NOCTURNE

line upon line percussion trio:

Cullen Faulk, Matthew Teodori and Jordan Walsh

NOCTURNE World Premiere

Premiere of a new evening length work by composer Ann Cleare, created in collaboration with theatre-maker Shanna May Breen and multimedia artist Maura McDonnell. 

For millennia, the stars have guided how we live and have helped to form some of our earliest and most important mythologies. In the sky, we have found gods, the measurement of time, chemical secrets, and divine warnings, yet the more of its secrets we decode, the more mysteries we discover and the deeper we are drawn in…

Part music, part theatre, part collective wandering/wondering, NOCTURNE is a dynamic 90-minute work that unfolds across the indoor and outdoor spaces of the historic Dunsink Observatory. From ancient maps to optical instruments to modern spectroscopy, the audience will sonically and visually experience how the night sky has been observed throughout history, exploring what has both guided and puzzled philosophical and scientific imaginations across time.

Expect transmissions from space, experiments with light, alignments from ancient worlds, encounters with a spiral galaxy discovered in Birr in 1845, outdoor walking, instrument building, and an illuminated large red orb, symbolic of a red dwarf, the last star that will shine in our universe ten trillion years from now, all directed by the musicians of line upon line percussion trio.

A modern-day Nocturne, designed for sites that celebrate and protect the dark skies, created by composer Ann Cleare, in collaboration with theatre-maker Shanna May Breen and multimedia artist Maura McDonnell. Commissioned by The Ernst von Siemens Foundation with support from The Arts Council of Ireland.

Ann Cleare:

Ann Cleare is a composer and technologist, creating through the medium of sound. This practice extends to the areas of concert music, opera, sonic environments, and hybrid instrumental design. She is particularly fascinated by timbre and texture and how these parameters can be activated with the use of technology to explore places, people, and ideas through sound. In all her work, the goal lies in expressing the sound of now, including how this relates to past and future worlds, exploring the sonic texture of what it means to be alive in the 21st century.

An internationally celebrated composer, Ann’s work has been presented by major broadcasters such as the BBC, NPR, ORF, SWR, WDR, and has been presented on some of the world’s most renowned stages, such as The Berlin Philharmonie, Walt Disney Hall in L.A, Lincoln Centre in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, and HARPA in Reykjavík. Ann is an Assistant Professor of Music and Media Technologies at Trinity College Dublin and her scores are published by Project Schott New York. Further information can be found on her website: https://annclearecomposer.com

Shanna May Breen

Inspired by climate conversations, performance marker Shanna May Breen creates multi-platform artworks to carbonate change. 

Previous works have seen her plant a micro native forest in her hometown to devise a performance about trees - Root, Dublin Theatre Festival 2021, compose a “plastic pilgrimage” on board a coastal train - Mould Into Shape, Dublin Fringe Festival 2019 and build a miniature mega city live on stage with her mum - Superstructure, The Peacock 2019. In 2018 Shanna was awarded the Dublin Fringe Festival Next Stage Wild Card Award for The Sound of Phoenix, a travelling soundscape of Phoenix Park on board a 1920s bus. 

Most recently, Shanna curated and produced GULL, a site-specific city project dedicated to the Dublin (sea)gulls - a co-commission by the Abbey Theatre and Dublin Fringe Festival 2022. The project featured the work of five multidisciplinary artists, a Currach rower and an Ornithologist. GULL was developed alongside the Pan Pan International Mentorship Programme 2022. Further information: https://www.shannamaybreen.com 

Maura McDonnell:

Maura McDonnell is an Irish artist and Assistant Professor at Trinity College Dublin. Maura's art practice is in the visual arts and experimental film/media art fields. Her main artistic output focuses on creating abstract experimental abstract animation film, she calls this art, a visual music art. Maura's visual music works have been screened, presented at music concerts, animation festivals, film screenings, academic symposia and in art installations all over the world, such as Australia, Canada, China, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Singapore, UK, US. Her visual music works have won several awards and honorary mentions, including a visual music award in 2011 in the visual music award event in Frankfurt, Germany. Recently, she has been invited to present retrospectives of her abstract animation work in master classes for the International Monstra Animation Festival, in Lisbon (2024) and the Punto y Raya Festival Academy, in Barcelona (2024). Further information: https://www.mauramcdonnellart.com

line Upon line 

Formed in 2009 at The University of Texas at Austin, line upon line exists to champion living composers and pursue the musically unfamiliar. 

The Austin-based trio has premiered well over 100 new works for percussion and has worked with composers in residencies at Harvard University, Stanford University, Cal Poly, University of California at Santa Cruz, University of Texas at Austin, Kunstuniversität Graz, University of Huddersfield, University of Liverpool, City University of London and Monash University (Melbourne).

Internationally, the group has performed at the Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music (Australia), Open Circuit Festival (Liverpool), Novalis Festival (Osijek), in Basel (Hochschule für Musik), Berlin (Unerhörte Musik), Cologne (Loft Köln), Freiburg (Hochschule für Musik), Graz (Open Music), Koper (Koper Biennale) and London (City, University of London), and has taught at the Conservatoriums in Melbourne and Sydney, London (Guildhall School of Music & Drama), Manchester (Royal Northern College of Music) and Tours (Le pôle Aliénor).

Nationally, line upon line has performed and taught in twenty-five different states, at two Percussive Arts Society International Conventions, the Festival of New American Music (Sacramento) and The Myrna Loy Center (Helena, MT). 

line upon line consists of Cullen Faulk, Matthew Teodori and Jordan Walsh. 
Further info: https://www.lineuponlinepercussion.org

Presented by New Music Dublin
Sponsored by RTE/NCH/Arts Council Ireland