Cork School Of Music Percussion Ensemble to Host Christmas Concert Next Sunday

On Sunday, 3rd December 2023 at 1pm in the Curtis Auditorium, MTU Cork School of Music, Union Quay, Cork City, the CSM Percussion Ensemble will perform the world premiere of Glioscarnach (Sparkling) composed by Paul Frost, featuring percussion soloist Caitríona Frost. Commissioned by the MTU Arts Office Create le Chéile Arts Project Fund, this work features Caitríona performing on Marimba and Vibraphone along with the members of the CSM Percussion Ensemble playing on a wide array of percussion instruments. With musical influences ranging from Jazz, Classical, and Irish Traditional Music (and a little bit of Heavy Metal!), composer Paul Frost has blended these styles together to create a unique work that will add to the ever-developing repertoire for percussion ensemble.   

Paul Frost graduated from the MTU Cork School of Music with a BMus (Hons) before continuing his music studies at the Royal Academy of Music, London.  Some of Frost's recent composition projects include composing and producing The Burning of CorkOrchestral Suite, recorded by RTÉ Concert Orchestra and debuted on RTÉ Lyric FM The Full Score with Paul Herriot in December of 2020. The live world premiere was in Cork City Hall with The RTÉ Concert Orchestra in November 2022. He also had two other world premieres in 2022 with the Irish Chamber Orchestra. Earlier last year Paul composed music for ‘In the Beginnings' a special collaboration between Northern Irish author Jan Carson and the Ulster Orchestra. Frost also composed music for a play An Old Song, Half Forgotten, a SoFFt Productions and Abbey Theatre co-production in April 2023 in the Peacock Theatre.

Frost also works regularly as an arranger for the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Cork Opera House and others. His arrangements have been featured on numerous tv and radio shows and on stages including the National Concert Hall and 3Arena with many distinguished artists.

Percussion soloist Caitríona Frost performs regularly with Ireland's leading national ensembles including the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Irish National Opera, and the Irish Chamber Orchestra.

In 2021 she undertook an artistic residency at Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, where she composed a work for marimba based on Irish Traditional Music. She has continued to develop new compositions for percussion, which blend contemporary percussion sounds with the style and flavour of Irish Traditional Music. This has lead to her developing groundbreaking percussion techniques in order to play the sophisticated techniques associated with Irish Traditional Music.  

As a performer, Caitríona has toured extensively with Celtic Woman in the USA, Europe, Japan, Brazil, and Australia, and was a featured percussionist on their symphony tours, working with The Seattle Symphony Orchestra and The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to name a couple. She is also drummer for celebrated singer-songwriter and author Declan O'Rourke and a member of Irish percussion ensemble Bangers and Crash.

Caitríona holds a Masters in Performance from the Royal Irish Academy of Music and currently teaches the Adult Division Drum + Beatz class there.

A Cork native, Caitríona's first introduction to percussion was in the Ballincollig Concert Band at the age of five and later studied with Jimmy Hynes at Cork ETB and with Stephen Kelly at MTU Cork School of Music.

Admission is free.

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