They've come for the "rush of adrenalin" - and "the spikes". Gerald Barry's music is "exuberant and energetic", and, says one long-time friend, accountant Paul Smith, it's the spikes in it he loves. Brendan Ruddy, from the DIT, another friend of the composer, nods in agreement. Sheila McCormack, Barry's next-door neighbour, greets the man himself with a friendly kiss. So does Fiona Ruane, a friend from Howth. The world premiere of the composer's newest work, The Road, is about to be performed by the National Symphony Orchestra with Pavel Nersessian on piano.
At the launch of the Lyric FM Gerald Barry Festival in the National Concert Hall there are wall-to-wall composers. And an opera singer or two for good measure.
Siobhan Cleary is the only woman composer spotted among the men at the opening where we count seven - Seoirse Bodley, John Buckley, Jerome de Bromhead, Roger Doyle, James Wilson, Donncha Dennehy and Co Louth man Michael Holohan.
The Wexford-born opera singer, Kathleen Tynan, taking a break from her part as Lisette in La Rondine at the Gaiety Theatre, has come partly because Barry writes "wonderful vocal music that is challenging and demanding," she says. More music lovers - the dashing Sean and Rosemarie Mulcahy - arrive. Grace O'Shaughnessy joins her friend Gillian Cahill. More fans dash in - Ciara Higgins, of the Royal Irish Academy of Music and Laurie Cearr, of the National Millennium Committee.
Later there's wine before his second Irish premiere, The Conquest of Ireland. Where does Barry get his energy and exuberance? "It's my nervous system," he says, adding mischievously, "and lots of infusions of extra blood".