Siobhán Cleary

File:Siobhán Cleary.jpg

Siobhán Cleary (born 10 May 1970) is an Irish composer. Her most successful compositions have been her orchestral works Alchemy and Cokaygne and her choral piece Theophilus Thistle and the Myth of Miss Muffett. Her opera Vampirella was first performed in Dublin in March 2017.{{cite web|url=https://www.cmc.ie/features/siobhan-cleary-vampirella|title=Siobhán Cleary on her new opera 'Vampirella'|date=16 March 2017|website=cmc.ie|accessdate=14 November 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://journalofmusic.com/criticism/gothic-outsiders|title=Gothic Outsiders|website=The Journal of Music|accessdate=14 November 2017}} She is a member of Aosdána.

Early life and education

Born in Dublin, Cleary started to compose from an early age, often writing pieces while she was supposed to be practising at the piano. When she began to study music at Maynooth University, she was initially inspired by Luciano Berio's Sinfonia, and soon afterwards by the works of the Irish composer Gerald Barry, the French Olivier Messiaen and the Hungarian György Ligeti. She continued her studies at Queen's University Belfast and Trinity College, Dublin. In addition, she has followed courses in composition with the Italian composer Franco Donatoni and the Dutch Louis Andriessen and received private tuition from the American Tom Johnson and the South African Kevin Volans. With the Italian composer Ennio Morricone and the American Don Brandon Ray, she has also studied film scoring.{{cite web|url=https://www.cmc.ie/composers/siobhan-cleary|title=Siobhán Cleary|publisher=Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland|accessdate=28 November 2017 }}

Composition

Inspired by the alchemists' Opus Alchymicum which describes how cheaper metals are transmuted into gold, Cleary's orchestral work Alchemy (2001) is, like the stages in the Opus, presented in four parts: it evolves from the slow nigrendo, the moderate albedo, the strong citronatus, and the burning rubedo.{{cite web|url=https://soundcloud.com/siobhancleary/alchemy-rte|title=Alchemy (RTE)|publisher=Soundcloud|accessdate=28 November 2017 }} The work was performed by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in January 2002.{{cite web|url=https://www.cmc.ie/music/alchemy|title=Alchemy (2001)|publisher=Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland|accessdate=28 November 2017 }}

Her tone poem Cokaygne (2009), which, like Alchemy, was commissioned by RTÉ for the National Symphony Orchestra, is based on a poem and old sources which evoke a land of extreme luxury and contentment.{{cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/2.749/how-to-stay-composed-in-an-unsure-career-1.776943|title=How to stay composed in an unsure career|author=Dervan, Michael|newspaper=The Irish Times|date=23 November 2009}} The elaborately orchestrated piece was performed by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in November 2009, Vladimir Altschuler conducting.{{cite web|url=https://www.cmc.ie/music/cokaygne|title=Cockaygne|publisher=Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland|accessdate=29 November 2017}} It was performed by the RTÉNSO once again in June 2016, this time under the baton of Alan Buribayev.{{cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/changing-of-the-guard-at-rt%C3%A9-orchestras-presents-an-opportunity-1.2667193|title=Changing of the guard at RTÉ orchestras presents an opportunity|author=Dervan, Michael|newspaper=The Irish Times|date=1 June 2016|accessdate=28 November 2017 }}

Cleary's choral work Theophilus Thistle and the Myth of Miss Muffett (2010), commissioned by the Cork Choral Festival was first performed in April 2011 by Chamber Choir Ireland directed by Paul Hillier.{{cite web|url=https://www.cmc.ie/music/theophilus-thistle-myth-miss-muffett|title=Theophilus Thistle & The Myth of Miss Muffett |publisher=Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland|accessdate=28 November 2017 }} The work is based on a series of tongue twisters and other strange combinations of words popular in various European languages and dialects, moving from Italy, through Germany and Spain, finishing in Ireland.{{cite web|url=https://soundcloud.com/siobhancleary/theophilus-thistle-part-2|title=Theophilus Thistle Part 2|publisher=Soundcloud|accessdate=29 November 2017 }} In 2013, it was performed twice by Chamber Choir Ireland in Dublin and Cork in connection with Ireland's presidency of the European Union.{{cite web|url=https://www.chamberchoirireland.com/events/a-eurocry/|title=A Eurocry|publisher=Chamber Choir Ireland|accessdate=29 November 2017 }} The journalist and music critic Terry Blain commented on the choir's "dazzlingly virtuosic performance" in Belfast in 2013, qualifying the piece as "a tour de force of 21st-century vocal chicanery, a clever and richly entertaining composition".{{cite web|url=http://www.culturenorthernireland.org/reviews/music/love-other-nonsense|title=Love & Other Nonsense|publisher=Culture Northern Ireland|accessdate=29 November 2017 }} Theophilus Thistle was also performed the same year in the United States as part of the "Imagine Ireland" festival.{{cite web|url=http://imagineireland.ie/imagine-ireland-programme-330/|title=Imagine Ireland Programme|publisher=Imagine Ireland|accessdate=29 November 2017 }}

The chamber opera Vampirella with a libretto by Katy Hayes was first performed by students from the Royal Irish Academy of Music and the Lir National Academy of Dramatic Art at Dublin's Smock Alley Theatre in March 2017. Based on a short story by Angela Carter telling how a young English soldier is seduced by a vampire countess, it was directed by Conor Hanratty and conducted by Andrew Synnott.{{cite web|url=http://www.riam.ie/opera/|title=Vampirella|publisher=RIAM Royal Irish Academy of Music|accessdate=29 November 2017 }} Michael Dervan of The Irish Times found the electronic sounds in the score particularly effective, commenting: "Perhaps this is a case of a genuinely electronic opera trying to break out of a more conventional mold."{{cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/nymphs-shepherds-and-monsters-in-a-rural-irish-bar-1.3026521|title=Vampire seduction|author=Dervan, Michael|newspaper=The Irish Times|date=29 March 2017|accessdate=29 November 2017 }}

Awards

In 1996, Cleary received a young artists award from Pépinières européennes pour jeunes artistes, followed in 1997 by the first prize in the Arklow Music Festival Composers' Competition. In 2008, she was invited to become a member of Aosdána, an Irish association of creative artists.{{cite web|url=http://aosdana.artscouncil.ie/Members/Music/Cleary.aspx|title=Siobhán Cleary|publisher=Aosdána|accessdate=29 November 2017 }}