Finola Merivale

Finola Merivale is an Irish composer of acoustic and electro-acoustic music, currently living in New York City. She is a Dean’s Fellow at Columbia University where she is pursuing a DMA in Composition, studying with Georg Friedrich Haas, George Lewis and Zosha Di Castri. Themes that run across her music include climate change, inequality and oppression. A sense of place – both real and imagined – also greatly inspires her work.

Her compositions have been performed internationally – in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia – and featured at festivals such as the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival, the Contemporary Music Festival of Buenos Aires, and Vox Feminae in Tel Aviv. Her music has been performed by musicians of the Chicago and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Talea Ensemble, Desdemona Ensemble, Crash Ensemble, ~Nois Quartet, PRISM Saxophone Quartet and Bearthoven, amongst others. Projects in 2020–21 include commissions from bassoonist Rebekah Heller, pianist Karl Larson and her first evening-length multimedia work for Real Loud.  

Finola will have three records released in 2020, including her first solo album, String Music of Finola Merivale recorded by Desdemona Ensemble. Pathos Trio is releasing her new work oblivious / oblivion on their debut album and ~Nois Quartet is releasing her 2016 saxophone quartet Kenopsia.

Finola also plays gamelan, which she has spent time studying in Java, Indonesia. During her mid-twenties, she spent two years teaching English in Hong Kong. When she’s not composing, she enjoys exploring New York City, yoga, playing with her adopted cat Saffron, cooking vegetarian food for friends, and relaxing with a cup of Barry’s Tea, which hails from her home county of Cork. 

Biography

Finola Merivale is an Irish composer of acoustic and electro-acoustic music, currently living in New York City. She is a Dean’s Fellow at Columbia University where she is pursuing a DMA in Composition, studying with Georg Friedrich Haas, George Lewis and Zosha Di Castri. Themes that run across her music include climate change, inequality and oppression. A sense of place – both real and imagined – also greatly inspires her work.

Her compositions have been performed internationally – in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia – and featured at festivals such as the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival, the Contemporary Music Festival of Buenos Aires, and Vox Feminae in Tel Aviv. Her music has been performed by musicians of the Chicago and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Talea Ensemble, Desdemona Ensemble, Crash Ensemble, ~Nois Quartet, PRISM Saxophone Quartet and Bearthoven, amongst others. Projects in 2020–21 include commissions from bassoonist Rebekah Heller, pianist Karl Larson and her first evening-length multimedia work for Real Loud.  

Finola will have three records released in 2020, including her first solo album, String Music of Finola Merivale recorded by Desdemona Ensemble. Pathos Trio is releasing her new work oblivious / oblivion on their debut album and ~Nois Quartet is releasing her 2016 saxophone quartet Kenopsia.

Finola also plays gamelan, which she has spent time studying in Java, Indonesia. During her mid-twenties, she spent two years teaching English in Hong Kong. When she’s not composing, she enjoys exploring New York City, yoga, playing with her adopted cat Saffron, cooking vegetarian food for friends, and relaxing with a cup of Barry’s Tea, which hails from her home county of Cork. 

Compilations with this composer

Compilations
Zeta Potential

Zeta Potential

Huddersfield Contemporary Records

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External Links

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