Indie rock legend Thurston Moore will headline the 2025 edition of the New Music Dublin Festival, which returns to the capital for four days this April.
The legendary Sonic Youth guitarist features alongside performances from the National Symphony Orchestra, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Chamber Choir Ireland, and major international guests.
With explorations of Javanese Gamelan music alongside uilleann pipes, new compositions 'for the cosmos' at Dunsink Observatory, sonic sculptures, free improvisation in complete darkness in a disused fridge, and compositions shaped by environmental recordings, this year's NMD programme continues the festival's mission of pushing musical boundaries while inviting audiences into fresh and uncharted sonic territories.
Running from April 2nd to 6th, this year's NMD programme features the world premiere of Thurston Moore's Guitar Explorations of Cloud Formations, a suite inspired by cloud formations, which Moore himself will perform with collaborators Alex Ward, Jennifer Chochinov, and Jeremy Doulton at the National Concert Hall.
Other highlights include Blood of a Poet, a live performance of a new score by Erik Friedlander and Matthew Nolan, accompanying Jean Cocteau's classic surrealist film Le Sang d’un poète, while composer Ann Cleare completes her trilogy of new works for NMD following MIDHE (2023) and Terrarium (2024), with Nocturne, a site-specific journey blending music, theatre, and multimedia, to be performed at Dunsink Observatory.
National Symphony Orchestra will perform the world premiere of John Buckley’s Clarinet Concerto, a showcase for virtuoso clarinetist Carol McGonnell, alongside works by Arvo Pärt and Unsuk Chin; elsewhere, RTÉ Concert Orchestra and Chamber Choir Ireland will unite for a programme conducted by Gavin Maloney and featuring Olga Neuwirth’s Miramondo Multiplo, Irene Buckley’s Lament for Art O’Leary, and Ed Bennett’s Piano Concerto, performed by the boundary-pushing pianist Xenia Pestova-Bennett.
Other choice offerings include the return of NMD favorites The Totally Made Up Orchestra, with musicians of all ages and abilities coming together for an entirely spontaneous performance led by composer Brian Irvine, as well as CrashWorks' You Heard It First, a programme showcasing unfiltered improvisation and boundary-pushing electronica, plus In the Dark, a 'radical, blindfolded musical experience' at Improvised Music Company's new performance space The Cooler, where neither musicians nor audience knows who will perform.
The festival also features several public sound and visual installations, including Laura Sheeran’s film project Postcards, and Jonathan Nangle’s Blue Haze of Deep Time, an all-encompassing sonic and visual journey installed throughout the National Concert Hall.
"This festival resists any attempt at easy categorisation," says New Music Dublin Director John Harris. "It is, as always, a testament to the sheer creative aliveness of new music in Ireland."
New Music Dublin 2025 runs at various venues from April 2nd - 6th - find out more here.
