Great Women was commissioned by the Great Music in Irish Houses Festival to mark its 50th anniversary in 2020 with funds from the Arts Council of Ireland / An Comhairle Ealaíon, which also gave financial support. The release of the recording in June 2021 coincides with the Great Music in Irish Houses Festival 2021.

The piece is a celebration of the strong, remarkable Irish women who have helped shape the social and political landscape through their striving for equality and liberation. Among those whose words are set are pioneering patriots such as Countess Markievicz and Rosie Hackett, alongside such equally inspiring contemporary figures as Ireland’s former Presidents Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese, extracts from whose inaugural speeches are embedded in the textures of the live and tape parts.

The tape part includes readings from Markievicz’s letters and excerpts from Rosie Hackett’s account of events leading up to the 1916 Rising. The readings were recorded by renowned soprano, Elizabeth Hilliard, for whom this work was written and to whom it is gratefully dedicated.

Almost all sounds on the tape derive from those recordings while the live part uses many extended vocal techniques such as overtone singing, fragmentation of text, vocalise, etc.

Both composer and performer have earned recognition for their fine work in the contemporary music field, whether in concerts, recordings, teaching or adjudication. Gráinne Mulvey was appointed Professor of Composition at Dublin Conservatory of Music and Drama in 2018. Her music has been performed and broadcast across the globe, she has received numerous commissions and several of her works have been recorded by both Métier and other labels. Elizabeth Hilliard is an exceptional singer based in Dublin, widely regarded as an able, imaginative and dramatic interpreter of new music. She has worked in close collaboration with several composers, and champions Irish art music and composers, and is beginning to achieve recognition in the UK and USA as well as her native country.