Biography

Dominic Irving studied composition and piano for four years at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, graduating in 2009 with a 1st-class BMus Honours degree. His tutors included Stephen Montague, Errollyn Wallen, and Philip Fowke. In 2011, he completed an MA in Composition of Music for Film and Television (MA-FTV) at Bristol University, studying with Martin Kiszko and John Pickard.

Dominic's composition prizes include the White Horse Composition Competition (1998), the Simon May Trophy (2003), National Festival of Music for Youth (2005), London Contemporary Chamber Orchestra Piece of the Year (2008), the John Halford Prize (2009), and A Carol for Christmas (2012).

Dominic is an accomplished music copyist, and has produced scores for projects involving the BBC Proms, the London Mozart Players, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Four, and the composers Diana Burrell and Stephen Montague.

Dominic began composing music at age 10 with his first solo piano piece, Strolling, which was played on local radio. Since then, his music has been performed all over the UK, including at Blackheath Halls, the Barbican Centre, BFI Southbank, the Birmingham CBSO Centre, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and King's College Chapel, Cambridge. It has also been broadcast on Classic FM and BBC Radio 3.

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Pianist (Solo)

Dominic has an extensive repertoire that includes not only the traditional classical canon, but jazz standards, film themes, English light music, pop, and several of his own transcriptions.

While working as Musician in Residence at Dauntsey's School, Dominic performed three hour-long piano recitals in 2015, 2017 and 2019, which can be watched in full on YouTube:

Dominic regularly performs Fever Candlelight concerts of Chopin and Einaudi in Bristol, London and Birmingham. He can also be found tinkling the ivories with the Pump Room Trio in Bath.

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Pianist (Orchestral)

Dominic is in high demand as an orchestral keyboard player, and has performed the piano parts in such works as:

• Grieg: Piano Concerto (2024)
• Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto no. 1 in B-flat minor (2022)
• Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (2021 and 2024)
• Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (2019 and 2024)
• Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances (2019)
• Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite (2017 and 2019)
• Prokofiev: Lieutenant Kijé (2018 and 2023)
• Copland: Appalachian Spring (2013 and 2023)
• Bernstein: Prelude, Fugue and Riffs (2009)

  (with clarinettist Boyan Ivanov and conductor Tom Hammond)

• Ligeti: Chamber Concerto (2009)
• Reich: City Life (2007)

  (conducted by Nic Pendlebury)

• Mozart: Piano Concerto no. 23 in A, K.488 (2003)

Dominic has played other keyboard parts, including celesta, organ, harpsichord, synth, and off-stage piano for:

• Blake: The Snowman (2023)
• Prokofiev: Cinderella Suite (2022)
• Saint-Saëns: Symphony no. 3 in C minor 'Organ' (2022)
• Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker Suite (2018 and 2023)
• Glazunov: The Seasons (2018 and 2022)
• Vivaldi: Winter (2018)
• Stolzel: Pentecost Cantata no. 2 (2017)

  (The UK premiere of the unpublished score)

• Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine (2008)
• Bernstein: Symphony no. 2 'The Age of Anxiety' (2007)

  (conducted by James Judd, who previously recorded this work for NAXOS)

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Composer (Film)

Dominic's film scoring experience ranges from short dramas to feature films. In 2014, Dominic composed 82 minutes of lavish symphonic music for the sci-fi comedy-horror film Insectula! which premiered at the Bram Stoker Film Festival, and has subsequently been distributed worldwide.

In 2022–23, Dominic composed new piano scores for the silent films The Flying Ace (1926), Phantom (1922) and The Primrose Path (1926), which he performed live at the Arnolfini in Bristol for South West Silents. He was subsequently invited to participate in the piano masterclass at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival.

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Composer (Concert)

Dominic has written over 190 musical works, including a piano concerto, a children's cantata, a requiem, sonatas, comic songs and musical theatre. His compositional style is highly melodic, often humorous, and moves freely between bright virtuosity, rich lyricism and stern dissonance.

In 2011, Dominic's avant-garde recorder quartet, Sound Clouds was premiered at St. Martin-in-the-Fields. It has been performed across Europe, broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and released on iTunes as part of iFlautisti's debut album.

In 2012, Dominic's choral setting of Blessed Be That Maid Marie was performed in the presence of John Rutter in Cambridge, and broadcast on Classic FM. The score has been published by Novello.

In 2024, Dominic's two-volume piano book, Hi-Tech Etudes, was published by Moonhouse Music. Buy it here!