Rachel Holstead is a composer from the Dingle Peninsula in Co. Kerry in the south-west of Ireland. In 2005, she graduated with a PhD in composition from Queen's University Belfast, where she studied with Professor Michael Alcorn. Previous studies include a music degree at Trinity College, Dublin, where she worked with Kevin O' Connell and Donnacha Dennehy. She has attended the Dartington International Summer School and the Ennis IMRO Composition Summer School (now the Irish Composition Summer School). Her output includes instrumental, electronic, and collaborative works, which have been performed in concerts and festivals in Europe, the USA and Asia. Her trio, dissolving into light, won the IMRO Composers' Competition at the Dublin Feis Ceoil in 2003 and in 2004 she was offered an ATOM award by PRSF. She has also received the Clifford Parker Bursary (Dartington), a William and Betty McQuitty Travel Award, a Fellowship from the MacDowell Colony and awards from the Arts Councils of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Rachel is represented by the Contemporary Music Centre in Dublin (www.cmc.ie).