Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin
Chair of Music; Founder/Director, Irish World Academy of Music and Dance University of Limerick, Ireland
Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin is Chair of Music and Founder/Director of the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick.
Noted for his development of a uniquely Irish traditional piano style, he has recorded extensively with the Irish Chamber Orchestra. He was awarded an Honorary D.Mus from the National University of Ireland at his Alma Mater, University College Cork, in 2005 for his contribution to music in Ireland over the past thirty years.
His other awards include Ollamh na hÉigse (Professor of Arts) in 2005 by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, Boston College Honorary Alumnus Award for contributions to Irish music in the USA (2006), and Gradam Cheoil (Irish language television award for contribution to Irish music) in April 2011.
His most recent recordings include ELVER GLEAMS: New and Selected Recordings (EMI 2010), and the DVD Irish Destiny: music for the historic 1925 silent movie of the same name (Irish Film Institute: Dublin 2006). His most recent publications include ‘Parallel Universes: Poetics, Politics, and the State of Play’: a keynote address to the European conference Arts Research: The State of Play (2008), and ‘ELVER GLEAMS: Soundings from the Irish World Academy’ (University of Caen Irish Studies Programme 2010). Recent compositions include Francesco Walks for baroque band and Irish traditional fiddlers (2008); UNSUNG for piano, cello, bass clarinet, and sean nós singer (for Rex Levitates Contemporary Dancers 2008), Fidelio Unsung piano trio (2009), EKLEGO for tape and traditional musicians: a revival of an early 1984 experimental work (2010), Oileán/Island for Irish traditional flute and symphony orchestra (2011), GELLAN for symphony orchestra (2011), Anything Can Happen for string orchestra (Irish Chamber Orchestra 2011) and Temenōs for Irish Pipes and String Orchestra to be premiered at the Lincoln Center, New York, in November 2011.
