Simon O’Connor has studied composition under Donnacha Dennehy, Roger Doyle and Kevin Volans. He is also an award-winning graphic designer. His musical life began late as a teenager in punk bands, developing to solo electronic music and avant-rock groups, most notably The Jimmy Cake. This was followed by countless scores for theatre productions in his early twenties and subsequently study in Trinity College under Donnacha Dennehy and Roger Doyle. During this time he began informal education with Kevin Volans, and his compositional style became more focused and minimal.
His post student compositions, from the chamber opera ‘Obegon’ onward, are characterised by a reduced musical palette, clear tonality and a focus on static, almost predictable structures and singular dramatic events. This reductionism is most evident in his most recent piano suite, ‘Winteriser’, presented as a series of three concerts in the Goethe-Institut, Dublin, from January to March 2009, performed by Paul G. Smyth.
Recent commissions have included ‘60 Bars for K.V.’, for Crash Ensemble, ‘I remember you’, a guitar duo for the Ergodos Festival, ‘Blue’, recorded with Ioana Petcu Colan for release in 2010, and ‘Petryfyd Floures’ for Barry Guy and Maya Homburger.
