Desmond Earley: Chamber Music by James Joyce

Crushing Classical

I'm always interested in project management - how big and complex projects come to life. I'm always interested in inspiration - where the ideas come from and the WHY behind them. This interview gives us ALL of that and more!

Born in Dublin, very close to the location of many of Handel's Dublin performances in 1741and 1742, Dr. Desmond Earley is an accomplished harpsichordist, conductor, Baroque- and Choral-Music specialist, educator, arts ambassador, and composer. Hailed by The Irish Times as ‘enterprising and wide ranging’, he is an Associate Professor specialising in Performance Studies, Desmond is the founding Artistic Director of the Choral Scholars of University College Dublin. His work with this group has reached listeners in over 150 countries worldwide; recordings of Choral Scholars on the Signum Classics label – released under his direction – have enjoyed over 11 million streams on Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music; and, YouTube views of Desmond Earley and Choral Scholars exceed 32 million, with over 100,000 channel subscribers.

As a celebrated composer and arranger, Desmond has published works with Music Sales (UK), Hal Leonard Corporation (USA), Alliance Music (USA) and with Seolta Music (IRL) where he serves as editor of the international ‘College Choral Series’. He has created bespoke arrangements for renowned ensembles including the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, the Portland Symphony Orchestra (Maine, USA), Tenebrae (UK), and the Irish Baroque Orchestra.

His acclaimed work Body of the Moon (2017), based on a setting of texts by Galileo Galilei, was commissioned by All Classical Radio (USA) to be played during the progress of the total solar eclipse across the United States of America that same year. He was recently awarded an Arts Council of Ireland Bursary and is currently working on a choral/instrumental collection titled 'Dracula Reflected', inspired by Bram Stoker’s famous epistolary.

As an instrumentalist and director, Desmond has worked with many of the world’s finest orchestras including the Irish Chamber Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Irish Baroque Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, European Union Chamber Orchestra and English Chamber Orchestra. Desmond has also collaborated with some of the world’s great musicians including Christopher Hogwood, Monica Huggett, Konrad Junghaenel, and Sir James Galway.

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