Sligo New Music Festival curator Ian Wilson was born in Belfast. His music has been performed and broadcast on six continents by artists such as the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Ulster Orchestra, the Belgrade Philharmonic, the London Mozart Players, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the Psappha, Lontano and CHROMA Ensembles, the Artis, Vogler and Endellion Quartets, Gerard McChrystal, and Hugh Tinney. Works have been performed at many festivals including the BBC Proms, Venice Biennale and the Ultima festival in Oslo, where Running, Thinking, Finding received the composition prize in 1991.

In 1992 Ian Wilson was awarded the Macaulay Fellowship administered by the Arts Council. He was elected to Aosdána, Ireland’s state-sponsored academy of creative artists, in 1998 and was AHRB Research Fellow in Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Ulster from 2000 - 2003.