Elaine Agnew’s substantial body of work covers all genres from opera, video games and contemporary dance to instrumental and choral music. She has been commissioned extensively, reaching audiences across the world from the BBC Proms and gamers to outreach participants.
Working with Vienna-based Game Developers Causa Creations, Elaine created the soundtrack for Songs of Travel, now available on iOS and Android. Recently nominated for best game by Pocket Gamer, the number 1 site for gaming on the go, the Animated Graphic Novel was showcased at the 2025 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco as well as CPH:DOX, Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival. It was recently included in a group show Substanz at the Albertina Modern in Vienna, an exhibition that explored the role of art as a social action. Chosen as one of BBC Radio’s 3’s Composers in Lockdown as well as being featured at Classical:NEXT@Holzmarkt in Berlin, Elaine’s music has been performed at the BBC Proms and in renowned venues like the Carnegie and Wigmore Halls. Her works currently feature on 18 discs and her choral music is published by Boosey & Hawkes and Cailíno Music Publishers.
Upcoming commissions include those from New Music Dublin, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and iSing Silicon Valley as well as the premiere of The Offing by the Belfast Philharmonic adult and youth choirs. A member of Aosdána, Ireland’s state-sponsored body of creative artists, Elaine’s 2012 BBC Proms commission Dark Hedges was described by one London reviewer as ‘compelling from beginning to end’.
Exciting News!
Songs of Travel
Songs of Travel was nominated for best game by a number of organisations, including Pocket Gamer, the number 1 site for gaming on the go!
An Animated Graphic Novel (now available on iOS and Android), Songs of Travel explores and collectively paints a vivid picture of the topic of migration through the personal stories of five individuals as they fled their troubled homelands in search of new beginnings in Europe.
The game was showcased at the 2025 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, the biggest conference of its kind with over 30,000 participants and attendees as well as CPH:DOX, Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, one of the biggest documentary film festivals in the world. It was recently performed live at Piano Biennale in The Netherlands and at QUB.
Upcoming Events
The Offing
Commissioned by the Belfast Philharmonic Society to celebrate their 150th Birthday, The Offing will be premiered by the Belfast Philharmonic Adult and Youth choirs with pianist Gail Evans, conducted by James Grossmith. Text created by Sinéad Morrissey.
29th May 2025 7pm Gallery Space, Botanic Gardens, Dublin
Commissioned by Floating World Productions this multi disciplinary work in progress is based on the theme of red-listed birds of Ireland. Included is a new choral piece for Cór na nÓg and The Elders.
A Conference of Birds
Friday 26th September 2025 7.30pm St. Mary’s Church of Ireland, New Ross, County Wexford
Performance by Finghin Collins, piano, at the New Ross Piano Festival.
Seagull
23rd October 2025 Oxford International Song Festival
Commissioned by American/Irish pianist Deirdre Brenner and mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean as part of a song collection on the subject of the women of Ireland's Magdalene Laundries.
The Magdalene Songs
Commissioned by Californian girls choir iSing Silicon Valley for premiere in December 2025.
Christmas Carol
Commissioned by National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland for premiere in 2026 in the National Concert Hall Dublin.
New Work
Commissioned by New Music Dublin for premiere in 2026 in the National Concert Hall Dublin.
New Work
Recent Events
Songs of Travel
30th March 2025 Arnhem Concert Hall, The Netherlands
‘On Resilience’ Piano Biënnale
6th March 2025 Harty Room at QUB
Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble
In collaboration with the Vienna-based Game Developers Causa Creations, Elaine created the specially curated soundtrack for Songs of Travel, an animated graphic novel (available on iOS and Android) that explores and collectively paints a vivid picture of the topic of migration through the personal stories of five individuals as they fled their troubled homelands in search of new beginnings in Europe.
Follow the narratives of Light, a non-binary Syrian refugee fleeing hardship and war in Syria and UAE, Vân, the daughter of Vietnamese contract workers who grew up in East Germany and who must deal with the duality of being Vietnamese-German, Michele, the son of Francesco Cicora, an Italian coal miner who died in the 1956 mining disaster in Belgium, Hasan, who came to Austria as a baby from Turkey and Olya, a Ukrainian lawyer who has had to flee twice: first when she left her home of Donetsk in 2014 and fled to Kyiv and then when she fled from Ukraine once war erupted in 2022.
Presented at four European festivals in Ireland, Sweden, Norway and The Netherlands, Songs of Travel was part of a group exhibition Substanz at the Albertina Modern gallery in Vienna that explored the role of art as a social action and how artists can influence society.
In the dark pine-wood
In the dark pine-wood was recently released on CD
Chamber Music by James Joyce: Volume I
Signum Classics (UK) (SIGCD864)
Choral Scholars University of College Dublin
Solstice Ensemble
Desmond Earley
Twilight
Twilight (2010) was toured in February 2025 by the Irish Chamber Orchestra during their Bowie to Bach concert series. Twilight is featured on the Irish Chamber Orchestra CD Night Moves.
Curoo Curoo
Curoo Curoo (2008) was performed on 8th and 15th December 2024 by the 4th Presbyterian Church Bethesda, Maryland, USA under choral director Ted Bickish as part of their Lessons and Carols programme. It was filmed at Mission Santa Clara de Asís, Santa Clara, California by the Californian girls choir iSing Silicon Valley, conducted by Jennah Delp Somers on 21st December 2024.