Irish composer Ronan Hardiman has been commissioned by RTÉ to compose the suite of music for RTE’s Television News programmes. This is the fourth time in Hardiman’s career that he has been selected to compose the suite of music for the national news broadcast.
On his reaction to the news, Hardiman states: “I was delighted to have won the commission. Over the years, RTÉ have very kindly included me in the tendering process when they change the music for the RTÉ News, which is every three to five years… The current news theme is my composition so I was very pleased to be in a position this time around to both tender and secure the commission for another season.” The new music will go on air in April.
Hardiman talked about composing the new theme: “There are specific overall requirements for a TV news theme- the music has to be commanding, authoritative as well as attention-grabbing, with gravitas, so getting it right is quite involved.” Hardiman will work closely with the news production team to produce the desired music. He will also be required to produce a large number of variations to the main title theme, including commercial break versions, a closing theme version, and variations for sports, business news, and so on.
Born and raised in Dublin, and trained at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Hardiman is best known for his scores for the globally successful dance stage spectaculars ‘Lord of the Dance’, ‘Feet of Flames’ and ‘Celtic Tiger’, all choreographed by Michael Flatley. Hardiman states, “I have been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to compose the scores for some very successful productions, including ‘Lord of the Dance’, of which I am very proud.” Other credits include composing for the IFTA-winning documentary series ‘Waterways’.
Hardiman recently composed the score for TV mini-series ‘Neverland’ starring Bob Hoskins, Rhys Ifans, Anna Friel and featuring the voice of Keira Knightley as Tinkerbell. The series was broadcast on Sky Movies and US channel Syfy. Hardiman has also launched two solo albums with Universal Records called ‘Anthem’ and ‘Solas’.
He is currently working on the songs and score for a new Latin American themed stage Musical with a working title of ‘Children of the Sun’. Hardiman will be collaborating with songwriter Frank Musker, who previously worked with Brian May on the award-winning Queen song ‘Too Much Love Will Kill You’. The production is scheduled to open in 2015.
