€14,000 Awarded to Irish Composers to Celebrate RTÉ Lyric Fm's 20th Birthday

With fifteen years of experience composing and performing, the largest amount awarded went to Maynooth based composer Ryan Molloy, who will receive €10,000 to write a concerto for Irish harp and orchestra celebrating the station’s 20^th birthday. Ryan has been a lecturer in Composition at Maynooth University since 2013, in addition to being broadcast internationally on BBC 2, UTV, BBC World as well as Radio Ulster, RTÉ Lyric FM, Radio 1 and Ráidió na Gaeltachta.  His concerto will be premiered by world-renowned harper Máire Ní Chathasaigh and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gavin Maloney, at a gala concert in the National Concert Hall on 1^st May 2019.

Katie Neville and Elliot Murphy have each been awarded €2,000 to write works for the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra Cello Octet to be performed at Lyric’s birthday concert in May.

Katie graduated with a 1st class degree from Maynooth University in 2016, after which she has had a number of compositions premiered by both student & professional performers, including the wonderful Chamber Choir Ireland and members of the National Symphony Orchestra. Meanwhile, Elliot studied composition with Evangelia Rigaki and Donnacha Dennehy at Trinity College Dublin. and was the recipient of the Gerard Victory Prize in Composition and the Geoffrey Singleton Prize in Music.

Director General of RTÉ, Dee Forbes said, "since its inception, RTÉ Lyric Fm has championed the very best in classical music from home and abroad and occupies a unique and cherished place in the lives of its listeners. It is fitting that a station that celebrates both composition and live performance should mark its anniversary by investing in the composition and performance of new Irish works. I look forward to hearing the results, and to celebrating 20 ground-breaking years of RTÉ Lyric Fm".