Live Video Games Music in Concert Fri 31 May – Sat 1 June

Eímear Noone is a LA/​Dublin based conductor and award-winning Irish composer, composing extensively for films and video games. As one of the world’s premier composers of games scores, Eímear is responsible for some of the most enduring soundscapes on World of Warcraft and other best-selling video games. Through her music on World of Warcraft, Eímear’s music has reached over 100 million people and continually inspires players to invent and build new worlds for nearly 15 years. Her composition portfolio of 26 film and video game titles have received multiple industry accolades including the Hollywood Music in Media Award for​Best Video Game Score.

Recently, Eímear composed the score for the animated feature film Two by Two: Overboard, which topped the UK box office in October 2020 and is currently working on various other global film, TV and animation soundtracks. She has also worked on film scores for directors such as Gus Van Sant and Joe Dante, orchestrating for Oscar nominee Javier Navarrette (composer of ​Pan’s Labyrinth) and creating haunting music for thrillers Mirrors and The Hole.

Alongside composing, Eímear conducts orchestras worldwide. Notably, in 2020, Eímear made history by becoming the first female conductor to perform at the 92nd Academy Award’s ceremony. Recent highlights include a sold out video game concert at the Royal Albert Hall in June 2022, and conducting The Witches Seed Opera, composed by Stewart Copeland.

As a leading conductor of video game programmes, Eímear has conducted orchestras including Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Danish National Symphony, she was chosen by Nintendo to conduct the first ever 3D filming of a game score and has recorded game scores for Sony Interactive. She has also toured as conductor for The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses, a full four-movement symphony created from the themes from this iconic video game. Eímear was invited to conduct on the 25th anniversary recording, which set industry records for soundtrack sales.

In addition to media concerts, Eímear’s work has featured classical repertoire such as Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov), The Firebird (Stravinsky) and New World Symphony (Dvořák) and worked closely with Base Hologram as the primary conductor for their​ Callas in Concert Tour, an event that brings the opera legend Maria Callas back to the stage via hologram with a full live orchestra.

Highlights of Eímear’s engagements also include performing at sold-out shows at the Mann Center, Wolftrap and Beijing’s Olympic Stadium to an audience of 80,000, and for the Los Angeles Ballet in their inaugural production of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, earning recognition from the LA Times.

As an advocate for creative women in technology and music, Eímear is also in demand as a speaker and radio host, regularly invited to conferences and is the presenter for Classic FM’s gaming music show High Score.

Founded in 1978 by Jean Kidd, the RSNO Youth Chorus (formerly known as the RSNO Junior Chorus) is one of the leading children and youth choirs in the UK, with over 400 members aged seven to eighteen. It has built up a considerable reputation singing under some of the world’s most distinguished conductors and appearing on radio and television.

Patrick Barrett is a conductor specialising in choral music and opera. He is currently Chorus Director of the RSNO Youth Choruses, Royal Opera House Youth Opera Company, Irish Youth Training Choir and the award-winning Farnham Youth Choirs.

Recent work has included conducting the RSNO Youth Chorus alongside soloists Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Benjamin Grosvenor and Nicola Benedetti in the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s All-Star Gala performances, and preparing them for the recording of Jonathan Dove’s Gaspard’s Christmas, which is available on all streaming services. Over the summer, he led FYC to success at the Hull International Choral Competition and the International Choir Competition in Provence, winning the Youth Choirs of Equal Voices and Children’s Choir categories respectively, and will be competing with them in the World Choir Games 2024 in New Zealand. In the past year, he has also premiered a number of new works including Jonathan Brigg’s The Sapling with the ROH Youth Opera Company and pieces by Emma O’Halloran and DJ and producer R.Kitt with IYTC. This summer, he took up the position of Guest Conductor with the National Youth Choir of Great Britain’s Girls’ Choir and has been invited back for 2024.

Much of Patrick’s work revolves around championing young people within choral music and, for the past two years, he has been invited to address the annual conference of the Post Primary Music Teachers Association in Ireland. His work in this area began as a Trainee Music Leader with Spitalfields Music between 2015-16 and he is now firmly established as a music educator, having delivered projects for organisations including the BBC Singers, Sonoro, The Sixteen, Wigmore Hall, Aldeburgh Young Musicians, and Ark Schools.

In opera, Patrick works with many of the UK’s major companies including the Royal Opera House, English National Opera and Garsington Opera. For the ROH, he is the Musical Director of the Youth Opera Company, preparing them for main stage performances of Verdi’s Otello under Sir Antonio Pappano and Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel under Sebastian Weigle, and conducting them in the world premieres of specially commissioned works including Lewis Murphy’s A Different Story in the Linbury Theatre. He is also a regular leader on their Create and Sing programme, working with secondary school teachers to stage specially-devised operas in classrooms across the country. For the ENO, he has prepared the children’s chorus for Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen under Martyn Brabbins and Bizet’s Carmen under Kerem Hasan. For Garsington Opera, he has worked on a specially-commissioned community opera called Dalia by Roxanna Panufnik as the Youth Chorus Director.

Patrick was previously the conductor of the University of Birmingham’s Upper Voices Choir and Brockham Choral Society.