Born in Dublin (Ireland) in 1982, Dónal Rafferty studied piano and music theory at The College of Music and voice and aural training with The Palestrina Choir from the age of 7. Dónal continued to study music during the years of his primary and secondary school education, competing and achieving success in local competitions for piano, piano duet and singing, while concurrently touring the world and gaining invaluable musical experience as a member of The Palestrina Choir. The highlight of Dónal’s childhood musical career was no doubt his performance in the lead role of Amahl in Gian-Carlo Menotti’s operetta Amahl and The Night Visitors in 1992. During his teenage years, Dónal took up study of clarinet and played with several student orchestras for a time.
After graduating from secondary education, Dónal completed an honours degree in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering with Mathematics at Trinity College Dublin in 2004. After some time spent abroad living in Sweden and working in engineering, Dónal began composing music in his spare time. Soon afterwards, he decided to return to Ireland and commence further studies in music.
In 2007, Dónal graduated first place in the Bachelor of Music degree at the National University of Ireland at Maynooth, specialising in composition with Martin O’Leary. During this time, he gained a piano performance diploma from The London College of Music (ALCM) and a music theory diploma from Trinity College London (AMusTCL). In 2006, Dónal was chosen as a finalist in the Neerpelt European Music Festival for Young People Composition Competition for his composition Unresolved Tension for symphonic band. As a result, he was invited as a guest to the festival and participated in a workshop with composer Johan de Meij (Netherlands). Following his graduation from Maynooth, Dónal participated in the 2007 IMRO Irish Composition Summer School, studying with Kevin O’Connell (Royal Irish Academy of Music) and Nicola Lefanu (University of York). During the same year, Dónal was engaged to arrange Irish traditional music for the South Carolina fiddle group Na Fidléirí and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.
Dónal commenced postgraduate studies in 2008 at King’s College London for the degree of Master in Music. He specialised in composition with Robert Keeley and George Benjamin, and studied analysis with Arnold Whittall, and musicology with John Deathridge and Christopher Wintle. He graduated with distinction in January 2010. Since July 2009, Dónal has worked with the London Chamber Orchestra, managing the LCO New: Explore composition competition scheme. He is a member of the Irish Composers’ Collective.
Dónal has composed works for a range of solo, chamber ensembles, and orchestra as well as writing a short film score and arranging and recomposing traditional Irish music. He is a composer with a constantly evolving style, his aim being to create new music which is semantically rich, musically original and aurally engaging to a wide range of listeners.
Dónal Rafferty’s Curriculum Vitae
