A Few Reflect the Heart

Seán Morgan-Rooney received a grant to develop a music and film performance. The music in this performance centres around Maurice Ravel’s Miroirs suite, a five-part work in which each movement is inspired by a different image from nature. The suite is interwoven with original compositions for piano and electronics by Seán, serving as personal musical reflections on Ravel’s pieces. Like Ravel, Seán draws inspiration from his immediate surroundings: his electronic works sonically explore how the Irish landscape in which he grew up resonates with his inner emotional world. These electronic pieces restructure Ravel’s suite into four sections, each based on a natural element: air, water, fire, and earth. Alongside the music, Seán creates original film footage, adding a reflective visual layer that mirrors his inner world as it is reflected back through the natural environment of his youth.

Seán is an Irish pianist and composer based in Amsterdam. He studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Seán performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the Netherlands and abroad. He was a finalist in the Dutch Classical Talent programme and a prizewinner at the Dublin International Piano Competition. As a composer, he has a particular interest in the interplay between piano and electronics, creating performances that merge traditional and contemporary musical elements.