1971
first broadcast piano recitals: Liszt, Chopin, Messiaen
1974
ARD Television appearance as piano soloist with Herbert Henck (2 pianos and orchestra)
1975
teaching assistant to Karlheinz Stockhausen
1976
Commission for the opening of IRCAM, Pompidou Centre, Paris
1979
first portrait (solo) concerts of own music in New York and
Cologne
1980
Portrait concert at the Ostasiatische Museum, Koeln, funded by the City of Cologne
1981
Featured composer in Newer Music Festival, Frankfurt, Dublin Contemporary Music Festival
1982
One week installation at the ICA, London (soundscapes and four concerts)
1984
Kevin Volans and Pupils’ at ICA. Professor at Internationale Ferienkurse fuer Neue Musik (Darmstadt)
1986
White Man Sleeps with the Kronos Quartet (Darmstadt) The piece went on to become the biggest selling string quartet record in history in 1989 and again in 1992. World tour followed including the Salzburg Festival, Berliner Festwoche and Montreal Jazz Festival, Interlink Festival Tokyo
1987
Hunting:Gathering Lincoln Center commission for the Kronos Quartet. Premiere Herbst Theatre San Francisco CD single and world tour
1988
The Songlines: Lincoln Center commission – premier NYC and New Music America (Miami) collaboration with Bruce Chatwin, featured in his last book ‘What Am I Doing Here’ feature in Andy Warhol’s Interview and NYTimes Literary Review
1990
Cover Him With Grass album selected as Financial Times Record of the Year. Rambert Dance Company commission Dance Opera with Shobana Jeyasingh
1992
Composer-in-Residence, Princeton USA. Pieces of Africa CD
26 weeks as best selling classical and world music album in the USA
1993
Premiere of opera The Man with Footsoles of Wind (ENO)
“…the major British operatic event of 1993 to date.” (Tempo Magazine, Sept.) One of Andrew Porter’s “Best 10 Events of The Year” (The Observer). Two portrait concerts of chamber music at the Turin Opera (Teatro Regio)
1994
BBC2 commission “Sound on Film”
Ballet ‘La Chambre” at the Vienna State Opera
1995
BBC Proms commission for a piano concerto with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble and Peter Donohoe (Daniel Harding, cond.) CD of wind music. Television dance film with Silvie Guillem and Jonathan Burrows (choreographer)
1996
featured composer in the New Year’s Day live TV broadcast from the Koncertgebouw Amsterdam. Frankfurt Ballet commission. European tour of ‘The Stop Quartet’ dance piece including one week at the Pompidou Centre, Paris
1997
Cello concerto for the Bavarian Radio Symphony, Munich
commission of percussion piece for Robyn Schulkowsky (Berlin) and another for Jonny Axelsson (Stockholm)
1998
Full length dance piece for Siobhan Davies (Sadlers Wells plus tour) Dance piece for Jonathan Burrows Group –European tour.
Guest at ‘June in Buffalo’ New York
1999
50th Birthday Concert at Queen Elizabeth Hall, featuring musicians from around the world and Jonathan Burrows and Akram Khan (dancers). CD ‘Cicada’ (Black Box Music)
2000
Dance piece for Shobana Jeyasingh (QEH plus tour including South Africa) 2-piano concert tour in South Africa (with Jill Richards) Composer-in-Residence at Grahamstown Festival, first recordings for Liszt CD.
2001
Double string quartet for Duke Quartet, CD recording (Str. Quts)
Commission: Confessions of Zeno with William Kentridge for Kunsten Festival des Arts, Brussels, Lincoln Center NYC, Minneapolis and Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art.
Commission: Concerto for Double Orchestra for the BBC Symphony (Swensen cond.)
Recording of Liszt piano music CD.
2002
Surface Tension with the Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company – tour beginning Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Part 2 of Zeno at 4 am for Kunsten Festival des Arts, Brussels, Dokumenta Kassel, Yokohama Festival, Pompidou Centre, Paris, Berliner Festwoche,
Hamburg, Rome, Salamanca, etc.
Commission: Strip-Weave for the Ulster Orchestra
Commission: Chakra for 3 percussionists (Sisu)
Commission: Trumpet and String Quartet for the Tromp Biennale, Eindhoven
Commission: 7th String Quartet for Cicada Up North Festival, Dublin
2003
De Vlaamse Opera, Ghent, Antwerp: Hunting:Gathering
Zeno Tour continued: Capetown, Singapore, Las Palmas, Lisbon
Commission: Piano Trio for Osiris Trio – Bantry Bay festival, Ireland, Commission: 3 Rhythmic Etudes (for Jill Richards, by Tom Breslin)
Commission: Passi Leggieri for Hardanger Fiddle
Commission: Desert Steps for Tom Kerstens – International Guitar Foundation
Cristina Caprioli Artifical Project (Dance) percussion works with Jonny Axelsson, tour beginning Stockholm
BBC Proms: Strip-Weave for Orchestra
2nd International Percussion festival, Moscow
BBC Scottish Ballet, White Man Sleeps Tour
Featured Composer: Ultima Festival, Oslo: 5 concerts
2004
Performances: Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Berlin
Composer’s Choice, Dublin: Piano Etudes and Percussion pieces, Ullen and Axelsson
Estonian performances of 1000 bars by Crash Ensemble
Keynote speaker at Princess Constance Magogo kaDinizulu Conference, Chicago
Commission: 3 Structural Etudes (premiere: Jill Richards, Durban)
Commission: 8th String Quartet for Kronos, Ravinia Festival, (prem: Chicago)
Commission: 4 Guitars for the Dublin Guitar Quartet, (prem: Bray, Dublin)
Commission: Double Take for Clarinet and accomp. For Carol McGonnell
Commission: 9th String Quartet for the Smith Quartet (BBC)
Featured composer, Huddersfield Festival 4 concerts
2005
Martin Toonder Award from the Arts Council of Ireland
Music Juror for Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany
Commission: Trio Concerto for the Storioni Trio
by The North Netherlands Orchestra, the Royal Flemish Philharmonic,
the RTE National Symphony Orchestra (Ireland) and the Storioni Trio
Commission: 10th String Quartet for the Vanburgh Quartet, by RTE
CD release: Standing Wave (Desert Steps)
2006
CD release: Dublin Guitar Quartet, White Man Sleeps arrangement
Horizons Festival, Dublin
RTE Living Music Festival
Commission: Choral piece for Theatre of Voices – East Neuk Festival
Commission : Piano Concerto for Marc-Andre Hamelin and the
San Francisco Symphony (Michael Tilson Thomas, cond.)
Commission: Chamber Work for Crash Ensemble, Joining up the Dots
2007
Commission: Piece for 3 ensembles and sound installation for Juergen Partenheimer exhibition in Ikon Gallery and BCMG Birmingham and the Deutsches Kunstmuseum, Bonn
Recording of Cicada, with Jill Richards and Kevin Volans
Residency Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart
Performance Ludwigsburger Festspiele (Gavriel Lipkind)
Jury of Gaudeamus Composition Competition, Amsterdam
Recording of complete percussion works, Jonny Axelsson
Recording Piano Trio (Fidelio Trio)
Documentary Film on Volans for Television in progress (Cahill Black, director)
Biography by Prof. Christine Lucia in progress
Commission 3 Piano Etudes
2008
BBC Concert and live broadcast, Shiva Dances etc. (Volans and Richards performing, St. Luke’s London)
Commission: violin and piano for Waldo Alexander
Commission viola and piano for the Wigmore Hall, London
Commission; 3 piano etudes for Jill Richards
Jury of the International Society for Contemporary Music World Music Days
One-month installation at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham and 3-month installation at the Kunstmuseum, Bonn
2009
60th birthday concerts in Dublin (Crash Ensemble), Dublin IMMA (Ensemble Madrid, 2 concerts), London, (Wigmore Hall, 2 concerts), Oudtshoorn, Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban and Stellenbosch.
Commission: cello:piano
Commission: Canciones del Alma (in memoriam Bruce Chatwin)
2010
Commission: Symphony: Daar Kom die Alibama, Edinburgh Festival
Commission: Piano Concerto no. 3, Barry Douglas and BBC Symphony
Royal Philharmonic Prize for Best Chamber Work of 2009 (viola:piano)
Elected to Aosdana (Irish Academy of Arts)
Appointed Adjunct Professor to Trinity College, Dublin
2011
Commission: Chakra for 3 Percussionists and Orchestra (SISU – Norway)
Commission 11th String Quartet (Callino Quartet)
BBC Proms Composer Portrait Concert and Piano Concerto no. 3 with Barry Douglas and the BBC Symphony
Focus on Volans issue of SAMUS (Johannesburg)
Focus on Volans issue of Musiktexte (Berlin)
2012
Portrait concert, Ultraschall Festival, Berlin (2 world and 1 German premiere)\
Horizons concert Piano Concerto no.1 (premiere of revised version) and Symphony (Recording for CD). Ultima Festival Oslo, premiere of Chakra for percussion and orchestra.
Commission: Solo Percussion Concerto for Jonny Axelsson and KammerensembleN Stockholm
Turning Point for Crash ensemble
Commission: 3 Songs for Pumeza Matshikiza
2013
Jury Isang Yun Competition Seoul Korea
Commission BBC: The Mountain that Left for the BBC Singers 90th birthday
Commission: Turning Point for the Stellenbosch festival
release of Decca recording of Pumeza Matshikiza (with Umzi Watsha)
Commission: Calefaccion and Matepe for Calefax Reed Ensemble
2014
Premiere and portrait concerts, Stockholm
Premiere The Mountain that Left
Premiere Calefaccion, Matepe, Rotterdam
Release Lyric FM CD of Volans Orchestral works
Recording: Volans piano and solo string pieces Berlin
2015
Premiere clarinet:solo (Dublin 2015) 9‘ 30”
7 Bass Winds (4bcl and 3bsn). 11’51”)
String Quartet no. 12 Ch. (Birmingham 2016) 36’
perc:piano for Vibraphone Marimba, Glock and Piano (Prague 2016) 21’22”
4 Marimbas (Montreal 2017) 18’ 50”
Akrodha 3 (Prague 2016) 11’ 45”
Piano Etude 10 7’ 18”
Piano Etude 11 10’ 41” (under revision)
Piano Etude 12 7’ 37” (under revision)
for Bob for Viola and Piano (London 2016) 8’ 13”
2016
White Man Sleeps for String Ensemble (Leipzig 2016) 28’
perc:piano 2 for marimba and piano 20’ 14”
L’Africaine for harpsichord solo (Cambridge 2017) 21’ 28”
L’Africane version for piano solo (London 2017) 21’ 36”
C.roll.A.eS.H for flute clarinet trombone tom-toms piano cello D Bass (Dublin 2017) 4’ 56”
Clarinet Trio for clarinet, violin and piano 8’ 16”
cello:piano 2 for cello and piano 5’35”
2017
for Bob cello and piano version (Dublin 2017) 8’ 13”
Concerto for Uilleann Pipes and large orchestra (Dublin 2017/18) 18’ 24”
Marabi Nights for piano solo 6’ 54”
53.73369155794372 notes a second, for Clare (Johannesburg 2017) 2’32”
This is How it Is for string quintet (Oxford 2017) 7’40”
Spoor for violin and piano 10’
Piano Trio 3 (Dublin 2017) 21′ 11″