Born in Dublin (Ireland) in 1982, Dónal Rafferty studied piano and music theory at The College of Music and voice and aural training with The Palestrina Choir from the age of 7. Dónal continued to study music during the years of his primary and secondary school education, competing and achieving success in local competitions for piano, piano duet and singing, while concurrently touring the world and gaining invaluable musical experience as a member of The Palestrina Choir. During his teenage years, Dónal took up study of clarinet and played with several student orchestras for a time.
After graduating from secondary education, Dónal completed an honours degree in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering with Mathematics at Trinity College Dublin in 2004. After some time spent abroad living in the beautiful Blekinge region of Sweden and working in the engineering industry, Dónal began composing music in his spare time. Soon afterwards, he decided to return to Ireland and commence further studies in music.
In 2007, Dónal graduated top of his class in the Bachelor of Music degree at the National University of Ireland at Maynooth, specialising in composition with Martin O’Leary. During this time, he gained a piano performance diploma from The London College of Music (ALCM) and a music theory diploma from Trinity College London (AMusTCL). In 2006, Dónal was chosen as a finalist in the Neerpelt European Music Festival for Young People Composition Competition for his composition Unresolved Tension for symphonic band. As a result, he was invited as a guest to the festival and participated in a workshop with composer Johan de Meij (Netherlands). Following his graduation from Maynooth, Dónal participated in the 2007 IMRO Irish Composition Summer School, studying with Kevin O’Connell (Royal Irish Academy of Music) and Nicola Lefanu (University of York). During the same year, Dónal was engaged to arrange Irish traditional music for the South Carolina fiddle group Na Fidléirí and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.
Dónal commenced his current postgraduate studies in 2008 at King’s College London for the degree of Master in Music. He studies composition with Robert Keeley and George Benjamin, analysis with Arnold Whittall, and musicology with John Deathridge and Christopher Wintle. In July 2009, he was taken on as Young Composer-in-Residence with the London Chamber Orchestra, also managing the LCO New: Explore project.
Dónal has composed works for a range of solo, chamber ensembles, and orchestra as well as writing a short film score and arranging and recomposing traditional Irish music. He is a composer with a constantly evolving style, his aim being to create new music which is semantically rich, musically original and aurally engaging to a wide range of listeners.
