The “Sligo New Music Festival”:https://themodel.ie/music/sligo-new-music-festival (SNMF) exists to present the best in contemporary chamber music, particularly that which is new to Ireland; over the years we have introduced composers who have strong reputations elsewhere but whose music is not well-known here (Sciarrino, Rebecca Saunders, Toovey, Cattaneo) and have brought top-quality performing ensembles to Ireland who have often not been here before (musikFabrik, Alter Ego, Ixion).

Naturally the festival is very much to do with my own taste, but as that is remarkably wide-ranging and varied it means that the programmes changes radically from year to year and, apart from being sure that quality will be to the fore, there is definitely an element of surprise involved each time.

Normally the festival is composer orientated, but this year it is more performer-centric, with two of Australia’s finest – “Oren Ambarchi”:http://www.orenambarchi.com/ and “Genevieve Lacey”:http://www.genevievelacey.com/ – travelling especially to play for us, both individually and, for the first time in public, together.

With just a few days to go before this year’s SNMF, I’m excited about what we’re going to hear: two outstanding Australian musicians, each at the top of their game, we are in for a real treat!

Download the full festival programme “here”:https://themodel.ie/file/30/snm-web-ready.pdf