The Crash Ensemble's first concert was a sold-out event in the Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinty College Dublin in November 1997. For this concert, the ensemble brought over Dutch composer Louis Andriessen. In addition to performing three of Andriessen's works, the ensemble premiered a new piece by artistic director Donnacha Dennehy entitled Junk Box Fraud, which had the mostly young audience on its feet, cheering.
In March 1998, the ensemble travelled to the UCC Festival of Contemporary Music in Cork, to present a concert of American, Dutch and Irish music. This concert marked the first collaboration between the Crash Ensemble and American composer Zach Browning, with the ensemble giving the Irish premieres of two of Browning's pieces. The Crash Ensemble was also instrumental in bringing Zack Browning over for the festival to adjudicate in a composition composition for young composers and contribute to the festival's series of talks, alongside Crash Ensemble artistic director Donnacha Dennehy.
This was followed by two concerts in project @ the mint, Dublin in September, 1998. The first was part of Composers' Ink's weekend festival and was designed to showcase the music of its members: Roger Doyle, Raymond Deane, Benjamin Dwyer, Fergus Johnston and Donnacha Dennehy. The second concert featured pieces by major composers of the twentietth century (Cage, Stockhausen and Reich), in addition to newer composer Kaaja Saariaho and American Julia Wolfe. For those concerts, the ensemble brought over renowned American flautist camilla Hiotenga and young English oboist Dominic Kelly as special guests.
The success of these two concerts prompted the ensemble to return to the project @ the mint in December 1998 to give the world premiere of an interactive work by American composer and computer wizard Tod Winkler. The piece, which combined dance, video and sound, was te result of a collaboration between the composer and dancer Cindy Cummings, and culminated inan exciting live performance with video and sound clips triggere by the dancer's movements.
In February 1999, the Crash Ensemble gave two more concerts in project @ the mint, featuring music by Philip Glass, Salvatore Martirano, Gerard Grisey and young Irish composer Michael Keaney. The ensemble also hosted a lecture/recital by the Indian-born electroacoustic composer Clarence barlow as well as an open forum/discussion on music and technology, with the deliberately provocative title 'Technology: the life support system for a dying art?'
For information on the Crash Ensemble contact:
Roisin Maher.
Tel/Fax 01 6615605
Donnacha Dennehy. Trinity College, Dublin.
Tel 01 6082503
Fax 01 6709509.
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