Raymond Deane

Composing the Island: Starting with the best works is never wise

The celebration of 100 years of Irish composition hits mid-century, revealing a dark age for orchestral music

Celebration of Irish composers neglects women and living composers under 30

Composing the Island festival is huge, but it neglects women and living composers under 30

Courtney Lewis serves up an energetic slice of Haydn

The conductor and the RTÉ NSO show Haydn a good time; and Ó Riada’s score for Mise Éire leaves me cold

Conductor Courtney Lewis: ‘I didn’t want the lonely existence of staring at a blank page’

The Belfast man studied at Cambridge with the goal of becoming a composer, but the lure of conducting led him to a rewarding career in the US

A Yeatsian balancing act between music and words

Yeats might well have appreciated the wordiness of William Brooks’s Everlasting Voices, which revisits the poet’s ideals of ‘chaunting’

Kirkos Ensemble are drawn to the dark side

Classical Music: The ensemble is to give a series of concerts in the dark; elsewhere, street opera proves a slippery business

A fantastic early history of the Irish avant-garde

What, you haven’t heard of Zaftig Giolla or the Guinness Dadaists? Let Jennifer Walshe enlighten you

Raymond Deane: Composing the story of life as an alcoholic

Honest memoir of life as an alcoholic

Culture Shock: Anything’s better than doing nothing about Gaza

In times of conflict, culture also becomes a battleground

WWI commemorations should focus on victims - Ballagh

Artist says generals have been polishing the medals and buttons they got ‘for killing people’

Raymond Deane, one-time writer of acidic reviews, turns his pen on himself

When reviewing, the composer’s invective was extreme. He is no less frank when writing about his own life, alcoholism and recovery

Opera houses survive, even thrive, despite Boulez’s pessimism

Opera repertoire has broadened since the French composer’s 1967 comments, and ‘The Invader’ continues a fine recent tradition of new opera in Ireland

The low-down on Lang Lang and how China will change music

The most frequently quoted number for piano students in China is 50 million. The implications are huge

Stradivari unstrung? New violins fare better in blind test

A study nails the myth of the yawning gap between present instruments and those of the great masters

The shock of the New Music Dublin

A fascination with music of an experimental hue was evident in this programme

Operatic treats: Dvorak’s fairy tale and a love doll of Mrs Mahler

The past week saw operatic premieres in Dublin by Raymond Deane and, of all people, Antonin Dvorak

Raymond Deane’s new opera is based on an artist who had a life-like doll made of his former lover

When Alma Mahler, the widow of composer Gustav Mahler, broke up with the artist Oskar Kokoschka, he made an anatomically accurate doll of her, and that's inspired Raymond Deane's third opera

Surprise exit: what is behind the departure of RTÉ old hand Crimmins?

The bowing-out of one of RTÉ’s most experienced musical hands is a bombshell

Stirring rendition of Enescu’s ‘Octet’

The RTÉ Vanbrugh and Jupiter String Quartets produced a blitz of energy

The RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra is out of touch with the music of its own time

The RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra is failing to engage with modern music, and this needs to change

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