Siobhán Cleary

When she began to study music at Maynooth University, she was initially inspired by Luciano Berio's Sinfonia, and soon afterwards by the works of the Irish composer Gerald Barry, the French Olivier Messiaen and the Hungarian György Ligeti.

In addition, she has followed courses in composition with the Italian composer Franco Donatoni and the Dutch Louis Andriessen and received private tuition from the American Tom Johnson and the South African Kevin Volans.

[9] The work is based on a series of tongue twisters and other strange combinations of words popular in various European languages and dialects, moving from Italy, through Germany and Spain, finishing in Ireland.

[11] The journalist and music critic Terry Blain commented on the choir's "dazzlingly virtuosic performance" in Belfast in 2013, qualifying the piece as "a tour de force of 21st-century vocal chicanery, a clever and richly entertaining composition".

Based on a short story by Angela Carter telling how a young English soldier is seduced by a vampire countess, it was directed by Conor Hanratty and conducted by Andrew Synnott.