Horse Ape Bird: Behind the Creation of a New Youth Opera
This seminar will provide insight into the in-progress making of a brand new opera. Horse Ape Bird has been commissioned by Music Generation Kildare, Music Generation Meath, and Irish National Opera as their first specially created youth opera, and will be performed at Maynooth’s Aula Maxima in June this year. In this seminar, we look at different parts of the opera’s development, including aspects of its drama, text-setting, and musical composition, as well as the broader ideas behind the opera’s stories and subject matter, and the artistic collaborations involved.
Dr David Coonan is an Irish composer based between Dublin and London, and a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and the Royal Academy of Music, London. His works have been commissioned and performed by the BBC Symphony, the London Symphony, and National Symphony and RTE Concert Orchestras among others. Recent/upcoming projects include collaborations with choreographer Liz Roche (on Dēmos for Liz Roche Company and Crash Ensemble), pianist Maire Carroll, and playwright Dylan Coburn Gray (on Horse Ape Bird for Irish National Opera and Music Generation).