Galen Mac Cába

// bio

Galen Mac Cába is an Irish composer based in Norway and a software engineer by profession. He studied composition with Evangelia Rigaki at Trinity College Dublin, where he received his degree in Music. He is a member of the Irish Composers’ Collective and has also benefitted from opportunities such as the Irish Composition Summer School. His music has been performed in several venues in Dublin, including the National Concert Hall, the Contemporary Music Centre and St. Finian's Church on Adelaide Road.

Galen's work is primarily based in older tonal idioms, borrowing inspiration from the late Romantic and early Modernist periods. He is also interested in algorithmic processes and in encouraging audience participation and performer choice in some of his work. For Galen, composition is driven by two basic impulses: building and communicating. He writes music to create structure and to share meaning with others. All other aspects of his work flow from this drive.

Galen enjoys performing the music of others. He is a lapsed choral singer and plays a little piano and violin. He was a member of two different rock bands in Dublin and often threatens his bandmates with reunion gigs. The world has escaped this fate to date.