Dr. Anselm McDonnell

......aaaaannnnnd (DRUMROLL)

I am SO excited to finally be announcing that my debut album, Traverser, is now available for pre-order! (RELEASE DATE: 17TH MARCH 2025)

This has been a project of blood, sweat, tears, passion, and hard work (nobody warned me how stressful the self-releasing process would be....!!) - culminating in an album of tracks that all mean so much to me as an artist.

If you pre-order the album directly from Bandcamp (either digitally or a physical copy), I will make the full amount from the purchase (great for independent artists). It will of course also be available on all the streaming platforms from MARCH 17TH.

This project was funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, with special thanks to:

Piano - Cahal Masterson
Recorded by - Redbox Studios
Produced by - Dr. Anselm McDonnell
Recorded at - Rosemary Street Church
Photography - Kalie Reid and Conor Toal

LINK BELOW -
https://rebeccamurphy.bandcamp.com/album/traverser

Thank you so much to Chamber Choir Ireland for inviting me to be one of the mentor composers on their Composers in the Classroom project, working with students from Carrickfergus Grammar School Aquinas Grammar and St Colman's College Newry. It's been inspiring to work with these composers over the past number of months on new pieces for choir, and they have knocked it out of the park with the standard of their work!

Busy Nov ahead! Looking forward to a number of performances next month 🥳

- 27th Oct New Dublin Voices perform 'The Mother of God' in Wexford
- 1st Nov Larissa O'Grady German premiere of 'Rusted Sugar' in Berlin, part of Zeitgeist Irland 24 Farpoint Recordings
- 7th Nov Larissa O'Grady launches album The Contemporary Music Centre featuring 'Rusted Sugar', on Farpoint Recordings
- 9th Nov New Dublin Voices Dublin premiere of 'The Mother of God'
- 21st Nov Rebecca Murphy Soprano & Cahal Masterson Piano perform my song cycle 'Kraina' and 'Moving House' at QUB Music lunchtime recital series
- 22nd Nov Taceti Ensemble perform 'A Single Tree is not called a Forest' at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok for the New Directions East Asia Conference

Thank you all for performing my music and for your friendship and collaboration 🙏

Thank you to The Strad for inviting me to write about this Saturday's London Symphony Orchestra LSO St Luke's concert!

Composer Anselm McDonnell explores microtonal music on the violin Composer Anselm McDonnell writes about curating a concert for multiple violins that pushes the boundaries of traditional tuning and intonation

Over the moon to share this! Currently writing a new work for BBC Singers commissioned by BBC Radio 3 for their 25 for 2025 programme. Slightly scary to be in such prestigious company 😅 https://www.classical-music.com/news/bbc-arts-mission

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2024/bbc-confirms-major-new-arts-and-culture-commissions

Arts Council of Northern Ireland Belfast Music The Contemporary Music Centre The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon The Journal of Music QUB Music

BBC reinforces its commitment to Arts and Culture with major new commissions across TV and Radio Wealth of new BBC programming provides an unrivalled arts and culture offering across TV, Radio, and online

Episode 3 of Season 3 is here 🎶

Get listening at faithinthearts.show (or wherever you stream that sweet podcast content! 🙌🏻 )

Marlita Hill Alastair Gordon Sputnik: Faith & Arts are joined by guest host, Dr. Anselm McDonnell, an Irish/Welsh Composer based in Belfast, working with experimental and avant garde compositions.

Thank you to JAM & Onyx Brass for this excellent performance of Rasp in London back in March https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mmTOd_ROx4

Had a lovely few days at the Cork International Choral Festival last week, a stunning premiere performance of my piece Gallagher by Chamber Choir Ireland conducted by Matthew Quinn. It was a real honour that Rory's brother Dónal and other family members attended the concert, along with poet Tim MacGabhann. And now, 14 years apart, I have photos of two Rory tribute sculptures, from each end of the country! Thanks to Irish Examiner and Yay Cork for the articles.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsandculture/arid-41389237.html

https://www.yaycork.ie/5000-voices-strong-cork-international-choral-festival-a-resounding-success/

Thank you to Ed at the Irish Examiner for this in-depth interview about the upcoming premiere of 'Gallagher' this Friday Cork International Choral Festival with Chamber Choir Ireland conducted by Matthew Quinn. Text by Tim MacGabhann (who is coming from Mexico to attend the performance!) and composed on a Centre Culturel Irlandais The Contemporary Music Centre residency.

Rory Gallagher Rewriting Rory

Rory Gallagher inspires piece in Cork Choral Festival: 'His ideas are so iconic' The world premiere of Anselm McDonnell's piece will be be performed at Cork International Choral Festival

Honoured to have had my cello piece Bánú an Lae, written for Martin Johnson, nominated as part of Ireland's submission to the 2025 World Music Days festival alongside these fantastic composers! 🤩🤩🤩

The Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland, the official Irish Section of the ISCM, is delighted to announce 6 works which have been put forward for the consideration of the 2025 World New Music Days festival jury:

🔵 Kerry Hagan - 'lineament' (2019)
🔵 Ruaidhri Mannion - 'Clapsholas na Maidine' (2021)
🔵 Anselm McDonnell - 'Three Words for Light' III. Bánú an Lae (2021)
🔵 John McLachlan - 'Qualia I' (2024)
🔵 Jonathan Nangle - 'Artificial Blissful State' (2016)
🔵 Ailís Ní Ríain - 'Born Unfixed to Bend and Break and Leave Behind' (2023)

Of these 6 pieces, at least one will be programmed for performance at the 2025 World New Music Days international contemporary music festival which takes place in Portugal from 30 May - 7 June.

Read more at CMC News 🔗 https://loom.ly/xMAd7Pw

Congratulations to one of my composition students, Amy, who is one of the prizewinners for UCD Composition Ensemble competition for secondary school students.

The UCD School of Music presents a programme of all new works composed by its composition students, as well as the inaugural UCD Composition Prize awarded to the best new compositions written by Irish secondary school music students! Join us on April 19th in the Kevin Barry Room at 8pm!

Book now: https://www.nch.ie/all-events-listing/ucd-composition-ensemble/