Benedict Schlepper-Connolly
Foreign Hand [2019]

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

Performed by the Ficino Quartet
Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, 19th January 2020 (live audio recording)

For enquiries regarding score and parts, please contact info@ergodos.ie

Foreign Hand 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).

In Foreign Hand, one of four works written to be played intertwined with Beethoven’s A minor quartet Op.132, Benedict Schlepper-Connolly gently sustains the rich sonorities of the third movement – an extended moment of repose before the final tour-de-force of the fourth and fifth movements. 

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Benedict Schlepper-Connolly is a composer and producer from Dublin. As a composer, he moves between various musical forms, including chamber music, choral writing, orchestral work, arrangement, songwriting, field recording and music for dance and film. Benedict’s compositions frequently seek out an ecstatic quality, with a reduced palette of materials, rich tonal harmonies and rhythmic intricacy.

In recent years Benedict has worked with a range of orchestras and groups such as the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Klang, Crash Ensemble and Slagwerk den Haag. Recurring collaborations with performers such as vocalist Michelle O’Rourke, pianist Michael McHale and cellist Kate Ellis, feature prominently in his output. He has worked with musicians from across a wide musical spectrum, including Iarla Ó Lionáird, Thomas Bartlett (aka Doveman) and Sam Amidon. Benedict often features as a performer, playing an array of instruments.

Benedict has produced over a dozen records, working in many studios, bespoke recording facilities and live recording environments across Europe. He has produced and mixed recordings for composers and performers such as Simon O’Connor, Maya Homburger and Barry Guy, Frankie Gavin and the Irish Youth Chamber Choir among many others.

Born in Ireland to an Irish father and German mother, Benedict studied composition with Donnacha Dennehy, Yannis Kyriakides and Peter Adriaansz at both Trinity College, Dublin, and at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague. Along with Garrett Sholdice, Benedict runs Ergodos, a record label and production company founded in 2006. Benedict is also Head of Exhibitions, Digital and Programming at MoLI – Museum of Literature Ireland.