Northern Irish composer mentor scheme begins

Techno duo Alice and Lisa Wallace, harpist Ursula Burns and folk artist Fionnuala Fagan are among the songwriters selected for the latest PRS for Music media composition mentorship.

Anita Awbi
  • By Anita Awbi
  • 12 Nov 2014
  • min read
They will be joined by composers Patrick Davey and Dan Byrne-McCullough on the Northern Irish scheme alongside six composers from Irish collecting society IMRO.

All participants will be placed in pairs and work at the North West Regional College in Derry for the 48 hour intensive mentorship course.

From 18 to 20 November, they will face briefs from film and TV directors to compose new pieces of music to visual.

Local music production and sync company Score Draw will oversee the programme with guest speakers and Q&A sessions aimed at developing the participants’ skills in writing to media brief.

Twelve new pieces of music will be created and showcased in partnership with Honeycomb creative support network on 20 November as part of Derry’s Foyle Film Festival.

Last year, several of the scheme’s participants went on to obtain their first commission.

One PRS for Music member, Shauna Tohill, was also given a residential traineeship at Edinburgh International Film Festival’s Composer Labs.