Donnacha Dennehy

Hailed as “Ireland’s most important living composer” by the New York Times, Donnacha Dennehy’s Grammy award winning music has been called “thrilling” (Guardian), “mesmerizing” (New York Times) “arrestingly beautiful” (New Yorker) and “shockingly original, while also being compulsively listenable” (Boston Globe). Dennehy’s music has featured in festivals and venues such as the Berliner Festspiele; Edinburgh International Festival; Beethovenfest, Bonn; Royal Opera House, London; Carnegie Hall, New York; Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam; Barbican, London; the Huddersfield Festival and BAM, New York among others. In addition to a trilogy of operas with the writer Enda Walsh, recent large-scale works include Land of Winter for Alarm Will Sound, Tessellatum, a microtonally shifting 40-minute piece for strings, The Hunger, a docu-cantata, and a violin concerto for Augustin Hadelich that has received performances in Europe and the US. The Konzerthaus Orchester gave the German premiere, conducted by Joanna Mallwitz, at MusikFest Berlin in the Autumn of 2023. Portrait albums of his music have been released by Nonesuch, New Amsterdam, Cantaloupe, NMC and Bedroom Community. Nonesuch released his newest album Land of Winter in November 2024. Land of Winter was nominated for two Grammys: Best Contemporary Classical Composition and Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance, winning in the second category at the 2026 Grammy Awards.