Sonorities Festival

Queen’s University, Belfast May 8-16 048-90974829

There’s no gainsaying the fact that the Sonorities Festival is not what it used to be. Last year’s August event was essentially the performance end of a computer music conference. This years programme is split between May and November, with both parts celebrating the work of Dutch composers and performers, and with the May programme including “a focus on music by Louis Andriessen”, who turns 70 next month.

That "focus" seems to amount to just one work, the dance score, Dances, which will be performed on Tuesday by the Ulster Orchestra under Gavin Maloney with soprano Marije van Stralen; the evening's other Dutch work is Klaas de Vries's Violin Concerto (with Hebe Mensinga), with Michael Alcorn's Synapsecompleting the programme.

There will also be concerts by the POW Ensemble (Monday), Trio Scordatura (Tuesday), and composer/accordionist Pauline Oliveros (Saturday 16th). The festival opens with a CMC Composer’s Platform at the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC), featuring works by up-and-coming composers from Belfast, Derry, Cork, Dundalk and Limerick, and beginning at noon.