Eimear returns home to a hero’s welcome
Lifestyle - Composer Eimear Noone writes music for top video games and conducts leading orchestras worldwide. The Kilconnell woman, now living in Malibu, tells Judy Murphy about her musical journey and how Ireland should take gaming seriously.
Eimear Noone’s late father, Pádraic, was a dedicated and a creative gardener all his life. The Kilconnell man had one maxim when it came to pursuing his passion and it was simple: “There should never be a straight line in a garden.”
That’s a philosophy which his daughter has carried with her throughout an extraordinarily successful musical career that has included composing and orchestrating music for games such as World of Warcraft and its expansions, including Warlords of Draenor – among the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time.
Her score for Warlords of Draenor received the Hollywood Music in Media Award in 2014 for Best Video Game Score.
Eimear has also worked on games such Metal Gear Solid, Starcraft and Legend of Zelda and she’s a conductor who regularly takes the baton for orchestras, from England’s Royal Philharmonic to the Philadelphia Orchestra. And the Trinity graduate made history by being the first woman to conduct at the National Concert Hall in Dublin.
More recently, for two years, Eimear was the principal conductor for The Zelda Symphony, a symphony created from the themes from the renowned video game and performed all over the world.
“It’s a metaphor for all art,” says Eimear of her father’s philosophy about not having straight lines.
She’s on the phone from her Californian home where it’s 9.30am and she and her husband and fellow-musician, Craig Stuart Garfinkel, are juggling their three-week-old baby Maël Aaron. Born in late January, he’s a brother for five-year-old Eliam and 19-year-old Madison.
Our call keeps dropping – it’s been raining in Malibu and that affects the line, or so they’re told, she explains! But Eimear takes it all in her stride as she discusses her work, her deep Galway roots and her desire to see Ireland develop an employment sector based on the hugely lucrative global gaming industry. It has massive potential to provide work for creative people – composers, writers, actors, directors – and Galway is an ideal location for a gaming hub, says a woman who knows just how valuable this industry is.
Eimear and her family will be flying home next week and on Friday night, at a Gala Ball in Galway City, she’ll be honoured for her musical achievements. Eimear will receive the inaugural Laochra Ceoil award at the event which is being hosted by Music for Galway.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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