The youngest female composer ever commissioned by the Ulster Orchestra, marking her debut with national ensemble: premiere of Amelia Clarkson's The Rain Keeps Coming at Ulster Hall

Amelia Clarkson

Amelia Clarkson is a Northern Irish composer from County Down and she currently works between Belfast and Manchester where she is undertaking a PhD at the Royal Northern College of Music. She is the 2022 Mendelssohn Scholar. Awarded to a composer for for advanced study since 1856, this scholarship supports her current PhD where her research is centred on creating new music for dance.

On 10 October, Amelia Clarkson makes her debut with her home orchestra at Belfast's Ulster Hall when the Ulster Orchestra premieres her The Rain Keeps Coming, a stunning new commission by the Orchestra, where the soothing rhythms of rainfall lead through cycles of renewal and reflection. 

Reflecting on the piece, she said “The Rain Keeps Coming is a celebration of the relentlessness of life. We move through these constant cycles of joy and pain, leading us to renewal and reflection. At times it feels overwhelming, as though we’re drenched by it all, and yet there is also wonder in that persistence. This piece is about holding resilience and fragility in the same breath, and finding the magic in feeling alive, even when caught in a downpour.”

At 29, Clarkson becomes the youngest female composer ever commissioned by the Ulster Orchestra, marking both her debut with national ensemble and a significant moment in the orchestra’s history.

Andrew Gourlay conducts in a programme that includes Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 with Vadym Kholodenko and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4.

Full details from the Ulster Orchestra's website.