Draft:Peter Moran (composer)

Peter Moran (Born 3 August 1981) is an Irish composer and director of Ireland's National Concert Hall Gamelan Orchestra.

Biography
Peter Moran was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1981. He studied music and ethnomusicology at University College Dublin from 1999-2003 before pursuing a PhD in Composition at the University of York, UK. He studied composition with Nicola LeFanu, Michael Finnissy, Roger Marsh, and William Brooks.

Upon returning to Ireland in 2011, Moran took over the running of the Association of Irish Composers (AIC) for several years, later becoming the founding editor the AIC New Music Journal, for publishing analyses and discussions of contemporary Irish music.

In 2014 he founded Ireland's National Concert Hall Gamelan Orchestra when he received the gift on behalf of the Irish people of a complete Javanese gamelan orchestra from Sultan Hamengkubuwono X of Yogyakarta.

In 2022, he was appointed as Assistant Professor of Composition and Performance in University College Dublin.

Career
Moran's early work focussed on microtonal music and alternative tuning systems. Notable works from this period include Bommy (2007), winner of the 2010 Carl von Ossietzky Composition Competition, It Is Not True... (2008), recorded by Bob Gilmore's Trio Scordatura and released on Ergodos Records, and Anois 's Arís (2009) and its later partner piece, Enharmonic Harmonics (2015), both of which were recorded and released by Benjamin Dwyer on Farpoint Recordings.

Moran is perhaps best known internationally for his gamelan compositions, which have been performed by gamelan orchestras around the world. Notable works in this genre include his large-scale work for gamelan and ensemble Western Canteen (2006), his two Bonang Quartets (2008-09), Sailendra (2015) for gamelan and cello, and Embat (2014), commissioned for the royal visit of Sultan Hamengkubuwono X to Ireland for the inaugural performance of the National Concert Hall Gamelan Orchestra.

From 2014, Moran stepped back from composition to devote more time to his gamelan ensembles and other projects. He has consistently led four different gamelan ensembles since 2014, including the UCD Gamelan Orchestra, and the NCH Gamelan Orchestra, which regularly performs at festivals across Ireland and has twice travelled to Indonesia to perform at major festivals there.

Since returning to composition in 2020, Moran's work has focussed more on aligning with his meditation practise, producing such works as Benedictus (2021) and Entertaining Rama in the Garden (2022), both commissioned by the Creative Futures Academy, and Mantra (2022), for Chamber Choir Ireland.

Awards
Moran was the winner of the 2011 Walter Beckett Cup for Original Song (for The Stranger on the Southbound Train), and the 2010 Carl von Ossietzky Composition Prize (for Bommy). He was shortlisted both for Austria's Mauricio Kagel Composition Prize in 2013 for his Dublin Miniatures, and for the Cork International Choral Festival's Sean O'Riada Composition Prize in 2016 for his setting of The Four Noble Truths of the Buddha, commissioned by RTÉ. He was the featured composer for the 2011 Soundscape Festival in Italy, and the 2012 Clavier Contemporain Weekend in the Frederic Chopin Conservatoire in Paris.

Discography

 * Knowing/Unknowing, Benjamin Dwyer, Farpoint Recordings FP065
 * Dubh, Trio Scordatura, Ergodos Records ER01