Festival ’26 Open Call – New Works for Early Musical Instruments
Sonorities welcomes proposals for new compositions to be performed by three acclaimed musicians from diverse backgrounds and disciplines living on the island of Ireland (Sarah Groser, Yonit Kosovske and Xenia Pestova Bennett – see bios below).
Deadline for this open call is the 31st August 2025.
The group will perform Xenia Pestova Bennett’s work BAILE (Irish for “home”) alongside new works selected through this open call. BAILE combines the intimacy of contemporary and historical portable keyboards with the warmth of the Renaissance & Baroque viola da gamba, spoken word interviews, and electronics to weave together narratives of childhood and women’s voices.
Composers are invited to submit a work, by PDF score, for one to three players (with fixed media if needed) for the following ensemble:
Sarah Groser: treble / tenor / bass viola da gamba
Yonit Kosovske: harpsichord
Xenia Pestova Bennett: piano / toy piano
Piano: Steinway Model D Concert Grand Piano
Toy piano: 37-key Schoenhut model (the range is from F below middle C to F three octaves above).
Harpsichord: Flemish single manual harpsichord built by Michael Johnson 2008. Registration 8′ x 8’ + 4’ and a buff stop. The harpsichord will be tuned at A=440 to work with the piano / toy piano, and in this tuning the harpsichord range is from GG to c#3.
Viols: TREBLE (top to bottom): D A E C G D, 6 gut strings; TENOR (top to bottom): G D A F C G, 6 gut strings; BASS (top to bottom): D A E C G D A, 7 strings – top 4 gut, bottom 3 metal wound over gut. All viols are fretted, bow played underhand, and all can be tuned to A440 to match piano / toy piano.
Works must not exceed 8 minutes’ duration in performance. Works exceeding, or expected to exceed, 8’ in performance will not be eligible. Use of fixed media element is permitted, but NOT live electronics.
To apply, please complete the submission form and submit a score (in PDF format) and a proposal (in PDF format) containing:
- Name of composer
- Title of piece
- Duration
- Instrumentation
- Brief description of piece
- Link to online recording of fixed media part (optional)
Composers of selected works are invited to attend Sonorities. Composers attending will receive a fee (£100 per local artist, £250 per artist traveling to Belfast to offset travel expenses). Up to three nights’ accommodation can be provided upon request. Sonorities can also provide a letter of support to assist with funding applications to cover additional costs.
Sonorities will not be liable for any additional hire or purchase charges arising from procurement of the printed or recorded materials for submitted works; composers are responsible for ensuring that materials are freely available.
Ensemble performer bios:
Sarah Groser first played the viola da gamba as a child, encouraged by her viol-playing father, whilst waiting to start on the cello. She concentrated on the cello until her late teens when she heard viols playing in consort and was captivated by the sound. At Manchester University she was able to study both Baroque cello and viol with Charles Medlam of London Baroque and continued on to Rotterdam Conservatorium to study Baroque cello with Jaap ter Linden. Later she had lessons with Jordi Savall as an external student at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Sarah has since stopped playing cello and now concentrates on all the different sizes of viol. She was a member of the Rose Consort of Viols for fifteen years and of Sonnerie under Monica Huggett for three years. She has also played with London Baroque, Fretwork, Charivari Agréable, and the Dowland Consort. In 2001 Sarah moved from England to West Cork. In Ireland, she has collaborated with The Irish Baroque Orchestra, the IBO Concert Soloists, Resurgam, Sestina, Camerata Kilkenny, Morisca, The Orchestra of St Cecilia, Madrigal 75, and as a duo with Sarah Cunningham. Sarah performs regularly with harpsichordist Yonit Kosovske on both early and contemporary repertoire.
Yonit Kosovske performs as a soloist, collaborative musician, and interdisciplinary artist on harpsichord and piano, in addition to other modern and historical keyboard instruments. Passionate about repertoire spanning the 1500s through Contemporary, she regularly commissions and performs new works by living composers. As an active recitalist, Yonit accompanies acclaimed vocalists in genres of Opera, Art Song, and Oratorio, and she has directed a variety of imaginative projects around Ireland and further field throughout Europe, North America, South America, and the Middle East. As a continuo player, she has performed with Irish Baroque Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Musici Ireland, Sestina, Resurgam, Chamber Choir Ireland, Ancór Chamber Choir, Galway Baroque Choir, English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, Lipzodes, and ¡Sacabuche!, among others. In addition to her performance career, Yonit is a founding co-producer of the Limerick Early Music Festival, co-director of H.I.P.S.T.E.R. (Historically Informed Performance Series, Teaching, Education and Research), and artistic director of WAVE~LINKS, a video documentary series exploring connections between music and art. Yonit gratefully acknowledges recent funding awards in Ireland from the Arts Council, Limerick City & County Council, and Tipperary Arts Office. She holds a Doctor of Music from Indiana University, a Master of Music from San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and a Bachelor of Music from Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts. Yonit is an Associate Professor in Music at the University of Limerick, Irish World Academy of Music and Dance
Pianist, composer and improviser Xenia Pestova Bennett has earned an international reputation as a leading proponent of uncompromising music. Her work spans a wide range of sound worlds, styles and genres from classical and contemporary art music to free improvisation, experimental electronica, multimedia and avant-pop. Xenia’s commitment to contemporary music inspired her to commission dozens of new works and collaborate closely with major innovators including Annea Lockwood, Karlheinz Essl and Gayle Young as well as champion numerous new voices. As a composer, Xenia is represented by the Contemporary Music Centre Ireland. Her ten studio albums to date include widely acclaimed recordings of core piano duo works by John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen with Pascal Meyer for Naxos Records, collaborations with singer-songwriter Roxanne De Bastion and guitarist / producer Simon Tong (“The Piano Player of Budapest”), a collection of premiere recordings “Shadow Piano” for piano, toy piano and electronics (a “terrific album of dark, probing music”, Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader), complete piano works by Gayle Young hailed as “a triumph” (John Eyles, All About Jazz), and “Gold.Berg.Werk”, a reimagining of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations by Karlheinz Essl described as “a sci-fi journey in the direction of 1741” (Luke Clancy, RTE Lyric FM).