Seán Óg

"He brings a forceful mixture of irreverence and seriousness to his projects." - Journal of Music in Ireland.

Seán Óg is a performer, composer and bandleader based in Dublin. Recognised predominantly as an alto saxophonist he also plays a range of woodwind instruments as well as invented instruments and electronics. Óg's music sits at the crossroads between free improvisation, avant-garde composition, and contemporary jazz. A much in demand player on the Irish scene, he leads his group Trihornophone along with free improvisation trio CLOG and Morla amongst other projects. He is a member of The Kaum Quartet, a unique group featuring alto saxophonists Hayden Chisholm, Frank Gratkowski and Christian Weidner.

Recent highlights in 2009 include festival performances with Morla at 12 Points! representing Ireland, The Foligno Jazz Festival opening for European trumpet icon Enrico Rava and at The Kilkenny Arts Festival with special guest Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh. Seán performed at The Venice Biennale '09 and The Bottlenote Festival '09. 2008 saw performances at The Cork Jazz Festival, Country House Concerts Programme; recording and interview with The JK Ensemble on Lyric FM; inclusion on The Dublin Electronics Arts Festival (DEAF) compilation CD and the release of a new album of Seán's compositions described by The Irish Times as "packed with ideas, show a determination to shun the obvious and familiar at almost any price, but their wit, invention and the sheer warmth of what is a very together band are palpable."

Seán composed new music for Medea/Medea a new piece by director Dylan Tighe at The Gate Theatre, London (“uses found sound to eerie effect” - The Guardian). His new music based on the poetry of G.M. Hopkins for boys choir and electronics was presented at The Dublin Theatre Festival 2009 in a radical theatre production (“excerpting his poetry into arrestingly stark hymns...rendering the poetry both as prayer and as requiem” - The Irish Times). Seán is involved in a number of ongoing interdisciplinary projects in theatre, dance and installation.

Óg has performed at festivals in Greece, Italy, United Kingdom, Belgium. In Ireland he has performed at The Festival of World Cultures, Cork Jazz Festival, Bray Jazz Festival, i & e festival, OUT OF SITE and DEAF amongst others. In 2007 his group Trihornophone won Music Network's Young Musicwide Award, Seán was awarded the 2008 Cork Jazz Festival Best Young Irish Artist Award. In 2009 Dublin Institute of Technology awarded him the ABBEST Scholarship to undertake a practice-based PhD in advanced woodwind performance techniques. He is a founder member of Bottlenote, a collective of creative musicians working in improvised and new music. His work has been released on a range of international labels.

www.sean-og.com
www.myspace.com/seanogmusic