Cora Venus Lunny
Theft [2019]

Performed by the Ficino Quartet
Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, 19th January 2020

Commissioned by the National String Quartet Foundation with funds from the Arts Council of Ireland

Theft was part of NSQF’s Beethoven Reflected project in spring 2020, which featured a series of specially designed programmes marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827).

One of four works written to be played intertwined with Beethoven’s A minor quartet Op.132, Cora Venus Lunny’s Theft preceded the third movement and its famous “Heiliger Dankgesang” hymn. “I wanted to go to some deep and even unpleasant places,” she said, “in order to appreciate the light of Beethoven’s gloriousness even more and be lifted up.”

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A violinist since early childhood, who worked around the world as a soloist and chamber musician before specialising in contemporary music, Cora Venus Lunny has been exploring improvisation and composition for many years. After releasing 1943, a self-produced EP of covers and originals, Cora’s second album, Terminus Conscientiae, part of Diatribe’s Solo Series, was a spontaneously composed response to Bartók’s Sonata for Solo Violin. The Journal of Music described the album as “as much an exercise in textures and transposition as it is a display of safety-net-free high-wire virtuosity”, while allaboutjazz.com wrote “Fans of Bartók, contemporary string adventures and improvised music will find much to appreciate in Lunny's highly personal, soul-searching endeavour”. As a member of Yurodny, Cora has also written for them. In 2016 Cora and Kate Ellis were commissioned to co-compose music for Common Ground, relating to the 1916 commemorations. Cora’s latest music can be found at bandcamp.com/trancebranches and patreon.com/trancebranches.