David Fennessy has been played on NTS shows including Tafelmusik w/ Francesco Fusaro, with Hirta Rounds first played on 16 December 2019.

David Fennessy was born in Maynooth, Co Kildare. He began his musical studies at the DIT Conservatory of Music, studying guitar with John Feeley and composition with Eibhlis Farrell. He gained a BMus in performance from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1997 and an MMus in composition with James MacMillan at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 2000.

His works have been performed by the National Chamber Choir, the Castagneri and Zephyr Quartets, Synchronia and Concorde, among others. He received many commissions, including those from RTÉ Lyric FM, Music Network, the Paragon Ensemble, Concorde, and the Dundee Guitar Festival.

Awards include first prize in the 1998 New Music for Sligo Composers’ Competition for his work, ‘Nightpiece’. In 2000 his first string quartet, ‘graft’, was shortlisted for the Gaudeamus Music Week prize while his choral work ’Aimhreidh’ was recorded by the National Chamber Choir and released on the Black Box Label.

David Fennessy is currently a composition lecturer at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.