24 August 2025 at 20:00

David Bremner

Elizabeth Hilliard, soprano

David Bremner is an organist, composer and pianist based in Dublin. Originally from West Cumbria, UK, he moved to Ireland in 1999. He has performed with many of Dublin’s leading ensembles, including the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and Crash Ensemble. From 2010 to 2019 he was Assistant Organist at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, where in addition to his regular duties he helped devise experimental liturgies. In 2013 he completed a Ph.D in Composition with Gráinne Mulvey at DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama (now TU Dublin Conservatoire), where he now lectures in composition. His organ work focuses on a developing improvisational practice which explores his compositional ideas in real-time, often with electronics. He gives recitals regularly, both as a soloist, and as a duo with soprano Elizabeth Hilliard. In 2013-16 he performed in three series mounted by the Association of Irish Composers. Other performances include Finding a Voice in March 2023 (for the premiere of Gráinne Mulvey’'s …Until the Women are Free), Sonic Vigil, Temple Bar TradFest, and Dún Laoghaire Organ Concerts (including a collaboration with composer David Stalling). David co-directs the music/text production company Béal, and is active as a composer; recent projects include a work for Uilleann Pipes and Pipa, a cantata on the theme of the four seasons, and a chamber opera Slow Recognition. His portrait CD Mixed Circuits was released on the Farpoint Recordings label in December 2022. He has a longstanding uilleann pipes/organ duo with piper Mark Redmond; in 2014 they released the CD L'air du temps/The spirit of the times. A track was selected by the Contemporary Music Centre to feature on their promotional CD New Music:New Ireland 2, and excerpts have been broadcast on Lyric FM, BBC Radio 3, and the European Broadcasting Network.

Irish soprano Elizabeth Hilliard is a leading exponent of contemporary vocal music, described in Opera Today as a 'veritable tour de force of vocal sound, experimentation and expression'. She has worked in close collaboration with composers including Gráinne Mulvey, Jennifer Walshe, Christopher Fox and David Bremner and champions Irish art, music and composers, achieving recognition in the US and UK as well as her native country. Highlights include musical director of Inappropriate Moments, a 2-day festival of the unaccompanied vocal-ensemble music by Jennifer Walshe (Béal, 2016); musical director of Stockhausen's Stimmung, for which she created a Dublin version (Tonnta, 2019); E in Slow Recognition by David Bremner and Helene Montague (July 2022); solo recital at New Music Dublin (April 2023), Music Network Tour with Jennifer Walshe, Panos Ghikas and Nick Roth (September 2023), solo recital at sound festival, Aberdeen (October 2023), performance of Split Infinites - an experimental poetry/music/video/art work created in collaboration with David Bremner (composer) and Louise Manifold (visual artist) at Dublin International Chamber Music Festival (June 2024). Her debut disc Sea to the West (2016) was followed by Great Women (2021), both to critical acclaim. Elizabeth was artist-in-residence at the Music Department of Maynooth University for 2024.