Elaine Agnew’s substantial body of work covers all genres from opera, video games and contemporary dance to instrumental and choral music. She has been commissioned extensively, reaching audiences across the world from the London Film Festival and BBC Proms to Gamers to outreach workshop participants.
Working with Vienna-based Game Developers Causa Creations, Elaine created the soundtrack for Songs of Travel, now available on iOS and Android. Recently nominated for best game by Pocket Gamer, the number 1 site for gaming on the go, this Animated Graphic Novel was recently showcased at the 2025 London Film Festival. Chosen as one of BBC Radio’s 3’s Composers in Lockdown as well as being featured at the 2024 Classical:NEXT@Holzmarkt in Berlin, Elaine’s music has been performed in renowned venues like the Carnegie, Wigmore and Royal Albert Halls. Her work currently features on 18 discs and her choral music is published by Boosey & Hawkes and Cailíno Music Publishers.
Recent premieres include Hurry Home! featuring young musicians and singers from Music Generation Louth, The Magdalene Songs at the Oxford International Song Festival and The Offing, premiered by the Belfast Philharmonic Society in the Ulster Hall, Belfast while the Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble performed Green during their recent tour of Chile. Upcoming commissions include Velvet Shoes for the Californian girls choir iSing Silicon Valley as well as those from the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and Cór Linn, Evlana and Floating World Productions. A member of Aosdána, Ireland’s state-sponsored body of creative artists, Elaine’s 2012 BBC Proms commission Dark Hedges was described by one London reviewer as ‘compelling from beginning to end’.
Exciting News!
Two Major New Commissions to be Premiered in 2027!
A new work for the string ensemble Evlana Sinfonietta will be premiered in Trinity College Dublin on 7th November 2027 while a new commission from the National Symphony Orchestra Ireland What the Future Holds will see them joined by the young singers of Cór Linn in the National Concert Hall on 12th February 2027, setting a new specially created text directed by poet Jessica Traynor and including the words of the young singers themselves.
The Choral Scholars of University College Dublin and director Desmond Earley are proud to release their album James Joyce Chamber Music Volume 1. This album reimagines Joyce’s poetry through rich choral textures and expressive contemporary settings, bringing together Ireland’s literary and musical heritage in a moving celebration of word and sound. Elaine’s setting of Joyce’s poem XX In the dark pine-wood features on the album.
CD Release by Choral Scholars of University College Dublin
Velvet Shoes recorded this June for Christmas!
The
Composer - In -Residence with Music Generation Louth: ‘25-’2
Music Generation Louth
Upcoming Events
Saturday 18th April 7pm JUBILATE! RDS Concert Hall, Dublin
This spectacular concert unites the combined forces of Dublin Youth Choirs, Belfast Philharmonic Youth Choirs and the Irish Choral Sinfonia for a thrilling orchestral performance in the magnificent RDS Concert Hall. Celebrating 10 years of Dublin Youth Choir, 20 years of the Belfast Philharmonic Youth Choirs and 10 years of the Cross Border Youth Choir, hundreds of young voices will come together for this unique musical event, premiering a new arrangement for choir and orchestra of The Swallow
The Swallow
Sunday 19th April 2026 12:00 New Music Dublin National Concert Hall, Dublin
Love The Earth aims to awaken, and reawaken, a much-needed awareness among us all of the sacredness of the living Earth in today’s world. Divided into 5 sections - Mother Earth, Animals of the Earth, Birds of the Earth, Sounds of the Earth and A Place We Once Called Earth - the programme features works by Irish composers Elaine Agnew, Sue Furlong and Marian Ingoldsby, performed by Cór na nÓg and The Elders. The title of this year’s programme was inspired by an intergenerational project undertaken by Cór na nÓg in 2025 with Floating World and The Elders, titled A Conference of Birds, which highlighted red-listed bird species in Ireland and for which Elaine Agnew was commissioned to write a song of the same name. Mary Amond O’Brien, music director and Carole O’Connor, piano.
The Swallow / A Conference of Birds
The Swallow
Saturday 9 May 2026 7pm JUBILATE! Fisherwick Church, Belfast
A celebration of 20 years of the unique Belfast Philharmonic Youth Choirs programme. The repertoire is selected from special moments that tell the story of the choral music education programme, featuring highlights from across the years. This concert brings together talented young singers from Belfast, Dublin and Sperrin to perform alongside the incomparable Ulster Orchestra.
15th / 16th May 2026 8pm Dlr Mill Theatre, Dundrum
“Birds on the brink of extinction take to the stage hoping the humans will look up and cherish their song before it’s too late.”
An intergenerational performance of theatre, music and visual art by participatory arts group The Elders in collaboration with a flock of muti-disciplinary artists and National Concert Hall’s Cór na Nóg. A gathering of wings, voices and stories rooted in the lives of birds from Ireland’s Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern, the work invites us to step briefly into another way of being, of moving, calling, and listening. Myth, music, theatre, movement, animation, visual art and live performance are woven together to give voice to birds and their fragile futures. www.floatingworldproductions.com
A Conference of Birds
Saturday 7th November 2027 Samuel Beckett Theatre, Trinity College, Dublin
Evlana Sinfonietta, directed by Keith Pascoe, presents the world premiere of Elaine Agnew’s new string sinfonietta alongside a programme that places Irish voices in dialogue with two Pulitzer Prize-winning composers. The concert also features works by Irish composers Siobhán Cleary and Raymond Deane. This premiere performance also includes a pre-concert performance of a new piece composed collaboratively with children from St. Peter’s National School, Phibsborough as part of Evlana’s commitment to widening access to contemporary music.
Saturday 6th June 2026 7.30pm Hill of the O’Neill, Dungannon
The Belfast Philharmonic Choir & Fermanagh Choral Society join forces for Starstruck — an unforgettable celebration of iconic film music and the evocative new choral work The Offing. From beloved film themes to the powerful narratives of The Offing, this is an evening where music tells the story. Conducted by James Grossmith with
pianist Gail Evans. Text by Sinéad Morrisey.
The Offing
12th February 2027 National Concert Hall, Dublin
Commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra Ireland and youth choir Cór Linn with a commissioned text by Jessica Traynor, under the direction of Finnish conductor Anna-Maria Helsing.
New Work
December 2026 Mission Santa Clara de Asís, Santa Clara, California
Commissioned by the Californian girls choir iSing Silicon Valley and Artistic Director Jennah Delp Somers, Velvet Shoes will be premiered with a chamber ensemble accompaniment. A setting of a poem by
Velvet Shoes
December 2026 St Peter’s Church, Drogheda
Hurry Home!, a 30 minute celebration of Winter and Christmas music, will be performed a 2nd time with children and young people from Music Generation Louth alongside the Drogheda adult choir Réalta Chamber Choir.
Curoo Curoo / Child Within
22nd December 2026 National Concert Hall, Dublin
Performed by Cór na nÓg and Cór Linn with National Symphony Orchestra Ireland in a celebration of Christmas music!
What the Future Holds
Hurry Home!
Recent Events
19th March 2026 Harty Room, QUB Belfast
An active freelance percussionist, Alex Petcu transcribed Seagull, a solo piano work, for vibraphone, marimba and drums.
Seagull
Calligraphy
8th March 2026 Harty Room, QUB Belfast
Featuring Hard Rain's 25/26 young percussionist Charlie Shortt and their celebration of International Women’s Day with music by some of the ensemble's closest collaborators from the North, South and West of Ireland, and born some 50 years apart, this programme presents multiple premieres while spanning generations and the geography of our island.
I want to tell you…
27th February - 6th March 2026 Peaceline Perspectives TOUR
Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble Peaceline Perspectives features highly evocative pieces from the North of Ireland. The music is interwoven with voices and soundscapes inspired around Belfast’s Peaceline, which separates the nationalist and loyalist communities. This performance showcases the work of multiple composers whose musical voices are shaped by their shared Northern Irish heritage. I Want to tell you… consists of instrumental duos accompanying a voice track of victims, survivors and displaced families affected by conflict. Limerick, Galway, Dublin, Maynooth and Derry.
5th / 6th February 2026 National Gallery of Ireland / Newry Town Hall
Irish pianist Finghin Collins performed Seagull as part of the Feis Ceoil 130th Celebrations in the National Gallery of Ireland, a pianist who has a long and distinguished association with Feis Ceoil and is one of the Festival’s most ardent ambassadors. The following night Finghin performed Seagull at the Newry Chamber Music Piano Fests vibrant opening concert.
Seagull
Hurry Home!
15th December 2025 St Peter’s Church, Drogheda
Elaine was appointed as Composer in Residence with Music Generation Louth for a three-year period from September 2025, funded through Music Generation’s Creativity and Collaboration Fund which supports projects that create opportunities for children and young people to progress and grow as musicians, taking them to the next level in their artistic growth. Hurry Home!, a 30 minute celebration of Winter and Christmas, involved two school choirs, the Drogheda adult choir Réalta Chamber Choir, as well as instrumental tutors and young players from Drogheda Music Hub. Text directed by writer/BBC broadcaster John Toal. A second year residency starting in Dundalk in September 2026 will focus on a collaboration with young strings players.
Curoo Curoo / Child Within
6th December 2025 Newman University Church, St Stephen’s Green, Dublin
Two new arrangements of the Carols were premiered by the eight-part Dublin based vocal ensemble Ascolta as part of their Ascolta Christmas Concert.
Child Within
23rd November 2025 Good Shepherd Church, Belfast
Over the past three decades, Cappella Caeciliana has shared the beauty of classical choral music with audiences across Ireland and beyond. This 30th Anniversary concert was a joyful celebration of their musical journey, under the direction of Matthew Quinn with pianist Ruth McGinley.
Songs of Travel
9th - 19th October 2025 IMAX London Film Festival
Featuring Elaine’s curated soundtrack, Songs of Travel was selected as one of only six Games showcased in the Games Lounge at London Film Festival Expanded, a playful, free and accessible showcase of moving, imaginative and wildly inventive games from around the world. An Animated Graphic Novel (available for free on iOS and Android), Songs of Travel explores and collectively paints a vivid picture of the topic of migration through the personal stories of five individuals as they fled their troubled homelands in search of new beginnings in Europe.
