Ian Wilson (born 26 December 1964) is an Irish

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

Career

Wilson was born in Belfast, studied violin and piano, and graduated with a DPhil in composition from the

University of Ulster Ulster University (; Ulster Scots: or ), legally the University of Ulster, is a multi-campus public research university located in Northern Ireland. It is often referred to informally and unofficially as Ulster, or by the abbreviation UU. It i ...

at Jordanstown in 1990, where he was a research fellow, 2000–3. He has been a composer-in-residence with

Leitrim County Council Leitrim County Council () is the Local government in the Republic of Ireland, local authority of County Leitrim, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. As a county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The council is responsible for ...

and was music director of the Sligo New Music Festival from 2003 to 2011. He received the Macaulay Fellowship from the

Arts Council of Ireland The Arts Council (sometimes called the Arts Council of Ireland; legally ) is the independent "Irish government agency for developing the arts". About It was established in 1951 by the government of Ireland, to encourage interest in Irish art ( ...

in 1992, and in 1998 he was elected to

Aosdána Aosdána ( , ; from , 'people of the arts') is an Irish association or academy of artists, each of whom must have produced a distinguished body of work of genuine originality. It was created in 1981 by the country's Arts Council on the initiati ...

, Ireland's academy of creative artists. Since 2009, he has been a post-doctoral research fellow at

Dundalk Institute of Technology Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT; ) is an institute of technology, located in Dundalk, Ireland. Established as the Dundalk Regional Technical College, students were first enrolled in the college in 1971 and it was later re-defined as an i ...

, investigating aspects of traditional (ethnic) Irish performance practice as a basis for new works of art music.Daniel Dunne: "Wilson, Ian", in: ''The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland'', ed. H. White & B. Boydell (Dublin: UCD Press, 2013), vol. 2, p. 1061-3. Wilson's music has been performed at the

BBC Proms The BBC Proms is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in central London. Robert Newman founded The Proms in 1895. Since 1927, the ...

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

, ISCM World Music Days and the Ultima Festival in Oslo and by such diverse groups as the

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO; previously known as Radio Éireann Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Symphony Orchestra and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra) is the largest professional orchestra in Ireland. Housed at the National Concert Hall, D ...

, the

London Mozart Players London Mozart Players (LMP) are a British chamber orchestra founded in 1949. LMP are the longest-established chamber orchestra in the United Kingdom. Since 1989, the orchestra has been Resident Orchestra at Fairfield Halls, Croydon. History Begin ...

, the

Irish Chamber Orchestra The Irish Chamber Orchestra (ICO) is an Irish classical music ensemble, administratively based at the University of Limerick. János Fürst founded the ICO in 1963. The ICO consisted only of strings as its regular ensemble for many years, adding wi ...

, the pianist

Hugh Tinney Hugh Tinney (born 1958) is an Irish pianist. Biography Tinney was a pupil at Gonzaga College, Dublin through the 1970s, and studied physics at Trinity College Dublin. In 1983 he won the first prize of the International Ettore Pozzoli Piano C ...

and many others. He has recorded many albums, including two releases for Diatribe Records.

Recordings

Bibliography

* Axel Klein: ''Die Musik Irlands im 20. Jahrhundert'' (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1996) * Tim Johnson: 'Out of Belfast and Belgrade: The Recent Music of Ian Wilson', ''Tempo'', no. 224 (April 2003): 2–10 * Gareth Cox, Axel Klein (eds.): ''Irish Music in the Twentieth Century'' (= ''Irish Musical Studies'' vol. 7) (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2004)

References

External links

Official site for Ian Wilson

Ian Wilson
biography and works on the UE website (publisher)
Ian Wilson at the Contemporary Music Centre of Ireland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Ian 1964 births 20th-century classical composers from Northern Ireland 20th-century male composers from Northern Ireland 21st-century classical composers from Northern Ireland 21st-century male composers from Northern Ireland Alumni of Ulster University Aosdána members Male classical composers from Northern Ireland Living people Irish male opera composers Musicians from Belfast Opera composers from Northern Ireland 1990s in Irish music 2000s in Irish music 2010s in Irish music 2020s in Irish music