Breffni O’Byrne

Breffni O’Byrne
(b. 1988)

'"If music were a part of man's everyday life, as it should be, there would certainly be less aggression and much more equality and love on Earth; for music is a means of communication and understanding, a means of reconciliation."
(Hans Werner Henze)'
Breffni O’Byrne
• Biography
• View and listen to works
• Compositions by date
• Compositions by category
• Solo instrumental
• CDs/scores for sale
• High-resolution image available

Born in 1988, much of Breffni O’Byrne’s recent compositional output draws enormous influence from the ancient music of Ireland with a strong devotion to much of the expressionistic aesthetic that blossomed during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He studied composition with Kevin O’Connell and Jonathan Nangle at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Julian Anderson. Breffni also took part in the 2009 Fusion Arts Exchange Program on Music Composition and Performance; an educational exchange program sponsored by the U. S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. He is currently studying towards an MMus in Composition under the tutelage of Prof. Simon Bainbridge at the Royal Academy of Music in London of which he is a Leverhulme Scholar.

Breffni is the recipient of numerous awards including the Günther Bialas International Composition Competition Prize, Jerome Hynes Composer’s Competition Prize and the Feis Ceoil Imro Award for Contemporary Composition. His music has been performed in both Europe and the United States by, amongst others, CHROMA chamber ensemble, the ConTempo String Quartet, the Fidelio Trio, Michael McHale and Fiachra Garvey. Recent commissions include a new orchestral work which was premiered in 2012 by the Academy Symphony Orchestra of the Royal Academy of Music in London under the baton of Yan Pascal Tortelier.

Aside from composition, Breffni displays an avid enthusiasm for nearly all fields of creativity and thought, with a notable devotion to art, philosophy, literature, and mythology.

(biography © )

back to top