Back home in Cambridge, with a piano concerto to write...

It took about a week for me to hear the result of the interview, during which time I got steadily more and more morose, emailing all my friends telling them how I must have failed...so, was quite a bizarre experience when I had a phone call telling me I'd won! Overjoyed of course, and immediately went to the piano with lots of ideas (when I should have been working on the piece I'm writing at the moment)...

So, I shall start to write the piano concerto in September, after I've finished the piece I'm currently working on, and after my second trip to Co. Wicklow to give a series of workshops with Bobby Chen (pianist).

In the meantime, I'm keen to gather as many comments and ideas as possible about what the piano concerto should be based on/inspired by! Here's the little advert I wrote about the piece again: please post any ideas, however small or however grand!

Ideas wanted! Help to create a new Musical Composition, based on/inspired by Wicklow County (musicians and non-musicians wanted!!)

I am a composer who has applied to Wicklow County Council for a grant to write a 25 minute piano concerto, which will be premiered in Greystones and Bray by the pianist Bobby Chen and the Greystones Orchestra in 2009.

I want to create a new musical work that is uniquely and specifically connected to the county of Wicklow and the surrounding area, and would like to receive any ideas that people have as to what the concerto should contain or be based on/inspired by. Perhaps you are a musician, and love a particular tune that is associated with the area? Or an artist who thinks one of your paintings (or a picture that you have seen) particularly sums up the atmosphere of Bray or Greystones? Or a writer/poet who would like to put some of your work forward to be used as inspiration for the new work? I am open to everyone’s ideas as to what the piece should contain, and these ideas need not be musical: I am open to absolutely every idea, no matter how big or small! Bobby Chen and I hope the creation of this work will give many people a unique chance to be involved in the conception and creation of a new piece of music.

Thanks! Cheryl :)