UCD School of Music

Scoil an Cheoil UCD

Dr Ciaran Crilly

B.Mus., M.A. (London), Dip.Mus. (Prague), PhD Dublin

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Ciarán Crilly is Artistic Director of the UCD Symphony Orchestra and a part-time lecturer in the School of Music. He studied music at King's College London at undergraduate level (with performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama), then Orchestral Conducting at the Prague Conservatory of Music and History of Art at Goldsmith's College London. As a PhD student in UCD, he was the recipient of an IRCHSS scholarship from 2002 to 2005. Ciarán's PhD thesis, entitled “The (Syn)Aesthetics of Modernism”, examines the impact of visual art on music in the early 20th century, with particular reference to Schoenberg's Five Orchestral Pieces and Satie's score for the 1924 Rene Clair film Entr'acte.

Teaching

In addition to two annual “UCD Symphony Orchestra” modules, Ciarán teaches the Third Stage course “Modernism and Avant-Garde”. In UCD, he has also taught the undergraduate course “Music Since 1950” and the evening degree module “Techniques of Musical Composition in the 20th Century”.

Conducting

Ciarán completed postgraduate studies in conducting at the Prague Conservatory of Music. Master classes and competitions have taken him to Hungary, the Netherlands, Spain and France, where he was highly commended by the pre-selection jury of the Besançon International Competition for Young Conductors in 2005. He was Principal Guest Conductor of the Dublin Symphony Orchestra from 2004 to 2007, and has been Director of the UCD Symphony Orchestra since its foundation in 2002. Ciarán was appointed Principal Conductor of the Dublin Orchestral Players in 2007, and has also conducted the Miró Chamber Orchestra, EAR Ensemble, Dublin Screen Orchestra, Savaria Symphony Orchestra (Hungary), Cadaques Orchestra (Spain), Hibernian Orchestra, Dublin Baroque Players, RIAM Symphony Orchestra, Dublin County Choir, Studio Symphony Orchestra and RTE Concert Orchestra.

Research and Other Interests

Ciarán’s research interests include the interaction between modern music and painting, the music of Erik Satie and film music, especially music composed for the silent cinema. He plays violin and viola, and his professional experience includes TV, orchestral and ensemble work with RTE, Irish Film Orchestra, Serenata String Quartet, Alpha Quartet, Orlando Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of the Dvořák Festival (Czech Republic) and the Irish Sinfonia. Popular music acts that he has played with include Paul Weller, Elton John, The Jimmy Cake, Brian Kennedy, Alison Moyet and Vyvienne Long.

Selected Publications/Conference Papers/Colloquia

‘Hitchcock’s Music’ [Book Review], Music, Sound, and the Moving Image, forthcoming
‘The “Perfect Collaborator”: Ligeti and the Films of Stanley Kubrick’ Remembering Ligeti Festival Symposium, Liberty Hall, Dublin, November 2007
‘Ligeti on Film’ [Programme Notes], Remembering Ligeti Festival Liberty Hall and National Concert Hall, Dublin, November 2007
‘The “Perfect Collaborator”: Ligeti and the Films of Stanley Kubrick’ Fifth Annual Conference of the Society for Musicology in Ireland, DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, May 2007
‘Sounding the Image: Musical and Cinematic Composition in Satie’s Entr’acte’, Music and the Moving Image Conference, University of Santa Barbara, California, January 2006
‘Erik Satie's Last Dance, Second Annual Conference of the Society for Musicology in Ireland, Queen's University Belfast, May 2004
‘The (Syn)Aesthetics of Modernism’, UCD History of Art Department Colloquia Series, November 2003
‘Painting, Colour and Narrative in the Music of Arnold Schoenberg’ Colloquia Series, Wesleyan University, Connecticut, April 2003
Painting, Colour and Narrative in the Music of Arnold Schoenberg’, See Hear: A Symposium on Sound, Art and Modernity, Yale University, Connecticut, April 2003