss Terpsycordes string quartets, Access Contemporary Music Chicago, New Music Dublin, pianists Andrew Zolinsky and Antti Siirala, Chloë Hanslip & Danny Driver, Dutch violist Elisabeth Smalt, Calefax Reed Quintet, Irish artists Clíona Doris, Robin Tritschler, Darragh Morgan and Mary Dullea, Catherine Leonard and Hugh Tinney, Elizabeth Cooney and Finghin Collins, Concorde and the Crash Ensemble.
Her music has been released on the Lorelt, Diatribe and RTÉ Lyric FM labels and broadcast by BBC Radio 3, Deutschlandradio Kultur and New York’s WNYC and WQXR.
www.deirdremckay.co.uk