Born in 1987, David Coonan is an Irish composer. His works have been performed by, amongst others, the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the RAM Manson Ensemble, EXAUDI vocal ensemble, the Choir of the Chapels Royal HM Tower of London, and Belfast city organist Colm Carey, and with conductors including Gavin Maloney, Maxime Tortelier, François-Xavier Roth, Pierre-André Valade and Elgar Howarth.
He was a featured composer in the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra’s ‘Horizons’ Series in January 2015; this saw the premiere of his Sarcasms for orchestra, an RTÉ commission, and his violin concerto Träumerei, with soloist Kristine Balanas, in a portrait concert at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, and was subsequently broadcast on RTÉ Lyric fm. He is a member of the Association of Irish Composers, the Irish Composers Collective, and the London Symphony Orchestra Soundhub community. He is currently composer-in-residence to Vivre Musicale, and was a BBC Symphony Orchestra / Sound and Music ‘Embedded’ composer-in-residence for 2015-16. He has held artist residencies at the Contemporary Music Centre Dublin (2016), and at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre (2015) thanks to a Kildare County Council Artist Bursary. He was a recipient of a 16x16: Next Generation Bursary Award by the Irish Arts Council, as part of their celebrations of the 1916 Easter Rising Centenary, and the 2016 Jerome Hynes Composer Award from the National Concert Hall, Dublin. In late 2016, he wrote music for acclaimed-Irish-playwright Marina Carr’s stage adaptation of Tolstoy’s ‘Anna Karenina’, staged at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, and directed by Wayne Jordan.
He studied at Trinity College Dublin with Donnacha Dennehy, and pursued further composition studies with Christopher Austin at the Royal Academy of Music in London, with funds provided by the Irish Arts Council and the Arts & Humanities Research Council UK. He graduated with Distinction and the DipRAM award for ‘outstanding final portfolio’ in 2011.
