Deirdre McKay Recordings

From rural County Down, Deirdre’s work has featured at London’s Southbank, The Wigmore Hall, The Phillips Collection, Washington, Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam, Orléans Concours International, Gothenburg International Chamber Music Festival, The National Sawdust, Brooklyn, Symphony Space and Carnegie Hall, New York.

Recipient of a Director’s Choice Award from Boston Metro Opera’s International Composers’ Competition and an Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s Major Individual Artist Award, Deirdre received a Paul Hamlyn Composer Award, London, in 2018. In 2023, Deirdre’s work represented Ireland at the ISCM World New Music Days, Cape Town, South Africa.

Commissions and performances include works for Dublin International Piano Competition, Northern Ireland Opera, State Choir Latvija for Louth Contemporary Music, BBC Singers, Chamber Choir Ireland, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Boston Firebird Ensemble, Vertavo, Vanbrugh and RTÉ Con Tempo string quartets, Access Contemporary Music Chicago, New Music Dublin, Sound Festival, Aberdeen, Fidelio Trio, Dutch violist Elisabeth Smalt, pianists Andrew Zolinksy and Antti Siirala, Chloë Hanslip & Danny Driver, Darragh Morgan & Mary Dullea, Dušica Mladenović &Ian Wilson, Clíona Doris, Concorde and the Crash Ensemble.

Collaborations have included new works with visual artist Jean Duncan and writer/ actor Richard Dormer. Her work has been incorporated into films featuring at the Venice, Dublin and Montreal International Film Festivals. Following a composition Masters and doctorate at the University of Manchester and Queen’s University, Belfast, Deirdre studied privately with Kevin Volans.

Her music has been released on the Lorelt, Diatribe and RTÉ Lyric FM labels and broadcast by BBC Radio 3, RTÉ, Deutschlandradio Kultur and New York’s WNYC and WQXR.