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 a member of the Screen Composers Guild of Ireland.

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

November 2023
Premiere of new work Thar Farraige with Brìghde Chaimbeul and Maxwell Quartet, Duncairn Belfast
https://www.theduncairn.com/events/maxwell4
November 2023
Release of new work Aud composed for Nordic Viola on record Elsewhere, Elsewhen
https://nordicviola.bandcamp.com/track/aud-by-linda-buckley
November 2023
Developing new opera Possession with Amanda Coogan and the Dublin Theatre of the Deaf – showcase at the Museum of Literature Dublin
https://www.artscouncil.ie/Art-2023/Participation-Award/
November 2023
Featured on RTÉ The Works Presents
Featured on RTÉ’S The Work Presents, interviewed by John Kelly – broadcast in May 2023, available on the RTÉ Player
November 2023
Nothing Compares nominated for two Grierson British Documentary Awards

October 2023
Score to That They Face the Rising Sun by Pat Collins (co-composed with Irene Buckley) premiered at BFI London Film Festival
http://film-directory.britishcouncil.org/that-they-may-face-the-rising-sun
May 2023
Nominated for an IFTA Award for Nothing Compares Score
April 2023
Mallacht performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Commission for the BBC SSO for Tectonics Festival 2023, conducted by Maayan Franco

April 2023
Water Witch Irish Premiere – Andrew Zolinsky, Piano & Electronics at New Music Dublin

Andrew Zolinsky performs Water Witch commissioned by Dark Music Days Iceland, hcmf and New Music Dublin