Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble (HRSE) is a contemporary music group from Belfast devoted to the performance of modern and contemporary music. It was founded by Greg Caffrey in 2013, who remained the Artistic Director up until 2023 and is superseded by Aisling Agnew, our current interim Artistic Director. Its remit is to give a voice to local composers and to perform their music in the context of works by leading exponents of contemporary music from elsewhere in Europe and the rest of the world. It aims to programme music that otherwise cannot be heard live locally, while serving as an outlet for the talent of highly specialist performers and acting as a meeting point for their innovation, ideas and enthusiasm.

HRSE are ensemble in residence at Queen's University Belfast and are based at the Sonic Arts Research Centre QUB, a state of the art facility opened by Karlheinze Stockhausen in 2004.