DEIRDRE GRIBBIN
Gribbin is an Irish composer, whose work has been described as “astonishingly accomplished” and “pure magic”-The Times on her all female produced opera “Hey Persephone!” “So powerfully expressive that it communicates its meaning instantly”- The Times and “A charismatic voice in new music”-The Guardian.
Born in Belfast, she received an Arts Foundation Award for her full-length opera ‘Hey Persephone’ which was staged at the Aldeburgh Festival and in London at the Almeida Theatre. She received a Major Individual Artist Award from ACNI in 2019 in recognition of her international profile. ‘Empire States’ was a winning finalist in the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers Competition and has been played on 26 countries. Deirdre has extended her collaborative interests to the world of science and health. ‘Hearing Your Genes Evolve’ for string quartet featured at the EU Innovative Convention in Brussels. She was also featured in the Berlinale Film Festival.
Collaborations with visual artists have resulted in 2022 in quartet, ‘Constellations’ commissioned by the Wellcome Trust’s Human Cell Atlas project. She has written music for Screen Ireland’s documentary Stolen, about the mother and Baby Homes scandal. In 2021 she completed Soul Outsider, a commission for IMMA with Crash Ensemble reflecting on the Lucian Freud Retrospective including the poem by Down Syndrome poet Ethan Stein.
In 2001 her orchestral work ‘Unity of Being’ opened the ‘UK with NY Festival in New York City after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Her work was featured in the New York Times. In 2004 her groundbreaking UK tour of her violin concerto ‘Venus Blazing’ was lit by Bruce Springsteen’s lighting designer Jeff Ravitz and directed by theatre director Lou Stein. Her work has alos been performed by the BBC Symphony and Ulster Orchestra and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Her song cycle Kindersang was performed at Lincoln Center New York in 2022.
Deirdre received a Sir Winston Churchill Fellowship to visit arts organisations in the USA and Canada who specialise in working with those with additional needs. She has implemented her findings as Artistic Director of ‘The Venus Blazing Music Theatre Trust’.
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