Divine Art’s new-music division, Métier, is to release an album of music for flute by Irish composer John Buckley. All will be premiere recordings, to be made under the composer’s supervision with engineer Chris Corrigan, in Belfast, Northern Ireland.  Chris has produced several previous albums for Divine Art and Métier, labels that are developing a strong relationship with the first-class art-music scene in Ireland.

The composer introduces the new set:

“Compositions for flute constitute a significant aspect of my musical output as a composer and now span a period of fifty years. Between 1967 and 1974, I studied flute with the legendary Doris Keogh, in the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin and she greatly encouraged my early efforts at composition. In the interim I have written a wide range of compositions involving flute: solo flute, flute ensembles, various chamber music combinations, a flute concerto, and works for flute and piano.

Composed in 1973, the earliest flute work in my catalogue is Three Pieces for Solo Flute, while the most recent work is In Memoriam Doris Keogh, for flute and piano which was completed in 2022. Both works are included in this album.

Over the years, I have composed a great number of works for Ireland’s leading concert flautist William Dowdall. These include Two Fantasias for Alto Flute (2004), Sea Echoes (2008) for flute with glissando headjoint and Constellations (2009) for multiple overdubbed flutes (bass flute, alto flute, C flute, piccolo).  All of these works are included in the current album.

There are two works specifically composed for the album: Five Études for Two Flutes and In Memoriam Doris Keogh. The études are reinterpretations of earlier pieces for two violins, while In Memoriam Doris Keogh is a three-movement piece for flute and piano reflecting on my flute teacher’s broad musical interests.

I am delighted to be able to work with such wonderful flautists as Emma Coulthard (another former pupil of Doris Keogh), Emma Halnan and pianist David Appleton, who also performs two short pieces for piano solo.”

Boireann (MSV 28628)

• Five Etudes for Two Flutes
• Boireann (flute/piano)
• In Memoriam Doris Keogh (flute/piano)
• Constellations (flutes)
• Three Pieces for solo flute
• Two Fantasias for solo flute
• Sea Echoes (solo flute)
• Airflow (solo flute)
• + Two solo piano works

(all by John Buckley)

Artists:

Emma Coulthard (flutes)
Emma Hanlan (flute)
David Appleton (piano)

Availability: CD and digital audio
Recording dates:  flute solos and duos: April 11 & 12.  Other works: August 2022
Release date: to be confirmed, probably Jan/Feb 2023.

John Buckley

Born in Templeglantine, Co. Limerick, in 1951, John Buckley studied flute with Doris Keogh and composition with James Wilson at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin. His subsequent composition studies were in Cardiff with the Welsh composer Alun Hoddinott, and with John Cage. He has written a diverse range of work, from solo instruments to full orchestra. The list includes numerous commissions, amongst them Concerto for Organ and Orchestra and Campane in Aria for the National Concert Hall, Rivers of Paradise for the official opening of the Concert Hall at the University of Limerick, Maynooth Te Deum for the bicentenary of St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, and A Mirror into the Light for Camerata Ireland’s inaugural concert, as well as many works for RTÉ.
 
John Buckley’s catalogue now extends to over 110 works, which have been performed and broadcast in more than fifty countries worldwide. His compositions have represented Ireland on five occasions at the International Rostrum of Composers and at five ISCM festivals. Amongst his awards are the Varming Prize (1977), the Macaulay Fellowship (1978), the Arts Council’s Composers’ Bursary (1982), and the Toonder Award (1991). In 1984 he was elected a member of Aosdána, Ireland’s state-sponsored academy of creative artists. His music has been recorded on the Anew, Altarus, Black Box, Marco Polo, Lyric FM, Atoll, Celestial Harmonies, Divine Art and Métier labels. He has made numerous broadcasts on music and music education for RTÉ and Lyric FM, and his compositions are available on over twenty commerical recordings.
 
He has been awarded both a PhD and a DMus by the National University of Ireland and was senior lecturer in music at St Patrick’s College, Dublin City University, between 2001 and 2017. A monograph on his life and work, Constellations: The Life and Music of John Buckley by Benjamin Dwyer, was published in May 2011 by Carysfort Press. Further information can be found at johnbuckleycomposer.com

Emma Coulthard

Emma Coulthard studied Flute and Recorder at the Royal Irish Academy of Music with Doris Keogh, and Musicology at Trinity College Dublin. Emma took a keen interest in contemporary music from early in her career, collaborating with Irish Composers including John Buckley, Martin O’Leary and Paul Hayes in the early 1990s. Emma was the soloist for Paul Hayes’s Prix Italia piece ‘Mass Production” and as a singer worked with Michael Holohan on settings of Seamus Heaney poems.  In 2018, whilst living in Wales Emma returned to her work with Irish Composers, commissioning and premiering several new works from Fergus Johnston, Paul Hayes, John McLachlan, Graínne Mulvey, Jenn Kirby and Anna Murray which led to performances in Tokyo, Sofia, Cardiff, Dublin and Maynooth.  In 2022 she was part of Benjamin Dwyer’s SacrumProfanum project, which has been released on Farpoint, and the ‘Connected Skies’ project with Angela Slater funded by ACE. She has been broadcast on BBC and RTÉ radio and television, and has been published by Music Sales and Trinity.

David Appleton

David Appleton’s most notable body of performance experience has been with the six piano ensemble Piano Circus, with whom he was a co-director between 1994 and 2014. As well as extensive touring in Europe, South East Asia and the USA and South America with the group, notable recordings include the album Transmission (Observer CD of the week in 2001), Future Sound of London with Max Richter and Skin & Wire with the legendary drummer Bill Bruford (2009.) Collaborations also include Pete Townsend: The Lighthouse at Sadlers Wells, Michael Clark: Oh My Goddess, also at Sadlers Wells and touring, plus combining abseiling with pianistic endeavour with aerial theatre company Scarabeus. Work with piano duo partner Kate Ryder (1998-2008) included Three Little Scandals film and live music at the Barbican and critically acclaimed performances of Stockhausen’s Mantra.

Emma Halnan

Emma Halnan first came to prominence as woodwind category winner of BBC Young Musician 2010. She has since appeared at major venues worldwide, and has performed concertos with orchestras such as the London Mozart Players and the European Union Chamber Orchestra. Other competition successes include the Sussex Prize for Woodwind in the Royal Overseas League Competition 2019 and first prize in the Sir Karl Jenkins/Arts Club Award 2016. Emma was selected as a “Making Music” Young Artist 2018-20, and is a City Music Foundation Artist.
 
Emma studied at the Royal Academy of Music with William Bennett and Kate Hill, and afterwards with Robert Winn. She previously studied at the Purcell School with Anna Pope.
 
Emma was principal flute of the European Union Youth Orchestra 2014-16. She has also freelanced with orchestras including the London Mozart Players, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, English National Opera and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
 
Emma is a highly reputed and very dedicated teacher. She teaches privately, for the University of Cambridge, and at Trinity Laban Conservatoire. Her pupils have gained places in national ensembles and at various conservatoires (both junior and senior departments).

John Buckley on Divine Art