Dominic Irving is a pianist and composer whose work spans concerto appearances, chamber music, orchestral performance, opera, silent film accompaniment, and original composition.
Dominic studied composition at Trinity Laban (BMus) and Bristol University (MA), where he cultivated an artistic style marked by lush lyricism, virtuosic brilliance and gentle humour, with moments of stern dissonance. His output of more than two hundred compositions ranges from salon miniatures and comic songs to sonatas, concertos, theatre music and film scores.
Early milestone works include his Piano Concerto in D (2008), performed at his final university recital, and Joshua Jazz: A Cantata for Children (2009), workshopped and recorded by more than fifty primary-school pupils. His prize-winning choral setting of Blessed Be That Maid Marie (2012) was published by Novello and broadcast on Classic FM.
Among his more ambitious projects are Insectula! (2014), a lavish 82-minute orchestral score for a horror film which premiered at the Bram Stoker Film Festival, and Requiem (2017), a daring conceptual piece blending dark humour with philosophical reflection.
More recently, Dominic’s Hi-Tech Etudes (2023), a two-volume set of modern piano compositions aimed at young players, was published by Moonhouse Music. He created the music for the Film Noir UK ident (2024), and continues to compose large-scale works, notably This Verdant Isle (2025), a 30-minute cantata for soloists, choir and organ, for which he also wrote the libretto.
At the piano, Dominic has appeared as a soloist in the concertos of Grieg, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Concerto in F, among others, performing with orchestras throughout the South West. He also regularly plays celesta and orchestral piano in works such as Stravinsky’s Petrushka and The Firebird Suite.
His occasional solo recitals feature a colourful mix of classical repertoire, light music, and popular transcriptions. From 2021–2023, he presented over fifty Candlelight Concerts of music by Einaudi and Coldplay to packed audiences across the UK.
In opera, he has performed complete productions at the piano, including Don Giovanni, La Traviata, La Bohème and Mansfield Park. Highly skilled at sight-reading, he is often called upon at short notice to tackle challenging piano reductions. He also works as a rehearsal accompanist for choirs and opera companies.
Dominic frequently features as a guest pianist with the Pump Room Trio in Bath, delighting audiences with classical works alongside inventive new interpretations. His own music has become part of the trio’s repertoire, particularly the tongue-in-cheek Mawkish Victoriana (2024) and his joyful arrangement of Tea for Two (2022), both of which are performed even in his absence.
Dominic’s silent film work brings together live performance, improvisation, composition, and dramatic flair. In 2022, he was invited by South West Silents to take part in the piano masterclass at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival in Italy, receiving world-class guidance in the art of silent film accompaniment.
He has composed and performed full piano scores for The Flying Ace (1926), His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1914) and The General (1926), as well as partially-improvised scores for Phantom (1922), The Primrose Path (1925) and The Sky Rider (1928). In addition, he has accompanied many silent films entirely improvised in the traditional spirit.
