Irish Composer Siobhán Cleary declined a lucrative Arts Council commission because she was offered 20% less than her male colleagues in the last four years, for the same commission. An accomplished composer, Cleary has long decried the lack of recognition for women composers.

Among her many achievements, she has composed several scores for feature films and documentaries. Her orchestral works include, Alchemy (2001) and Cokaygne (2009), commissioned by RTÉ and performed by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. She was a featured composer in the Composers’ Choice concert series at the National Concert Hall (2003) and was elected to Ireland’s state-sponsored academy of creative artists, Aosdána, in 2008. In 2010 she was awarded a three-month residency in the Culturel Centre Irlandais in Paris. Recently, she composed the opera Vampirella, based on the Angela Carter stories.