Donnacha Dennehy

The Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy was born in Dublin in 1970. He primarily works with consonant, seemingly traditional sounds and transient tonalities. His music is inspired by the landscape of his native Ireland and its natural processes, from the changing light to the passing seasons. Dennehy studied composition at Trinity College in Dublin, at the University of Illinois and with Gérard Grisey at IRCAM, the research institute for electronic music in Paris. In 1997, he founded the Crash Ensemble, which is dedicated to performing New Music. Donnacha Dennehy’s music has won numerous awards and encompasses several different orchestrations and genres, from opera via orchestral music to various chamber ensembles and vocal music. Recently, both the violin concerto that he composed for violinist Augustin Hadelich and the opera “The First Child” were performed at the Dublin Theatre Festival. Dennehy lives in the US and teaches composition at Princeton University.

As of April 2023