“I believe Colm Ó Foghlú is one of the most talented and innovative musicians and composers working in Ireland, both eloquent and erudite about the craft of music.”
– Eavan Boland
Colm Ó Foghlú
Composer, director, writer and producer, Colm Ó Foghlú has toured extensively throughout Australia, Europe, Asia and North America. A former Musical Director for Riverdance, he has composed, arranged and produced numerous award-winning shows and albums.
Premieres of his operas Eoghainín na nÉan and Íosagan, based on stories by P.H. Pearse, took place at Axis, Dublin which he directed and also created the animated imagery. Colm also created the original arrangements and orchestrations for the critically acclaimed Angela’s Ashes: The Musical (Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Belfast, London and New York).
As a co-director of Ember Productions he created a range of critically acclaimed performances including Stones, Bones and Beckett in the Fourknocks Neolithic Passage Tomb in Meath, Frozen Music in St. Mary’s Medieval Abbey in Dublin and Scoring the Stone, a commission from the World Archaeological Congress, Dublin 2008. Other commissions include Irish Thunder, Celtic Fyre (Busch Gardens), Aifreann na nAingeal/Mass of the Angels (RTÉ), The Star of Bethlehem: A Christmas Oratorio (BAI/RTÉ) and Inscribed, a musical collaboration with poet Eavan Boland (Poetry Ireland).
In addition to his work as a composer/producer, he wrote and directed his award-winning first short film Suanscéal and also presented/arranged and was music producer on an eight-part TV series Pitch Perfect for TG4 and Good Company Productions. He also contributes scripts and composes music for RTÉ’s series Tír na nÓg.
Colm is also a graduate of UCD, holding an M.A. in Drama and Performance Studies and recently graduated from DCU, St. Patrick’s College with a Professional Masters in Education where he was Artist-in-Residence 2019-2021. He is currently Artist-in-Residence in Marino Institute of Education.
Originally composed for my friends Claire and John on the occasion of their marriage on 2nd January 2016 in Ardfert, Co. Kerry. Shakespeare’s most enduring sonnet can be seen as the definitive response to the question what is love? It was performed on the day by mezzo-soprano Paula Murrihy, Claire’s sister.
“it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests
and is never shaken”
I composed this setting of the Salve Regina for the choir of Our Lady Help of Christians on Dublin’s Navan Road and was performed by them, accompanied by The Orchestra of Ireland, for the National Famine Memorial Commemoration in Glasnevin Cemetery on 11th September 2016 in the presence of Uachtarán na hÉireann, Michael D. Higgins and broadcast on RTE television.
I chose to set this version of the Ave Maria text for my mother Breda on the occasion of her marriage to Jim on 1st May 2013. It was performed beautifully on the day, as it is on the album by Sarah Waldron, for whom it was composed.
Settings of two poems by Micheál mac Liammóir, founder of the Gate, who is better known for his plays and prose works in both languages. His only poetry collection, Bláth agus Taibhse, was published in 1964. Sáirseal agus Dill, the publishers, identified these works as the first prose poems to be written in the Irish language.
Originally a movement from my Christmas Ortorio, which was broadcast on RTE radio 2012 and funded by BAI, Gráinne Uí Chaomhánaigh fashioned new lyrics for my mum’s wedding in 2013 and returned to it again for the album to create a new English language version.
I was awestruck by Vincent Wood’s play A Cry from Heaven when I saw it in The Abbey Theatre in 2005 and I’d long held an ambition to work with Vincent on an opera based on the play. Supported by an Arts Council bursary, I finally managed to make this dream happen. Let Darkness Rule the Day is the final dramatic conclusion of the play and I could think of only one person who I wanted to bring it to life…the incomparable Lynda Lee.
I created this instrumental version for long time collaborator and friend Aoife Ní Bhriain who has featured on every project I’ve worked on for the last 10 years starting with Ceol ar Snámh ón Spéir Anuas:A Christmas Oratorio.
The Island Lullaby began as Suantraí na hInise to commemorate The Blasket Evacuation on 17th November 1953. It was peformed, in its embryonic state, 60 years to the day of the evacuation in Ionad an Bhlascaoid Mhóir, Dún Chaoin to an audience of serviving islanders and their decendants. I had spent weeks delving into the Ionad’s fascinating collection of film, photographs and interviews and the six movements of the suite are my responses to various stories, moods and characters I encountered.
The sun rises. With the dawn the islanders awaken and go about their daily routine….fishing, farming, foraging. Out on the water the majestic Great Blasket rises proud from the sea, it’s stone permanence a memorial.
Gearóid Cheaist’s childhood was unique as he was the only child on the island. He became famous when a 1949 newspaper article was syndicated internationally and christened Gearóid ‘The Loneliest Boy in the world’.
‘Between a jig and a reel what is there? Only one beat escaped from a ribcage. Tunes are migratory and fly from heart to heart intimating that there’s a pattern to life’s pulls and draws.’ – Moya Cannon