Evlana is a flexible group with programmes ranging from smaller ensemble groups to a sinfonietta sized orchestra. It was founded by composer, Siobhán Cleary in 2015. Evlana places contemporary music at the heart of its programming and provides an opportunity for Ireland’s most accomplished performers and composers to produce and perform their work.
Evlana creates exceptional new music projects and performances that resonate with today's society, inspiring and engaging individuals, audiences, communities, and artists.
Commissioning new works by Irish and international composers is integral to the objectives of the sinfonietta as well as providing opportunities for repeat performances of recently composed works. Gender balanced programming is a core policy of Evlana and we have committed to commissioning new works at a 50:50 ratio.
Evlana is a CLG with three directors: Gavin O’ Sullivan (Chair), Cliodhna Shaffrey, Rhona Clarke
Evlana was awarded Arts Council Project Funding in 2015 for an inaugural concert at the University Church Dublin on Sept 29th. This concert was broadcast on Lyric FM over 4 weeks in November in 2015 and featured several pieces which were performed in Ireland for the first time. This includes Changing Light by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s, a haunting dialogue for soprano and flute, Claude Vivier’s shimmering Zipangu for string orchestra and Swedish composer Karin Rehnqvist’s Taromirs Tid. It also featured Her Kind, by Siobhán Cleary, a setting of the Anne Sexton poem which explores the dynamic between the soprano and the string orchestra.
A Chamber Ensemble concert was held at the National Gallery of Ireland in November 2018 featuring music by Tailleferre, Lili Boulanger, Messiaen, Saariaho and Takemitsu and the Irish premiere of Siobhán Cleary’s Ondine. It was subsequently broadcast on RTÉ lyric fm’s Sound Out. In 2021, Evlana made their New Music Dublin debut, and 2022 saw the ensemble perform a concert with writer Michael Harding, and a four-venue tour of Ireland funded by the Arts Council Touring Award. This project took Ravel’s Ondine as its starting point of a 100 year survey including works by Rebecca Clarke, George Walker, Nino Rota, Toru Takemitsu, Keiko Abe and Kaija Saariaho.
In April 2023, Evlana performed a concert at New Music Dublin which included works by Solfa Carlile, Fergus Johnston, Seoirse Bodley, George Crumb, Missy Mazzoli, Pamela Z and a new Evlana / NMD commission by Jenn Kirby. In May of the same year, at the NCH, Dublin, Evlana performed a concert featuring work by Jessie Montgomery, Jonathan Nangle, Jane O’ Leary, John Corigliano and Cassandra Miller with funding from the Arts Council Arts Grant Fund. In November 2023, Evlana took a concert of works by composers involved in the First Peoples Project to Cork and Dublin. The Ngarra-Burria: First Peoples Composers program exists to support and mentor emerging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander composers and was initiated in 2016 by the indigenous composer Christopher Sainsbury.
So far in 2024, the group has performed a concert at Finding a Voice Festival, New Music Dublin and toured to Castlebar, Sligo, Kilkenny and Dublin in June .
Supported by the Arts Council of Ireland.
