Darragh Morgan
Encyclopedia
Darragh Morgan was born in Belfast
in 1974, and is one of London's most sought after interpreters of new music.
Darragh has established himself as a soloist of new music giving numerous recitals at Sonorities Festival, as well as in Prague
, Malta
, Nicosia
, Hong Kong
, South Korea
, Italy
, Switzerland
, Holland, U.S.
and throughout the UK & Ireland
.
Darragh has recently joined The Smith Quartet
, is currently a member of the new music collective Noszferatu and Artistic Director of Music @ Drumcliffe, a chamber music festival in the west of Ireland. He also plays with the piano trio The Fidelio Trio.
Darragh regularly performs at international festivals including Warsaw Autumn, Ars Musica Brussels, Klangspuren Scwaz, Darmstadt
, Aldeburgh
, Spitalfields, Cheltenham, OCM, Dubrovnik Summer Festival, New Music Evenings Bratislava, BBC Proms Chamber Music, National Arts Festival Grahamstown, South Africa, Cutting Edge London, Festival D'Automne Paris, Besançon Festival de Musique, Lucerne Festival and Jazz sur les Pommiers, Coutance.
Darragh has performed with many of the worlds leading contemporary music groups including Ensemble Modern
, London Sinfonietta
, Musik Fabrik, Icebreaker
, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
, Remix Ensemble, Jane's Minstrels and Topologies. Darragh broadcasts regularly for BBC Radio 3
, has been chosen as BBC Radio 4
's Pick of the Week and also appeared on The South Bank Show
, SABC, CYBC
, RTHK, WDR and RTÉ lyric fm
. He appears regularly as soloist with The Ulster Orchestra most recently in the world premiere of Sir John Tavener's Hymn of Dawn.
From 1999-2001 Darragh was leader of the Cyprus
State Orchestra and throughout 2004 was Concertmaster of the KZN Philharmonic in Durban
, South Africa. During that year he also became Director of Baroque 2000 South Africa's acclaimed period instrument orchestra. He also regularly leads English Touring Opera
, and was featured as leader of the orchestra in BBC 2's acclaimed TV series 'The Genius of Beethoven'.
The Fidelio Trio recently gave the European premiere of Michael Nyman
's The Photography of Chance. Darragh is a faculty member of Apple Hill Chamber Music
, New Hampshire, USA, regularly coaches at the Britten-Pears Young Artists Programme and has worked closely with The Mostar Sinfonietta, Bosnia and given workshops for Buskaid in Soweto
. He regularly gives lecture-recitals on extended violin techniques recently at Queens University Belfast, Trinity College Dublin and King's College London
. Darragh teaches at Goldsmiths College
, University of London and was recently appointed 'Musician in Residence' at the University of Ulster
.
He has worked with a diverse range of international artists such as Travis
, Paul McCartney
, The Divine Comedy
, David Bowie
, The Spice Girls, The Corrs
, Jamiroquai
, Yvonne Chaka Chaka
, Incognito
, The Lemon Heads and Brian Kennedy
. In the world of Irish Traditional Music Darragh has worked closely with Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin
, Nóirín Ní Riain
and Derek Bell
of The Chieftains
.
Darragh Morgan currently resides, with his wife, pianist Mary Dullea, in south east London
.
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
in 1974, and is one of London's most sought after interpreters of new music.
Darragh has established himself as a soloist of new music giving numerous recitals at Sonorities Festival, as well as in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
, Nicosia
Nicosia
Nicosia from , known locally as Lefkosia , is the capital and largest city in Cyprus, as well as its main business center. Nicosia is the only divided capital in the world, with the southern and the northern portions divided by a Green Line...
, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, Holland, U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and throughout the UK & Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
.
Darragh has recently joined The Smith Quartet
Smith Quartet
The Smith Quartet is a UK based string quartet founded in 1988 that specializes in the performance of contemporary classical music, and is actively performing worldwide and recording . They have premiered over 100 works by composers such as Kevin Volans, Graham Fitkin, Michael Nyman, Karl Jenkins,...
, is currently a member of the new music collective Noszferatu and Artistic Director of Music @ Drumcliffe, a chamber music festival in the west of Ireland. He also plays with the piano trio The Fidelio Trio.
Darragh regularly performs at international festivals including Warsaw Autumn, Ars Musica Brussels, Klangspuren Scwaz, Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
, Aldeburgh
Aldeburgh Festival
The Aldeburgh Festival is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the Aldeburgh area of Suffolk, centred on the main concert hall at Snape Maltings...
, Spitalfields, Cheltenham, OCM, Dubrovnik Summer Festival, New Music Evenings Bratislava, BBC Proms Chamber Music, National Arts Festival Grahamstown, South Africa, Cutting Edge London, Festival D'Automne Paris, Besançon Festival de Musique, Lucerne Festival and Jazz sur les Pommiers, Coutance.
Darragh has performed with many of the worlds leading contemporary music groups including Ensemble Modern
Ensemble Modern
Ensemble Modern is a chamber ensemble dedicated to the music of modern composers. Formed in 1980, the group is based in Frankfurt, Germany and made up variously of about twenty members from numerous countries....
, London Sinfonietta
London Sinfonietta
The London Sinfonietta is an English chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble specialises in contemporary music and works across a wide range of genres, performing modern classics alongside world premieres, and includes music by electronica artists as well as folk and...
, Musik Fabrik, Icebreaker
Icebreaker (band)
Icebreaker is a UK-based new music ensemble founded by James Poke and John Godfrey. The group have established themselves as one of the UK's leading new music interpreters specializing particularly in post-minimal and "totalist" repertoire. They always play amplified and have a reputation for...
, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group is a chamber orchestra based in Birmingham, England. BCMG specialises in the performance of new and contemporary music. BCMG performs regularly at the CBSO Centre and Symphony Hall in Birmingham...
, Remix Ensemble, Jane's Minstrels and Topologies. Darragh broadcasts regularly for BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
, has been chosen as BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
's Pick of the Week and also appeared on The South Bank Show
The South Bank Show
The South Bank Show was a television arts magazine show, originally made by London Weekend Television , presented by Melvyn Bragg, broadcast on ITV and seen in over 60 countries worldwide — including Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States...
, SABC, CYBC
Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation
The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation ) or CyBC is Cyprus's public broadcasting service, transmitting island-wide on four radio and two television channels. CyBC is a non-profit organization that utilises its entire income for the promotion of its main mission, which is the objective provision of...
, RTHK, WDR and RTÉ lyric fm
RTÉ lyric fm
RTÉ lyric fm is an Irish classical music radio station, owned by the public-service broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann. The station, which is based in Limerick, was launched in 1999 and is available on FM in Ireland, on satellite, on Sky Digital in Ireland and United Kingdom and via the...
. He appears regularly as soloist with The Ulster Orchestra most recently in the world premiere of Sir John Tavener's Hymn of Dawn.
From 1999-2001 Darragh was leader of the Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
State Orchestra and throughout 2004 was Concertmaster of the KZN Philharmonic in Durban
Durban
Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...
, South Africa. During that year he also became Director of Baroque 2000 South Africa's acclaimed period instrument orchestra. He also regularly leads English Touring Opera
English Touring Opera
English Touring Opera is an opera company in the United Kingdom. From 1979 to 1992 it was known as Opera 80.- About the company :Opera 80 was founded in 1979 by the Arts Council of Great Britain as the successor to Opera For All; in 1992 the company changed its name to English Touring Opera...
, and was featured as leader of the orchestra in BBC 2's acclaimed TV series 'The Genius of Beethoven'.
The Fidelio Trio recently gave the European premiere of Michael Nyman
Michael Nyman
Michael Laurence Nyman, CBE is an English composer of minimalist music, pianist, librettist and musicologist, known for the many film scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the filmmaker Peter Greenaway, and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to Jane Campion's The Piano...
's The Photography of Chance. Darragh is a faculty member of Apple Hill Chamber Music
Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music
The Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music is located in Nelson, New Hampshire , housed in the buildings of an old horse farm on Apple Hill Road, on the eponymous hill...
, New Hampshire, USA, regularly coaches at the Britten-Pears Young Artists Programme and has worked closely with The Mostar Sinfonietta, Bosnia and given workshops for Buskaid in Soweto
Soweto
Soweto is a lower-class-populated urban area of the city of Johannesburg in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for South Western Townships...
. He regularly gives lecture-recitals on extended violin techniques recently at Queens University Belfast, Trinity College Dublin and King's College London
King's College London
King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...
. Darragh teaches at Goldsmiths College
Goldsmiths College
Goldsmiths, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom which specialises in the arts, humanities and social sciences, and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It was founded in 1891 as Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute...
, University of London and was recently appointed 'Musician in Residence' at the University of Ulster
University of Ulster
The University of Ulster is a multi-campus, co-educational university located in Northern Ireland. It is the largest single university in Ireland, discounting the federal National University of Ireland...
.
He has worked with a diverse range of international artists such as Travis
Travis (band)
Travis are a post-Britpop band from Glasgow, Scotland, comprising Fran Healy , Dougie Payne , Andy Dunlop and Neil Primrose...
, Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
, The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy (band)
The Divine Comedy are a chamber pop band from Ireland, fronted by Neil Hannon. Formed in 1989, Hannon has been the only constant member of the group, playing, in some instances, all of the non-orchestral instrumentation bar drums. To date, ten studio albums have been released under the Divine...
, David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, The Spice Girls, The Corrs
The Corrs
The Corrs are an Irish band which combine pop rock with traditional Celtic folk music. The brother and sisters are from Dundalk, Ireland. The group consists of the Corr siblings: Andrea ; Sharon ; Caroline ; and Jim .The Corrs came to international prominence with their performance at the...
, Jamiroquai
Jamiroquai
Jamiroquai is a British jazz funk and acid jazz band formed in 1992. Jamiroquai were initially the most prominent component in the early-1990s London-based acid jazz movement, alongside groups such as Incognito, the James Taylor Quartet, and the Brand New Heavies. Other Acid Jazz artists such as...
, Yvonne Chaka Chaka
Yvonne Chaka Chaka
Yvonne Chaka Chaka is a South African singer.Dubbed the "Princess of Africa", Chaka Chaka has been at the forefront of South African popular music for 20 years...
, Incognito
Incognito (band)
Incognito is a British band, as well as one of the members of the United Kingdom's acid jazz movement. Their debut album, Jazz Funk, was released in 1981, with thirteen more albums following, the last of which, Transatlantic RPM, was released in 2010....
, The Lemon Heads and Brian Kennedy
Brian Kennedy (singer)
Brian Edward Patrick Kennedy is an Irish singer-songwriter and author, known for his ballads, and has represented Ireland at Eurovision 2006. He is the younger brother of musician Bap Kennedy.-Personal life:...
. In the world of Irish Traditional Music Darragh has worked closely with Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin
Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin
Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin is an Irish musician. As a pianist, composer, recording artist and academic, he holds the Professorship of Music at the Irish World Music Centre of the University of Limerick...
, Nóirín Ní Riain
Nóirín Ní Riain
Nóirín Ní Riain is an Irish singer, writer, teacher, theologian and an authority on Gregorian Chant . She is primarily known for spiritual songs, but also sings Celtic music, Sean-nós and Indian songs. Nóirín plays an Indian harmonium , Shruti box and Feadóg...
and Derek Bell
Derek Bell (musician)
George Derek Fleetwood Bell, MBE was an Northern Irish harpist, pianist, oboist, musicologist, and composer, best known for his accompaniment work on various instruments with The Chieftains....
of The Chieftains
The Chieftains
The Chieftains are a Grammy-winning Irish musical group founded in 1962, best known for being one of the first bands to make Irish traditional music popular around the world.-Name:...
.
Darragh Morgan currently resides, with his wife, pianist Mary Dullea, in south east London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.