Frank Corcoran
Born in Tipperary in 1944, he studied at Dublin, Maynooth, Rome and Berlin. He was a music inspector for the Irish government Department of Education from 1971 to 1979, after which he took up a composer fellowship at the Berlin Künstlerprogramm. In the 1980s, he taught in Berlin, Stuttgart and Hamburg, where he was professor of composition and theory in the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst. He was a visiting professor and Fulbright scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the U.S. in 1989-1990, and was a guest lecturer at CalArts, Harvard University, Princeton University, Boston College, New York University and Indiana University. His output includes chamber, symphonic, choral and electro-acoustic music, through which he explores particularly Irish issues like language and history. He has worked with text by the poet Seamus Heaney, in the chamber piece Mad Sweeney (1996), and by the Irish-language writer Gabriel Rosenstock.
Recent commissions include Clarinet Quintet (RTE 2009), 4 Orchestral Prayers fpr Mezzosoprano and Orchestra (N.S.O 2010), "Quasi una Sarabanda" (Swiss Ensemble "Antipodes" 2009), "9 Pratoleva Pearls" (Andreas Skouras 2009), Sweeney's Smithereens (Crash Ensemble for Expo 2000); Sweeney's Total Rondo (G.P.A. International 2003); and Two Orchestrated Bach Fugues (National Concert Hall 2002), from the Cantus Chamber Orchestra, Zagreb, 2003 for the new Quasi Un Concertino; RTE commission 2005 Quasi Una Visione for Orchestra (Ensemble Modern premiered at the Living Music Festival, Dublin ); Quasi un Lamento for Chamber Orchestra (N.S.O. Horizons Concert 2005); Quasi Un Pizzicato for Large Ensemble (Wireworks Ensemble Hamburg 2004 ); Quasi Un Canto for Large Orchestra (Zagreb Philharmonic at the 2005 World Music Days, Zagreb) and Quasi Una Fuga for String Orchestra (Shannon Festival Limerick 2007)
His Joycepeak Music won the StudioAkustischeKunst Prize, Cologne Radio, in 1995. In 1999, his piece Sweeney's Vision won first prize at the Bourges International Electro-acoustic Music Competition and his Quasi Una Missa won the 2002 EMS Prize, Stockholm. HE IS THE FIRST IRISH COMPOSER TO HAVE HIS SYMPHONY PREMIERED IN VIENNA ( Frank Corcoran´s " Symphonies of Symphonies of Wind" was premiered by the O.R.F. Symphony Orchestra / Lothar Zagrosek there in 1981 ) .He is a founding member of Aosdána. He lives in Hamburg.
For further information visit: www.frankcorcoran.com
DISCOGRAPHY
Mad Sweeney (Black Box Bbm 1026) including "Mad Sweeney" for Speaker and Ensemble, NDR recording: das neue Werk Ensemble: Frank Corcoran: speaker; Dieter Cichewiecz, conductor. )
Music for the Book of Kells (percussion modern, Frank Corcoran: piano; Dieter Cichewiecz: conductor )
Wind Quintet No. 2 (Stuttgarter Wind Quintet )
Sweeney's Vision ( electro-acoustic, WDR commission )
Strings Astray (Black Box Bbm 1013. Irish Chamber Orchestra, Cond. Fionnuala Hunt, including Frank Corcoran: IRISH MIKROKOSMOI- "Scenes From My Receding Past" )
Frank Corcoran : Symphonies 2,3 and 4. ( Marco Polo 8.225107. National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Conductor Colman Pearce )
Frank Corcoran Sweeney's Vision ( Wer 6307.2 "Riverrun" )
Frank Corcoran Sweeney's Vision ( BOURGES 1999. Imeb-Bourges 13 )
Frank Corcoran Trauerfelder - Goirt an Bhróin ( " Neues aus der Milchstrasse"- Peer Verlag Hamburg).
Col Legno CD Mad Sweeney´s Shadow 2003.
Quasi Una Missa, Piano Trio, Balthazar´S Dream, Rosenstocklieder, 3. Wind-Quintet, Sweeney´s Farewell
2005 Swedish CD CAP 22057 Mad Sweeney
2005 Cantus CD 020 Quasi Un Concertino
2005 Composers´Art Label CD Sweeney's Smithereens including Sweeney's Smithereens, 5 Trauerfelder, Tradurre/Tradire, Concerto For String-Orchestra, 5 Songs Without Words
2006 Composers' Art Label CD Quasi Una Music, including Quasi Una Visione for Orchestra, 9 Aspects of an Irish Poem for Choir and Solo Violin, Ice-Etchings for Solo Cello, Quasi Un Pizzicato for Ensemble, Sprecher and Soprano, Quasi Variations On 'A Mháirín De Bharra" for Solo Viola, Quasi Un Concerto for Chamber Orchestra.
< back to current members
Back to top