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.

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.

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.

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.

April 2021 I was delighted and honored to be awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2021.

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. As Nonesuch states, “I Still Play, an album of eleven new solo piano compositions written by artists who have recorded for Nonesuch Records, is now available on Nonesuch. The pieces were written in honor of the label's longtime President Bob Hurwitz on the occasion of his 2017 shift into the Chairman Emeritus role after running the label for thirty-two years. I Still Play features works by John Adams, Laurie Anderson, Timo Andres, Louis Andriessen, Donnacha Dennehy, Philip Glass, Nico Muhly, Brad Mehldau, Steve Reich, Pat Metheny, and Randy Newman. The pieces have been recorded by Andres and fellow Nonesuch artist Jeremy Denk, as well as by Mehldau and Newman themselves.”

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.

The Park Avenue Armory in New York will present the US premiere of The Second Violinist as part of its 2020 season, curated by Pierre Audi. It will be the original production, directed by Enda Walsh, conducted by Ryan McAdams, and produced by Landmark Productions and Irish National Opera. The Second Violinist will run from September 25-29 at the Armory. More details here.

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.”

Available on bandcamp, spotify, amazon.

The Abbey Theatre in Dublin will present the stage version of The Hunger from 19-24 August 2019.

MORE DETAILS HERE

Theater Freiburg will present the first German production of The Last Hotel (2015) in May 2020. Enda Walsh will direct.

POSTPONED TO 2020/21 SEASON

Cantaloupe Records release the recording of The Last Hotel (2015), the first of my operas with the writer Enda Walsh, on March 15, 2019.

More information at Cantaloupe Records

Watch a video excerpt here

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.

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.

Composer Donnacha Dennehy’s work Glamour Sleeper has been featured in a new Adidas advertising campaign. The video features several skateboarders in an urban setting, their ollies and tricks syncronised with the music.

Glamour Sleeper, for cello, violin, double bass, percussion and electronics was premiered at the 2002 Up North! Festival at Project Arts Centre in Dublin. Reviewing the work at the time in The Journal of Music, John McLachlan wrote:

Made out of highly unsubtle sound production – lots of dirty scratching from strings and hard edged percussion – and limited, even crude pitch resources …. The organising principles governing everything else were the opposite, refined and tasteful.