Linda Buckley · Composer

About

Linda Buckley is an award winning Irish composer (born in Cork, 1979) who creates electronic and acoustic music, and has a particular interest in working across many disciplines, most notably film and in the realm of drone and dark ambient music. Her NMC record From Ocean’s Floor was featured by Iggy Pop on BBC Radio 6 as “beautiful music – here is somebody really special”. Her work has been described as “sublime and brilliant” (BBC Radio 3), “engaging with an area of experience that new music is generally shy of, which, simplified and reduced to a single word, I’d call ecstasy” (Bob Gilmore, Journal of Music). She has written extensively for orchestra (BBC Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ NSO), was elected to Aosdana in 2021, and is Associate Artist with Chamber Music Scotland.

She has worked in many collaborative contexts including scoring film by Kathryn Ferguson (Nothing Compares co-composed with Irene Buckley, nominated for Best Score at the IFTA Awards and Cinema Eye Honors), Mark Cousins (Like a Huge Scotland and A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things), Pat Collins (That He May Face the Rising Sun co-composed with Irene Buckley, Living in a Coded Land, Henry Glassie: Field Work) and Tadhg O’Sullivan (To The Moon). Awards include a Fulbright scholarship to New York University, a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, the Frankfurt Visual Music Award (for Silk Chroma) and Gold at the New York Festivals Radio Awards (for Mother’s Blood, Sister Songs documentary with Athena Media).

Recent collaborations include new work for Liam Byrne and Crash Ensemble, Gudrun Gut (Einstürzende Neubauten), Andrew Zolinsky (for Dark Music Days, hcmf and New Music Dublin). She was invited by John Schaefer’s New Sounds Live (WNYC) to present the New York premiere of a new live score to the silent horror film Nosferatu (co-composed with Irene Buckley) at Brookfield Place. Linda holds a Music Degree from University College Cork, a Masters in Music and Media Technologies and a PhD in Composition from Trinity College Dublin. She has lectured in Composition at Trinity College Dublin, Pulse College at Windmill Lane and at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. In September 2020 her NMC record, From Ocean’s Floor was released: “The Irish composer combines traditional séan-nos singing with an electronic soundscape, connecting past and future … It’s clear how much Buckley deeply connects her past to her present, opening up possibilities for our mutual musical futures.” Guardian – Album of the Month, ‘a masterpiece in connecting the past and future.’ Evening Standard

Past events

April 2025

The Meeting by Jyll Bradley screening in Plymouth (score)

Score created for new film The Meeting by Jyll Bradley, showing at The Box, Plymouth

March 2025

Composer in Residence at the Walled City Music Festival, Derry

A selection of work performed at the festival as well as mentoring composers in composing for saxophone, piano and electronics

February 2025

Liquid Mercury for piano performed by Jimmy Goeijenbier, TU Dublin

Liquid Mercury which was written for the Dublin International Piano Competition performed by Jimmy Goeijenbier at the Concert Hall, East Quad Grangegorman, TU Dublin

February 2025

Thar Farriage at Kings Place London with Brìghde Chaimbeul and the Maxwell Quartet

Performance of Thar Farraige at Kings Place London, for Scottish small pipes, string quartet and electronics.

April 2024

New work for Iarla O’Lionaird and the National Symphony Orchestra, New Music Dublin

April 2024

New work for Nathan Sherman premiered at New Music Dublin, Viola & Electronics

February 2024

Thar Farriage at Hemsing Festival, Norway

February 2024

Thar Farraige with Brìghde Chaimbeul and Maxwell Quartet at Celtic Connections, Glasgow

December 2023

Coming Soon: score to new film by Mark Cousins A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things based on the artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham.

November 2023

Premiere of new work Thar Farraige with Brìghde Chaimbeul and Maxwell Quartet, Duncairn Belfast