News
News 2024
Nonesuch Records have just announced the release of Land of Winter on November 15. Performed by Alarm Will Sound and conducted by Alan Pierson, Land of Winter explores the subtleties of the way light articulates time in Ireland’s seasons via twelve connected sections representing the months of the year. The album track “November” was released on Sep 4 and is available to listen here among other places. There is also a video for this track, directed by Hugh O’Conor and starring Mikel Murfi, released on YouTube. Alarm Will Sound will perform Land of Winter live at the Irish Arts Center in New York on Dec 11 and 12. Ensemble Kontrapunkte will perform it at the Musikverein in Vienna on Dec 5. More info on the album can be found at Nonesuch Records.
I’m very happy to have been awarded a Koussevitsky commission award (August 2024) to write a piece for F-plus.
News 2023
Augustin Hadelich will be performing my violin concerto at Aspen on July 16, and at Musikfest Berlin with the Konzerthaus Orchestra on September 7. Markus Stenz conducts at Aspen, and Joana Mallwitz conducts the German Premiere in Berlin. (Aspen also co-commissioned the concerto).
Limina, a piano concerto for Eliza McCarthy, premiered at the New Music Dublin Festival in April 2023 with Crash Ensemble. Contemporaneous will present its US premiere at National Sawdust on June 14.
News 2022
Alarm Will Sound premiered ‘Land of Winter’, an hour-long composition written especially for them, at the Beethovenfest in Bonn on September 14. It will be broadcast on WDR Radio 3 on 8 December. The composition of ‘Land of Winter’ was supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship. Augustin Hadelich and the Oregon Symphony will give the US premiere of my Violin Concerto, written especially for Augustin, on October 8 in Portland, Oregon.
[Photo from Beethovenfest]
News 2021
The First Child, the final opera in my trilogy with the writer/director Enda Walsh will premiere at the Dublin Theatre Festival from 2-9 October. Produced by Irish National Opera and Landmark Productions, it features a cast of Sarah Shine (soprano), Niamh O’Sullivan (mezzo), Eric Jurenas (countertenor), Dean Power (tenor), Emmet O’Hanlon (baritone), Caia Hynes (actor/dancer) and Joan Sheehy (actor). Features a small children’s choir (coached by Elaine Kelly) and Crash Ensemble, all conducted by Ryan McAdams.
Augustin Hadelich will premiere my new violin concerto with the philharmonie zuidnederland on 22nd and 23rd October in the Netherlands. The premiere will be conducted by Claus Peter Flor. The Violin Concerto was co-commissioned by the Oregon Symphony, Aspen Music Festival and philharmonie zuidnederland.
News 2020
Her Wits (about him), written as a tribute to Bob Hurwitz, President Emeritus of Nonesuch Records, features on an album of tributes to Hurwitz, released by Nonesuch Records on May 22, 2020. Performed by Timo Andres, the album also features a piece by Timo Andres himself, as well as works by John Adams, Laurie Anderson, Louis Andriessen, Philip Glass, Nico Muhly, Brad Mehldau, Steve Reich, Pat Metheny, and Randy Newman.
Bridget (2019), influenced by the paintings of Bridget Riley, and written for the Irish-based Australian flautist, Lina Andonovska, features on Lina’s debut album, A Way A Lone A Last, released by Diatribe Records in March 2020.
Scheduled to be premiered by Augustin Hadelich and the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, 9-12 April 2021.
Co-commissioned by Oregon Symphony, Aspen Music Festival and philharmonie zuidnederland.
NEWS 2019
Donnacha Dennehy's The Hunger—out August 23, 2019 on Nonesuch Records—explores Ireland's Great Famine. Performed by Alarm Will Sound led by Alan Pierson, soprano Katherine Manley, and sean nós singer Iarla Ó Lionáird, the libretto draws from first-hand accounts by American humanitarian Asenath Nicholson. The Hunger "bears hearing and rehearing," said the Washington Post. "It is powerful, and it makes a statement." Pre-order to download the album track "Black Potatoes" now.
New Amsterdam Records released Surface Tension/Disposable Dissonance on June 28, 2019. It features performances by Third Coast Percussion (Chicago) and Crash Ensemble (Dublin). The recording makes Bandcamp’s “Best of Contemporary Classical June List”. Writing about it, Peter Margasak says “Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy explores two fascinating sound processes on these recently composed works, performed by two of contemporary music’s premiere ensembles.”
The Abbey Theatre in Dublin will present the stage version of The Hunger from 19-24 August 2019.
Theater Freiburg will present the first German production of The Last Hotel (2015) in May 2020. Enda Walsh will direct.
Dutch National Opera will present the The Second Violinist as part of their Opera Forward Festival in March 2019. The Los Angeles Philharmonic have also just announced their 2018-19 season, and it includes a new commissioned work (to be conducted by John Adams) for their Green Umbrella Season.
NEWS 2018
OperaVision, the online platform for Opera Europa (the European association of opera companies and festivals), will be streaming my recent opera with the writer Enda Walsh, The Second Violinist, from 02/02/18. So Percussion premiere the piece I wrote for them, Broken Unison, on March 6 at Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall in New York. It is co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall, as is Canons and Overtones, a piece that Carnegie Hall just announced as part of their 2018-19 season. The Knights will give the American premiere of that in April 2019.
The Journal of Music
'Glamour Sleeper' from 2002 accompanies skateboarders in new video advertisement.
Happy to announce that The Second Violinist - my second opera with Enda Walsh - will receive its UK premiere at the Barbican, London on 6-8 September 2018.
NEWS 2017
Tessellatum is a really special piece for me, a kind of utopian statement lasting almost 40 minutes for solo viola and 11 microtonal viols. I was so lucky to be able to work with the phenomenally talented Nadia Sirota (viola) and Liam Byrne (viol) in realizing this piece. I'm excited to announce that it is being released as an album on Bedroom Community on August 11th. Nadia and Bedroom Community have also launched a website specially for the piece: tessellatum.com. A part of Tessellatum features in Steve Smith's iconic nightbynight playlist at The Log Journal of June 26. Update (September): Reviews in Rolling Stone, The Line of the Best Fit, and Pitchfork.
Thrilled and humbled that The Second Violinist, my new opera with Enda Walsh, produced by Landmark Productions and Wide Open Opera, has just won the Fedora Prize. The prize will help with future international productions of the opera. In the meantime, dates have been announced for premiere performances at the Galway International Arts Festival in July, and the Dublin Theatre Festival in October. Further performances will be announced over the coming season. As for other news, there are two new releases this month: an arrangement of Rambling Boys for Olivia Chaney and the Kronos Quartet for Kronos's new Nonesuch disc, Folk Songs, and the debut recording of As an Nós for Crash Ensemble's Ghosts album on Bedroom Community.
Two pieces are being released on recordings in May 2017: The Weather of It (2016) - a live recording of the Doric Quartet's extraordinary performance of the piece at the Wigmore Hall in London, as part of the NMC Records compilation Bracing Change (and in exalted company too); and a new recording of Stainless Staining (2007) as part of Sophia Vastek's "Histories", also in the exalted company of pieces by John Cage and Michael Harrison!
A little string quartet of mine - Pushpulling (2007) - features on a new release by Jasper String Quartet, entitled Unbound, in the wonderful company of pieces by terrific American composers such as Caroline Shaw, Missy Mazzoli, David Lang, Ted Hearne, Judd Greenstein and Annie Gosfield. The CD is released by Sono Luminus and New Amsterdam Records. Also, on April 1, the ferociously talented composer/pianist Timo Andres will premiere a piece that I wrote for Bob Hurwitz as part of a Nonesuch celebration in Bob's hono(u)r at BAM.
Upcoming concerts this month include the wonderful Doric String Quartet from London presenting the American premiere of the quartet that I wrote for them - The Weather of it - at Carnegie Hall on February 27. NMC Records in the UK will be releasing their performance at Wigmore Hall in an upcoming recording. The evening before, the fiery Fidelio Trio will perform Bulb at Spectrum NYC. Bulb was originally written for this trio, and they play it like the own it! The phenomenal Third Coast Percussion from Chicago are continuing to play Surface Tension all over the place, this month in Arizona and Missouri. And on February 17, the National Symphony Orchestra in Ireland will give a repeat performance of Crane, this time conducted by the Swedish conductor, Daniel Blendulf.
The Last Hotel, my opera with Enda Walsh (writer and director), will be presented at Les Theatres de la Ville in Luxembourg on 10 and 11 January. It involves the original cast (Claudia Boyle, Kate Manley, Robin Adams and Mikel Murfi) and ensemble (Crash Ensemble). This performance will be recorded for future release by Cantaloupe Records in New York.