New Music Dublin has announced its programme for the 2026 festival, which takes place from 15 to 19 April at the National Concert Hall, Project Arts Centre and Windmill QTR.
The festival this year includes two performances from the German group Ensemble Musikfabrik on Thursday 16 April, making a return after their 2019 performance of works by Frank Zappa. This year, the group performs a number of Irish premieres including Ailís Ní Ríain’s and still it breathes, which the ensemble commissioned and recently premiered in Tallinn and Riga. They will also perform works by Berlin-based New York composer Jessie Marino and Greek composer Georges Aperghis.
On Friday 17 April, National Symphony Orchestra Ireland under conductor Jérôme Kuhn will present a concert performance of Gerald Barry’s new opera Salome (2025). Featuring soprano Alison Scherzer and Amy Ní Fhearraigh, the work was premiered by Theatre Magdeburg last year and described as ‘a riot’ by Opera Now, ‘its sheer absurdist energy drawing you completely into its world.’
Donnacha Dennehy’s Grammy Award-winning Land of Winter will be performed by Crash Ensemble at the NCH on Saturday 18 April. The twelve-movement work, which received two Grammy nominations and won Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance award for the recording by Alarm Will Sound, explores Ireland’s seasons. Speaking to The Journal of Music in Ireland this month about the work and the Grammy, Dennehy said the work explores ‘the way the light delineates the year in Ireland’. Land of Winter is part of a double bill, with Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and Seán Mac Erlaine performing music from their new album Old Segotia in the first half.
On Sunday, Crash will perform the world premiere of a work by Ivor Novello-winning composer Hannah Kendall, titled Building a Burning House, alongside works by Tansy Davies, David Fennessy and Jonathan Nangle.
Also on Sunday, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra under Gavin Maloney will present two world premieres: Jane O’Leary’s Fanfare: From 2RN to RTÉ – Celebrating 100 Years, which celebrates the centenary of the national broadcaster, and Kevin O’Connell’s Paradiso, a Dante-inspired work for soprano (Aoife Miskelly), baritone (Seán Boylan), chorus (New Dublin Voices) and orchestra.
Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble return to the festival on Friday 17 April to perform Anthony Braxton’s improvisatory Ghost Trance Music as well as a new work by Ioana Petcu-Colan and Sarah Watts’ Multiphonic Miniatures. The ensemble will be directed by Brian Irvine.
The Diatribe record label will host four concerts during the festival at the Project Arts Centre, including Patrick Zimmerli’s contemporary opera Lucia Joyce; a concert featuring works by violist and composer Garth Knox; the launch of improvisers Insufficient Funs’ debut album Chunk; and the European debut of Strider, the duo of violist Joanna Mattrey and artist Steven Long.
Strider – Steven Long and Joanna Mattrey (Photo: Lenny Gonzalez)
Nadar Ensemble
On Thursday 16 April, the festival will feature the Nadar Ensemble from Belgium, who were a highlight of the Music Current festival in 2023 and 2024, described in the Journal of Music in Ireland review as ‘dazzling audiences… with a highly theatrical programme’. The group will perform Irish premieres by Eveline Vervliet, Paul Scully, Nina Fukuoka and Matthew Grouse.
Other highlights of the festival include Het Collectief performing Morton Feldman, marking the centenary of the composer; Canadian ensemble Soundstreams performing Claude Vivier, Nicole Lizée, Thierry Tidrow and Ana Sokolović; Chamber Choir Ireland with works by Jennifer Walshe, Ben Nobuto and Cecilie Ore; Gare St Lazare Ireland performing Marcel Mihalovici’s chamber opera The Last Tape, arranged by Andrew Synnott and featuring British tenor Mark Padmore; Sam Perkin’s ‘hybrid symphony’ Children in the Universe; NCH Cór na nÓg with an environment-inspired concert; and the networking event NMDX organised by the Contemporary Music Centre.
Commenting on this year’s festival, Festival Director John Harris said:
New Music Dublin has always presented the best of Irish new music to an international audience – and the best of international work to an Irish audience. This year’s programme in particular celebrates this by bringing together outstanding artists from Ireland, Europe and North America, all working across a wide range of approaches from orchestral works to exploratory experimental performances. What has always connected everyone in the festival is a shared curiosity about sound, about listening, and about how and why music is being made now.
Booking is now open for the festival. For further details, visit www.newmusicdublin.ie.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source journalofmusic.com ’
