Concert Female Composers - Royal Festival Hall Dublin

A Debut to Remember: Performing My Music with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra

There are milestone moments in every composer’s life - moments that feel both surreal and deeply grounding, as if time pauses just long enough for gratitude to catch up with ambition. My first concert in the prestigious National Concert Hall’s Festival Hall was exactly that: a convergence of history, artistry, and personal fulfilment. To hear my music performed by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra - an ensemble whose legacy stretches back to 1948 - was an honour beyond words.

The RTÉ Concert Orchestra has spent over seven decades introducing orchestral music to new audiences, building a connection so strong that in 2015 they were voted the World’s Favourite Orchestra. Their versatility is legendary. They have collaborated with icons such as Pavarotti, Lang Lang, Lalo Schifrin, Marvin Hamlisch, Sinéad O’Connor, Imelda May, Eleanor McEvoy, Mick Flannery, Lisa Hannigan and so many more. Their world extends from Eurovision stages and film scores to opera, ballet, jazz premières and innovative cross-genre projects. From performing Riverdance at Eurovision, to the world première of Vertigo, to Danny Elfman’s A Nightmare Before Christmas live, their breadth is unmatched.

To have my own compositions step into that continuum is something I will never take lightly.

The concert was led by Guy Barker, Associate Artist of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra - an artist whose musical intelligence and humanity radiate through everything he does. Guy’s long-standing relationship with the orchestra has produced some of its most memorable recent achievements: jazz premières, original orchestrations, collaborations across genres, and major projects during the COVID-19 pandemic including award-winning tributes and internationally broadcast performances. To work with someone so deeply woven into the orchestra’s artistic identity was a privilege in itself.

During our programme, my piece Sky Beneath the Water appeared alongside works by Shirley Walker, Joni Mitchell, Carla Bley and Adele - composers and songwriters who have shaped modern music in profoundly different ways. Standing among them, in the company of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra’s sweeping sound and Guy Barker’s vibrant direction, I felt a true sense of artistic arrival. Not because of validation from an institution, but because music I began shaping in solitude - melodies hummed on quiet walks, fragments developed at my desk - suddenly lived and breathed through the hands of world-class musicians.

This orchestra has a history of bringing music to life in ways that resonate far beyond the concert hall. Their eclectic programming -ranging from Thin Lizzy Orchestrated to Max Richter’s Recomposed, from Bowie tributes to blues projects introduced by Morgan Freeman - has expanded what orchestral performance can be. To know that my work now forms a small part of that evolving narrative fills me with both pride and humility.

As I stood backstage at Festival Hall, listening to the final notes shimmer into silence, I felt the weight of every artist who had stood there before me, and the extraordinary legacy of an orchestra that continues to shape Ireland’s cultural landscape.

I am deeply honoured - and endlessly grateful -to have shared this moment with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, one of my favourite humans, Guy Barker, and everyone who has supported this music’s journey from idea to performance.