Freely intertwining acoustic and electronic music, Irish composer Emma O’Halloran has written for folk musicians, chamber ensembles, turntables, laptop orchestra, symphony orchestra, film, and theatre. For her efforts, she has been praised by I Care If You Listen Editor-in-Chief Amanda Cook for writing “some of the most unencumbered, authentic, and joyful music that I have heard in recent years,” and has won numerous competitions, including National Sawdust’s inaugural Hildegard competition and the Next Generation Award from Beth Morrison Projects. O’Halloran holds a Ph.D. in music composition from Princeton University and is currently working as a freelance composer.
While at MacDowell, she developed material for a large-scale chamber ensemble composition to be premiered at the New Music Dublin Festival in May 2022. Emma was recently named one of the 22 musical artists to watch out for in '22 by the Washington Post. Her opera Trade will premiere at the Prototype Festival in New York in January 2023, and will subsequently be presented by LA Opera and Irish National later that year.
