About

Linda Buckley is an award winning Irish composer (born in Cork, 1979) who creates electronic and acoustic music, and has a particular interest in working across many disciplines, most notably film and in the realm of drone and dark ambient music. Her NMC record From Ocean’s Floor was featured by Iggy Pop on BBC Radio 6 as “beautiful music – here is somebody really special”. Her work has been described as “sublime and brilliant” (BBC Radio 3), “engaging with an area of experience that new music is generally shy of, which, simplified and reduced to a single word, I’d call ecstasy” (Bob Gilmore, Journal of Music). She has written extensively for orchestra (BBC Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ NSO), was elected to Aosdana in 2021, and is Associate Artist with Chamber Music Scotland.

She has worked in many collaborative contexts including scoring film by Kathryn Ferguson (Nothing Compares co-composed with Irene Buckley, nominated for Best Score at the IFTA Awards and Cinema Eye Honors), Mark Cousins (Like a Huge Scotland and A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things), Pat Collins (That He May Face the Rising Sun co-composed with Irene Buckley, Living in a Coded Land, Henry Glassie: Field Work) and Tadhg O’Sullivan (To The Moon). Awards include a Fulbright scholarship to New York University, a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, the Frankfurt Visual Music Award (for Silk Chroma) and Gold at the New York Festivals Radio Awards (for Mother’s Blood, Sister Songs documentary with Athena Media).

Recent collaborations include new work for Liam Byrne and Crash Ensemble, Gudrun Gut (Einstürzende Neubauten), Andrew Zolinsky (for Dark Music Days, hcmf and New Music Dublin). She was invited by John Schaefer’s New Sounds Live (WNYC) to present the New York premiere of a new live score to the silent horror film Nosferatu (co-composed with Irene Buckley) at Brookfield Place. Linda holds a Music Degree from University College Cork, a Masters in Music and Media Technologies and a PhD in Composition from Trinity College Dublin. She has lectured in Composition at Trinity College Dublin, Pulse College at Windmill Lane and at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. In September 2020 her NMC record, From Ocean’s Floor was released: “The Irish composer combines traditional séan-nos singing with an electronic soundscape, connecting past and future … It’s clear how much Buckley deeply connects her past to her present, opening up possibilities for our mutual musical futures.” Guardian – Album of the Month, ‘a masterpiece in connecting the past and future.’ Evening Standard

Past events

October 2023
Score to That They Face the Rising Sun by Pat Collins (co-composed with Irene Buckley) premiered at BFI London Film Festival
http://film-directory.britishcouncil.org/that-they-may-face-the-rising-sun
May 2023
Nominated for an IFTA Award for Nothing Compares Score
April 2023
Mallacht performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Commission for the BBC SSO for Tectonics Festival 2023, conducted by Maayan Franco

April 2023
Water Witch Irish Premiere – Andrew Zolinsky, Piano & Electronics at New Music Dublin

Andrew Zolinsky performs Water Witch commissioned by Dark Music Days Iceland, hcmf and New Music Dublin

December 2022
New work for the Ficino Quartet

New work for string quartet for performance by the Ficino Quartet during a tour of Ireland 7-11 December 2022, alongside music by Caroline Shaw, Philip Glass and Ravel.

August 2022
New work for viola da gamba (Liam Byrne), Crash Ensemble and electronics

Commissioned by Kilkenny Arts Festival with Crash Ensemble

August 2022
Moving on Music – Fidelio Trio with Uilleann Pipes

Moving on Music commission for performance by Fidelio Trio + Uilleann Pipes, to compose a piece in response to one of J.B. Vallely’s artworks

Premiere: Kilkenny Arts Festival

July 2022
Winter in Inis Meáin for New Dublin Voices
New work for New Dublin Voices
The work will be part of a wider, six-piece song cycle, (un)Sung Heroes: Mná na hÉireann, and will be premiered by New Dublin Voices