Ann Cleare (born 1983 in County Offaly) is an Irish composer.^[1] She is assistant professor at Trinity College Dublin.^[2][3] In 2019 she won the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Composers' Prize, sharing it with Annesley Black and Mithatcan Öcal.^[4]

Education

Cleare studied with John Godfrey and Jesse Ronneau at University College Cork, where she was awarded an MPhil. She later studied at IRCAM in Paris and went on to complete her PhD in composition with Chaya Czernowin and Hans Tutschku at Harvard University.^[5]

On magnetic fields

Her 2011–2012 work, on magnetic fields, was commissioned by the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik and premiered by the Collegium Novum Zürich. This work, which separates the performers into three chamber ensembles, uses two violin soloists as a kind of sculpted "electric current" to propel the interaction between the musicians.

She later created a version of the piece for two violins and loudspeaker which was premiered by the Riot Ensemble in London on 14 May 2018. In an interview with Tim Rutherford-Johnson, Cleare described the work:

At the centre of two of the spatially divided chamber groups lies a solo violin. I think of both solo violins as "electric currents", wiry voices that magnetically charge the electricity of the ensemble that surrounds them, wrapping layers of various sonic materials around the violins, providing what I think of as an electric cloud for the evolving violin electricities to speak from.^[6]

Eöl

In 2015, MATA Festival commissioned Cleare to write a piece for the Talea Ensemble, and she wrote Eöl for a collection of small percussion instruments surrounded by a small ensemble. The percussion instruments are all made with different metals in order to make use of their varied timbral characteristics. In an interview, Cleare said,

In a geological sense, the word "eolian" signifies something borne, deposited, produced or eroded by the wind. This particularly connects to the porous role that the accordion plays in the piece. It is like a medium that the other instruments of the ensemble transform and interact through. And in a mythical sense, the title alludes to Eöl, an elf from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle Earth writings, who skillfully wove metals into various magical armors. The ensemble enacts a similar type of sonic weaving, leading to the formation of the percussionist's metallic hands.^[7]

Portrait concert

On 1 March 2018, the International Contemporary Ensemble presented a portrait concert of Cleare's work at Miller Theater, including her works teeth of light, tongue of waves (a world premiere and a co-commission by the ensemble and the theatre), to another of that other, the square of yellow light that is your window and Dorchadas.^[8]

Awards

• 2006: College Scholar from University College Cork for achievement and excellence in academic studies^[9]
• 2010: Shortlisted for the Gaudeamus Prize, Holland^[9]
• 2012: Derek C. Bok Excellence in Teaching Award, Harvard University^[9]
• 2012: Named one of NPR's top composers under 40, WQXR, New York^[9]
• June 2013: Staubach Honorarium recipient from IMD (Darmstadt Music Courses), Germany^[9]
• February 2019: Ernst von Siemens Composers' Prize^[9]
• October 2019: Honorary Doctorate from the National University of Ireland^[9]

Selected works

References

External links

• Official website
• Interview on classical lite
• Articles in Irish Times
• BBC listings
• Listing in the New Yorker