Sam Perkin: My Young Love Was Gone [2024]

Sam Perkin
My Young Love Was Gone [2024]
Dedicated to The Marmen Quartet

Performed by the Marmen Quartet
MTU Cork School of Music, 6th November 2025

When I was composing Pause for the Ortús Chamber Music Festival in 2016, almost 10 years ago, I had done a number of experiments with Irish folksong from a contemporary perspective. My aim was to authentically offer an original point of view from which to view these masterful songs, or at least to show how I would dream of arranging them.

For Pause in 2016, I decided on arranging The Foggy Dew, though I had carried out a number of irresistible compositional experiments with She Moved Through The Fair. In 2024, I finally had to revisit these sketches, as they were just asking to be written and I would not have forgiven myself for not allowing the structure to flower into the piece that it is, My Young Love Was Gone (2024).

The compositional idea was like a magnet pulling me towards it. My ear guided me towards arranging this timeless melody in such a way as to express the heart of the text while not getting in the way, only saying just enough throughout (a delicate tight-rope walk with the String Quartet), allowing the soul of this overwhelmingly beautiful song to breathe a new breath.

Based between France and Ireland, Sam Perkin composes music for leading musicians and ensembles in Ireland and abroad. His music has been performed in 20 countries. In the space between classical and experimental music, his artistic work has a particular focus on the exploration of wonder and awe.

Sam has had fruitful collaborations with a vast array of performing artists such as The Irish Chamber Orchestra, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Luminosa Orchestra, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Vanbrugh Quartet, Marmen Quartet, Tchalik Quartet, Crash Ensemble, Explore Ensemble, Finghin Collins, Miranda Cuckson, Diamanda Dramm, James McVinnie, Fidelio Trio, Sitkovetsky Trio, and Paddington Trio.

Perkin has also successfully worked with festivals such as Musica Nova Festival (Helsinki), Network For New Music (Philadelphia), West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Das Haus (Belgium), Kilkenny Arts Festival, Alpenarte Festival (Austria), Louth Contemporary Music Festival, Buxton International Festival (UK), Sound Festival (Scotland), Gregynog Festival in (Wales), Festivalta (Norway) and La Cote Flute Festival (Switzerland).

Sam’s music has been performed in over 20 countries and he had a Wigmore Hall debut in 2023 with his Piano Trio “Freakshow”, which has now been performed over 40 times worldwide. Perkin’s Piano Trio “Freakshow” was performed at Janine Jansen’s International Chamber Music Festival in Utrecht last year is also programmed at Lucerne Chamber Music Society 2027.

Commissioned for the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition, Switzerland, “Le Monde des Adultes” will be performed by 26 pianists in August 2025. Notably, Perkin’s work “Visualization” was performed by Dejana Sekulič at the opening launch concert of the 33rd Music Biennale Zagreb 2025.

Sam holds degrees in Composition from the Cork School of Music, Ireland, and an Artist Diploma from Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon, France, where he was awarded the Prix Salabert for Composition. Sam Perkin completed a residency in 2022 with Crash Ensemble, Ireland’s leading new music ensemble. He has conducted the Irish Chamber Orchestra.

Find more Irish string quartets at https://nsqf.ie/icsqa