SEASON 24/25

Connecting the Celtic nations to Asia Pacific, this programme brings together some of the most exciting voices in contemporary music. Virtuosity bounds forward in Sam Chambers award-winning piece and we showcase solo works by Sean Doherty and Liza Lim which requires wielding not one, but two bows. Celebrating new connections with Wang Lu (China/USA), Luka Venter (Aotearoa), Lisa Robertson (Scotland) and Geoff Hannan (England/Ireland) and with inspiration drawn widely from sources such as Greek mythology, Mongolian Folk Music, Orkney and St Magnus, modern Satirical TV and Italian Baroque music, this is a unique exploration of local and international composition. PROGRAMME Sam Chambers - The Dismemberment of Pentheus Luka Venter - Vestiges Lisa Robertson - Birgisherað Sean Doherty - Divisions ll Liza Lim - Invisibility Wang Lu - From the distant plains Geoff Hannan - Breaking News

Ink Still Wet is our annual celebration of cutting-edge premiere performances. Presenting five newly-commissioned works through PRSf Talent Development Network, we showcase a range of ensemble and solo works written specially for Hard Rain in 2024. These are programmed alongside new outings of revised works by Peter O’Doherty and Simon Mawhinney alongside Ian Wilson’s recent ‘When I Became the Sun’ for solo flute and ensemble. We’re delighted to partner with Northern Lights Project and Ulster University in Derry and to welcome guest performers Lina Andonovska, Alex Petcu and Ben Gannon for these premiere performances. PROGRAMME Omar Zatriqi (1987) - new work (2024) Sam Chambers (1991) - new work (2024) Anselm McDonnell (1994) - new work (2024) Simon Mawhinney (1976) - In Blue and Gold (1998/2024) --- Peter O'Doherty (1973) - Inflorescence (2020/2024) Fionnuala Fagan-Thiébot (1981) - new work (2024) Bianca Gannon (1987) - new work (2024) Ian Wilson (1964) - When I Became the Sun (2023)

Ink Still Wet is our annual celebration of cutting-edge premiere performances. Presenting five newly-commissioned works through PRSf Talent Development Network, we showcase a range of ensemble and solo works written specially for Hard Rain in 2024. These are programmed alongside new outings of revised works by Peter O’Doherty and Simon Mawhinney alongside Ian Wilson’s recent ‘When I Became the Sun’ for solo flute and ensemble. We’re delighted to partner with Northern Lights Project and Ulster University in Derry and to welcome guest performers Lina Andonovska, Alex Petcu and Ben Gannon for these premiere performances. PROGRAMME Omar Zatriqi (1987) - new work (2024) Sam Chambers (1991) - new work (2024) Anselm McDonnell (1994) - new work (2024) Simon Mawhinney (1976) - In Blue and Gold (1998/2024) --- Peter O'Doherty (1973) - Inflorescence (2020/2024) Fionnuala Fagan-Thiébot (1981) - new work (2024) Bianca Gannon (1987) - new work (2024) Ian Wilson (1964) - When I Became the Sun (2023)

Hard Rain are delighted to perform alongside Northern Ireland Opera, M’ANAM, The Ulster Consort and The Cross Border Youth Orchestra in this fundraising event for Sólás Special Needs Charity. Based on Belfast’s Ormeau Road, Sólás was established 15 years ago to provide practical supports to children and young people, (2-18yrs) with moderate to severe disabilities and their families. They are raising funds for a new purpose-built community facility. Hard Rain will perform two beautifully atmospheric pieces both inspired by poetry including Greg Caffrey’s These are the Clouds About the Fallen Sun. As Greg explains this piece was written “as an elegy, and reflects a very personal interpretation of the Yeats poem. So, rather than the accepted reading of the poem as a requiem for the demise of traditional values in the face of modernity, I have expressed here a more orthodox sense of loss. Technically the piece reflects my preoccupation, at the time of writing, with the creation of more spacious and ‘beautiful’ sound-worlds... The piece was written in memory of my late brother Marc Caffrey”. Claude Debussy’s impressionist masterpiece Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune was inspired by Mallarmé’s poem and is presented here in a new arrangement for Pierrot Quintet. PROGRAMME Greg Caffrey (1963) - These are the Clouds about the Fallen Sun (2013) Claude Debussy (1862-1918) - Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (1894 arr. 2016)

Orla McGarrity - Violin and Laoise Corrigan - Flute. Hard Rain are proud to present this recital in partnership with the Ulster Youth Orchestra. Here our two Featured Young Artists perform as soloists as well as within the ensemble. This year we have chosen Violinist Orla McGarrity, who is currently pursuing a Masters at RNCM in Manchester, and Flautist Laoise Corrigan, who is currently studying at Guildhall School of Music & Drama.  The programme is bookended by two recent works: Raymond Deane’s 2023 commission for Hard Rain Skew Weft and Kevin Free’s Kittens in the Kitchen, a finalist in the Peter Rosser Award 2024. Our Young Artists include a range of virtuosic and atmospheric solos from local composers Deirdre McKay and Daniel Quigley, alongside international counterparts: a Japanese-inspired work from Dutch composer Wil Offerman, a Dance from leading American flautist-composer Valerie Coleman, and Preludes by the Soviet-born Austrian-American Lera Auerbach. PROGRAMME Raymond Deane (1953) - Skew Weft (2023) Valerie Coleman (1970) - Danza de la Mariposa (Dance of the Butterfly) (2008) Will Offerman - Tsuru-no-Sugomori (Nesting of Cranes)  Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996) - Masque Incidental (1960) Daniel Quigley - If a Tree Falls in the Forest (2024) Deirdre McKay (1972): Secundum (2001) Lera Auerbach (1973): Preludes (1999) Kevin Free (1992): Kittens in the Kitchen (2023)

New Music Week St Andrews. In a long and distinguished career, Piers Hellawell has produced a body of work characterised by boundless invention, genuine discovery and deep integrity. His enduring creative partnerships are reflected in this programme presented by Hard Rain, with whom he has enjoyed a long-standing collaboration. As one of the UK’s most distinguished Educators (Professor of Composition at Queen’s University of Belfast 1981–2024, and now Honorary Professor of Composition at the University of St Andrews), this concert also showcases two highly talented students of Piers from the present and past. Their works will be performed alongside some of Hellawell’s most celebrated chamber pieces from across the span of his composing career. His music is published by Edition Peters (London) Ltd. St Andrews New Music Week was established in 2015 with the aim of creating a festival that draws together specialist performers to work with students on the music of emerging and establishing composers from around the world. The festival has given many notable world and territorial premieres and also forged many interdisciplinary connections. Hard Rain are delighted to be featured this year, giving workshops and performances alongside St Andrews’ students and collaborating with Grammy Award-winning Lucy Schaufer for this special portrait concert. PROGRAMME Piers Hellawell - Fictions (2015) Piers Hellawell - Copicornua (2020) Daniel Barkley (1989-2018) - Five Go to Mystery Moor (2017) Piers Hellawell - Up By The Roots (2016) Text: Sinéad Morrissey ---- Piers Hellawell - Truth or Consequences (1991) Piers Hellawell - Woodsmoke (2023) Michael Chamberlain - 3 Miniatures by G K Chesterton (2024) Piers Hellawell - Ground Truthing (2018)

Hashtag Ensemble Collaboration. Songs of Travel is a Creative Europe Cooperation Project that aims to raise awareness and foster empathy for climate change and migration through music. In collaboration with the Austrian game developers Causa Creations, Elaine composed the specifically curated soundtrack for Songs of Travel, an interactive graphic novel that explores various aspects of and collectively paints a vivid picture of the topic of migration through the personal stories of five individuals as they fled their troubled homelands of Syria, Vietnam, Italy, Turkey and Ukraine in search of new beginnings in Europe. Premiered at Music for Galway’s 2024 Cellissimo Festival with the original soundtrack performed live against a large-scale projection of the visual novel, Songs of Travel was then performed in Sweden (Fairplay Chamber Music), Norway (Valdres Sommersymfoni), the Netherlands (Piano Biënnale) and most recently featured as part of an exhibition Substanz at the Künstlerhaus Gallery in Vienna. Elaine Agnew (1967) - Songs of Travel (2024)

Hashtag Ensemble Collaboration. This Northern Irish/Polish programme for International Women’s Day features some of the most original voices in contemporary music. With challenging, provocative, political, and even amusing subject matter, Hard Rain and Hashtag merge together to explore and execute compelling works by composers with whom we independently enjoy close collaborations. This British Council funded project Against Adversity is 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. PROGRAMME Agnieszka Stulgińska (1978) - Dance with my Breath (2015?) Amelia Clarkson (1995) - The Wind Cries over the State of her House (2022/24) Żaneta Rydzewska (1991) - spit it out (2018) Anita Mawhinney (1974) - Pierrette (2025) world premiere Nina Fukuoka (1988) - Polka is a Czech Dance (2023) Deirdre Gribbin (1967) - Ghost Memories (2024) world premiere

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