Michael Gallen

about

Michael Gallen is an Irish composer and performer. Having been brought up primarily with Irish traditional and folk music, he later pursued studies in composition with Jose Manuel Lopez Lopez in Paris, and is comfortable meandering at the borders of different musical styles. He has been commissioned to write for solo instrument, small ensemble and orchestra, and is fast developing a reputation as one of Ireland’s most exciting composers of new choral music. In 2011 his piece The Hidden/The Dead was winner of the Densité 93/Cervantes prize. Since his return to more familiar shores, Michael has been involved in several collaborations with dance and theatre, and has an operatic work in the pipeline as well as a large-scale commission for Ireland’s National Concert Orchestra. He regularly collaborates with choreographer Philip Connaughton, and a new piece entitled TARDIGRADE, for choir, piano, string quartet and a kaleidoscope of dance and video premiered at the 2014 Dublin Fringe Festival to critical acclaim, winning the prize for best sound, visual and costume design. His music has been used extensively in film, radio and television, including the score for Athena Media/RTE’s Citizens:Lockout 1913-2013 series which won Gold Medal at the 2015 New York Radio Awards. Michael is also the pianist and lead vocalist with touring Irish band Ana Gog and a founding member of the DeySed art collective. (Michael Gallen's Website)

SELECTED WORKS

The music of Wilde Stories - the suite by Michael Gallen with the animation visual artwork of Felicity Clear. Both are the artistic collaborators on Wilde Stories an imaginative arts and digital project around the fairytales of Oscar Wilde with a radio series on RTÉ lyric fm. This piece 'How to Go Off' is inspired by the Wilde Story 'The Remarkable Rocket' which is one of the five stories in the Wilde collection The Happy Prince and Other Stories (1888). This collection is the basic for the series and Gallen/Clear have worked together on the music and artwork for each story. Michael Gallen's suite of music, inspired by the five stories in this collection, has been beautifully recorded by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra (conducted by Gavin Moloney) and RTÉ Cór na nÓg (lead by Choral Director Mary Amond O’Brien, accompanied by Niall Kinsella) for this series, with this piece featuring the orchestra alone. www.wildestories.ie An Athena Media production for RTÉ lyric fm made with the funding support of the BAI and the TV licence fee and the additional support of the Arts Office of Dublin City Council. All content © Athena Media 2015. No reproduction without permission

Ana Gog perform Mr Magpie. The launch of Making Trails album in the Unitarian Church Dublin. - Filmed by Neil Donegan, Ciaran Murray and David Byrne Edited by Neil Donegan