SEASON 24/25

We are delighted to present Cityside Sessions, an exciting new residency at Cityside Retail & Leisure Park, supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Arts & Business NI, and Cityside. This initiative aims to bring contemporary music, visual art, and immersive experiences to a wider audience through an engaging and innovative program. Running from March to April, Cityside Sessions will feature a diverse range of activities, including live performances, workshops, talks, sound art, improvisation, and immersive VR experiences. We are also open to new creative ideas that align with the project’s vision of bringing contemporary art and music to a diverse audience. Location: Cityside Retail & Leisure Park, ground floor (between The Pod and B&M) HRSE is currently seeking musicians, performers, and creatives interested in: Performing – solo or in groups Leading workshops or talks Hosting open rehearsals This residency offers a unique platform for artistic collaboration and cultural engagement. If you are interested in taking part, we would love to hear from you. Individual events will be announced soon.

The three composers featured on this programme are field recording practitioners who explore sites sensitive to environmental change. These sites have been the focus of continuous listening and recording practices over a number of years, each revealing its distinct sonic character. In works that encapsulate a particular ecosystem—forests, rivers and peatlands—these composers guide us through unique habitats that share sonic qualities alongside their special characteristics, including varying levels of human interaction and intervention. These are works that cultivate active listening in both performers and audiences—a kind of listening in the field—explored through an array of compositional approaches, including graphic and audio scores, field recordings from each of the sites, and live electronic elements. Presented in an immersive spatial audio format known as ambisonics, this programme invites audiences into a transformative shared listening experience. PROGRAMME These hills used to be forests - Robert Coleman Soft Ground - Lara Weaver Crana - Pedro Rebelo

All-day Pop-up Performances. Hard Rain and Ulster Youth Orchestra count down the hours to their joint ensemble performance at 5pm, appearing around the atrium of Titanic Belfast at every hour with short solo and duo performances. Visitors can wander between different spaces during the performances, hearing the music from many different angles. The Sinking of the Titanic is inspired by the story that the band on the RMS Titanic continued to perform as the ship sank in 1912. It imagines how the music performed by the band would reverberate through the water for some time after they ceased performing. Composed between 1969 and 1972, the work is now considered one of the classics of experimental minimalist music. The only previous performance in Belfast was given by the Gavin Bryars Ensemble in 2012, during the centennial year of the disaster. Gavin Bryars - The Sinking of the Titanic (1969)

In Association with Ulster Touring Opera. This Irish/French programme presents four pieces, each remarkably haunting in its own individual way. Greg Caffrey’s new song-cycle is based on Michael Longley’s 2022 collection of poems whilst Dominique Lemaitre in this dedicated piece for Hard Rain Ensemble asks ‘Is it a time lost or a time found? Or simply a suspended time?’ Gareth Williams joins the ensemble for his first Irish Songs from the Last Page, an exploration of where the stories and books that we read take us, and how those stories stay with us and shape us and intertwine with our memories. And with particular poignancy we present the Irish premiere of Sylvain Quoirin’s beautiful six-movement suite of songs based on Meabh Quoirin’s poetry about the loss of her beloved daughter Nóra. PROGRAMME Greg Caffrey: The Slain Birds (2023) world premiere Dominique Lemaitre - Les Plis du Temps (2024) world premiere Gareth Williams - Songs from the Last Page of Guests of the Nation (2024) world premiere Sylvain Quoirin - Nóra (2023) Irish premiere

Italian Virtuosity presents two of Italy’s great composers connected by this 2025 anniversary year (born 240 years apart) and also by their unrivalled commitment to redefining instrumental virtuosity. The programme showcases works that span each composer’s lifetime, highlighting their own personal development alongside the impressive and sustained quality of their musical output. This concert is also conceived as a visual expression of virtuosity; by collaborating with Maiden Voyage Dance we will explore the unique movement within each Sequenza & Sonata. Established in Belfast by Artistic Director Nicola Curry in 2001, Maiden Voyage is principally funded annually by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, supported by Belfast City Council and by individual Trusts and Foundations and recently through co-commission awards from the new all-island dance company Luail. PROGRAMME Luciano Berio (1925-2003) - Sequenza l for Flute (1958) Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1727) - Harpsichord sonata in D minor kk. 9 Luciano Berio - Sequenza Vlll for Violin (1976) Domenico Scarlatti - Harpsichord sonata in A major kk.113 Luciano Berio - Sequenza lXc for Bass Clarinet (1980) Domenico Scarlatti - Harpsichord sonata in G major kk.427 Luciano Berio - Sequenza XlV (2002)

Hashtag Ensemble Collaboration. The second part of our collaboration with Hashtag Ensemble, this concert at AżTak festival is a British Council funded project ‘Against Adversity’ presented as part of the 2025 UK/Poland partnership. This aspect of the programme sees these two cutting-edge ensembles, both formed in 2013, join forces for performances in Belfast and Warsaw. Highlighting the festival’s theme for 2025 of Contemplation, we perform works by some of our closest collaborators: Greg Caffrey, Amy Rooney and Ryan Molloy, all of which bring a distinctly reflective and personal process to the music. PROGRAMME Greg Caffrey (1963)- These are the Clouds About the Fallen Sun Amy Rooney - Flow State Ryan Molloy - Gortnagarn ll