This year’s composer-in-residence will be Clark Winslow Ross, one of Canada’s most active composers and Associate Professor of Music at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Born in Venezuela, Clark Ross’ compositions have frequent radio broadcasts, recitals and concerts throughout Canada and the US. This will be his first time in Ireland.

According to Eric Sweeney, Head of Music at Waterford Institute of Technology, one of the composer’s ongoing projects has involved promoting the development of student composers through teaching, workshops and the programming of concerts of student works. He also produces a yearly recital of his guitar students.

“This background makes Clark Ross especially well-suited to the role of composer-in-residence. He will lead a series of composition masterclasses throughout the week. These will in turn culminate in a recital featuring the participants own work in the Good Shepherd Chapel at 1.15 p.m. on Friday, January 31.

Another exciting feature of this year’s programme is Lily’s Labyrinth, a children’s opera to be premiered at Garter Lane Arts Centre on January 27. Commissioned by the Waterford Institute of Technology Music School, the opera is composed by Marian Ingoldsby with libretto by Ben Hennessy of Red Kettle Theatre Company.

Supported by the Arts Council, the opera is directed by Liam Meagher and conducted by Brian Brown, who will also be involved with Philip Collins in a series of school workshops, sponsored by Waterford City Council. There will be evening performances of Lily’s Labyrinth at Garter Lane Theatre on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (January 27, 29, 31) with matinees at 3.30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday (February 1 and 2).

January 28 will see Waterford New Music Week 2003 showcase the works of James Wilson, who at 80 is Ireland’s senior living composer. A former Professor of Composition in the Royal Irish Academy of Music and course director of the Ennis/IMRO Composition Summer School, his extensive output has been performed and broadcast throughout Ireland, the UK and Scandinavia and includes seven operas and 12 concertos as well as numerous vocal, chamber and instrumental works. He is a founder-member of Aosdána, Ireland’s academy of creative artists.

As part of Waterford New Music Week 2003, a video of Wilson’s opera “Letters To Theo” will be shows at Garter Lane Arts Centre where the composer will also be interviewed by the RTE producer, Ann Makeover, before a concert of his works is staged in the Good Shepherd Chapel.

On Thursday, January 30, Marta Erdei, a Hungarian pianist now attached to the Royal Irish Academy of Music will present a masterclass in piano. Later that evening, the leading Irish contemporary music ensemble — XOX 21 — will perform works by Clark Ross, James Wilson, Raymond Deane and Eric Sweeney in the Good Shepherd Chapel.

Another integral element of Waterford New Music Week 2003 — the fourth such event — will be a series of lunchtime concerts designed to open the festival to a wider audience. The series will begin on Monday, January 27 with a concert featuring the Band of the 1st Southern Brigade of the Irish Army. On Tuesday, Dylan Bible and friends will entertain an audience at the Book Centre in John Robert’s Square with their “Jazz In The Bookstore” concert.

The lunchtime concert on Wednesday, January 29 will see Waterford Institute of Technology students directed by Helen Arthur in an electro-acousitc concert. On the following day, final year degree students from the Institute’s School of Music will perform at 1.15 p.m. in Garter Lane while the final lunchtime concert on Friday, January 31, will feature student compositions worked on during the masterclass with Clark Ross. 

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