David Flynn - Professional Composition Career

Professional Composition Career

Soon after graduating from the Guildhall his string quartet piece ‘Slip’ was selected for the Young Composers Workshop at the 2004 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, which led to Flynn being awarded the 2004 Young Composers Award at the Festival. His prize was a commission to elaborate ‘Slip’ into his String Quartet No.2 "The Cranning" for the 2005 festival where it was premiered by the Smith Quartet to the acclaim of critics including Neil Fisher of The Times who praised Flynn for ‘incorporating traditional Irish music without Hollywood pastiche’.

Michael Dervan of The Irish Times was similarly impressed — ‘Flynn is attempting to bring the influence of traditional Irish music into the hallowed realms of the classical string quartet and moments in the Smith Quartet's performance of this minimalist influenced work gelled to perfection.'

Earlier in 2004 Flynn had instigated the foundation of the Young Composers Collective (YCC) in Ireland. Flynn announced the YCC with an article in the Journal of Music in Ireland (JMI) in which he criticised established bodies for failing to support young composers. The article caused considerable controversy and debate but ultimately led to the YCC providing a platform for a large number of previously unknown young composers to have their music performed. The YCC has since evolved into the Irish Composers' Collective. Flynn is no longer a member according to the ICC website.

Flynn caused further controversy in the JMI in 2005 when his article ‘Looking for the Irish Bartók’ questioned the failure of established Irish classical composers to engage with traditional Irish music and musicians. Despite some harsh criticism of Flynn's ideas from some of the established Irish composers his article resonated with traditional Irish musicians who had in the past largely been ignored or denigrated by the Irish classical music establishment.

This article directly led to Flynn's contact with the renowned traditional Irish fiddler Martin Hayes and his musical partner, guitarist Dennis Cahill. In 2006, the Masters of Tradition Festival in Cork commissioned Flynn to compose a piece for Hayes and Cahill to perform with the classical violinist Ioana Petcu-Colan. The resulting piece Music for the Departed was premiered at the Masters of Tradition Festival in August 2006 and received its US Premiere in 2010 at the Irish American Arts Center in New York. It was described as 'A magnificent new work for fiddle, violin and guitar' by the Irish Examiner USA

Flynn has since worked with Martin Hayes on a number of other projects. In 2010 Hayes premiered 'Aontacht' a concerto for Irish fiddle and orchestra with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in Ireland's National Concert Hall. The concert also featured a new arrangement of 'Music for the Departed' with a string orchestra added to the fiddle, violin and guitar trio of the original.

Flynn, Hayes and Cahill will collaborate once again when they tour with the Irish Chamber Orchestra in September 2011.

Flynn continues to work with traditional Irish musicians in the creation of new concert works. Recent such works include 'The Forest of Ornaments' for flautist Harry Bradley, 'Five Études for Uilleann pipes' for uilleann piper Mick O'Brien and 'The Valley of the Lunatics' for fiddle player Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh. These works and others were programmed to be premiered at the 2011 Masters of Tradition Festival in Cork at a concert devoted entirely to Flynn's music.

Outside of his recent collaborations with traditional musicians, Flynn's music continues to be performed by major international classical musicians and ensembles around the world including the New Juilliard Ensemble, ConTempo Quartet, guitarist John Feeley and saxophonist Gerard McChrystal.

He has also had a major radio special dedicated to his music on WNYC New York's New Sounds show hosted by John Schaefer.

His primary publisher is his own company Frisbee Publications, however 'Four Études for Five Fingers' have been published by Mel Bay and 'Toccata for Obama' is published by Reed Music.