“I have often to pinch myself when I think about how lucky I am to collaborate with such a broad cross-section of top-drawer artists across such a wide range of genres. From marrying pipes and orchestra on Sometimes to the inaugural performance of Lacrimae Rerum dedicated to Seamus Heaney, from scoring my first feature-length drama Food For Ravens to writing the choral symphony Ossa, from theatre and TV soundtracks to dancer Jean Butler and myself opening our own show in New York, from collaborating on Broadway with Stephen Rea and Sam Shepard to co-writing Knocknashee with songwriter Brendan Graham (author of You Raise Me Up) and our song being in the Billboard Top 10 World Music Album Charts in 2011– all of these are hugely rewarding.
Similarly, to sit in recording studios and share stages from Carnegie Hall to Mostar Bridge, from the Royal Albert Hall to the Palazzo Vecchio, and to make music with Bryn Terfel, Liam O’Flynn, London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, all the principle orchestras in Ireland, Christy Moore, The Dubliners and The Chieftains – this is truly dreamlike.
And of matters surreal – to have had music that I composed and recorded with my colleagues in The West Ocean String Quartet played aboard the International Space Station – that is simply out of this world…”
