Crash are delighted to welcome composer and vocalist Laura Bowler and dramaturg, director and writer Sam Redway as our new Artists-In-Residence (2026), marking the beginning of an expansive new phase of collaboration and artistic development.

The residency will see Bowler and Redway work closely with Crash’s musicians to develop new work which has been co-commissioned by Crash Ensemble and Kilkenny Arts Festival. Their shared interest in co-creation and pushing the boundaries of form reflects Crash’s long-standing commitment to experimentation, innovation, and artistic risk.

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Laura Bowler is a composer and vocalist working across music theatre, multidisciplinary performance, concert music and opera. Her work brings together composition and performance, often placing her own voice at the centre of theatrical musical forms. She has been commissioned internationally by ensembles and orchestras including BBC Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Goteborg Symfoniker, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Decoder Ensemble, Ensemble Phace, Basel Sinfonietta, Royal OperaHouse and lovemusic collective. Her work, Wicked Problems, won the Royal Philharmonic Chamber Composition Prize, and several of her works have been shortlisted for the Ivor Awards. Recent projects include several large-scale multimedia music theatre works presented at festivals across Europe, as well as a new 30 minute orchestral song cycle for Barbara Hannigan setting text by Nobel Prize winning author, Han Kang. Laura is the Deputy Head of Composition at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Speaking about the residency, Bowler said:
"Working closely with Crash Ensemble is an incredibly opportunity. They are a group of musicians who bring endless creativity and curiosity to the room, always leaving me eager to get to the manuscript paper. Crash are a group I’ve wanted to work with for many years, and being asked to be their artists in residence is such a huge privilege. I’m super excited about what we’re going to create together!”

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Sam Redway is an international award-winning, multi-disciplinary dramaturg, director, and writer with a deep passion for co-creation, climate-focused arts practice, and creative democracy. His work crosses theatre, opera, new music, and community performance and is always informed by equitable practice and the empowered performer.

Alongside the project with Crash, he is currently developing Don't Step on the Cracks as librettist with Laura Bowler and the Youth Opera Company for Royal Ballet & Opera and a co-created opera with NHS workers and the Manchester Medical Orchestra composed by Dave Roche and directed by Felicity Green. Sam is Associate Artist (Dramaturgy) of Smoking Apples Theatre Company (Kinder, Ettie and Offie TYA Awards), Associate Dramaturgy of Vertebra Theatre, and The Spark Arts for Children’s Associate Artist for Building Brave Spaces investigating the performing arts’ roles in improving child voice and agency in schools. Sam supporting the youth voice work of Cambridge Handel Opera Company as a trustee, and was co-founder of the multi-international award winning Knaïve Theatre Bin Laden: The One Man Show & War With The Newts).

Recent work includes: Dangerous Matter with Zakiya Leeming, Rosie Middleton & RNCM post-graduate singers (director/librettist), Laura Bowler's The Girl With TheHurricane Brain (librettist, Copenhagen Opera Festival), Elif Karlidag's The Game (librettist) and Abel Esbenshade's Horse Person Opera (director, Tete-a-Tete Opera Festival).

Redway said:
“Honestly, I'm ecstatic! To be invited as Artist in Residence at a time when opportunities to create and develop art are diminishing, and the artistic community is feeling more vulnerable by the week is a dizzying privilege. To spend this time surrounded by the incomparable imaginations and musicianship of Crash is both humbling and inspiring and will undoubtedly raise my creative game. I am at risk of hyperbole, but I am mountainously grateful for the trust Crash have placed in me, and giddy to call Dublin my creative home during this time! 

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