Donal Sarsfield was born in County Mayo. He studied Music with Cultural Studies at Queen's University Belfast, and then completed a MusM and a PhD in Electroacoustic Composition at the University of Manchester, supported by the Elizabeth Maconchy Composition Fellowship.
His music has been performed at San Francisco Tape Music Festival, New York Electroacoustic Music Festival, Banff Centre for the Arts, South Bank London as part of the Harmonic Series curated by Oliver Coates, Darmstadt International Summer Course for New Music 2012, World Music Days ISCM Belgium 2012, Sonorities Belfast 2008, 2013 & 2015, Crash Ensemble FreeState VI Dublin, Aberdeen Sound Festival, Civitanova Dance Festival 2014 and the Royal Opera House in London (as part of the development of the ballet ‘We/Part’ with the choreographer Paolo Mangiola and Balletto di Roma in 2014).
His piece ‘Gallivanting (The Suitcases Piece)’ was awarded joint first prize at the Concourse International de Musique Bruitiste Luigi Russolo in 2011.
In all his recent work he is interested in stimulating a perceptual link between the listener, the work and the world in which we live.