11 July 2010: David Connolly
David Connolly is a graduate of NUI Maynooth with a first class honours degree in music and mathematics, a first class honours MA in performance and musicology, and a higher diploma in education, as a student of Professor Gerard Gillen. A former organ scholar of Maynooth College and St Mary's Pro-Cathedral Dublin, David has extensive experience as an organist, accompanist and conductor and has performed, recorded and broadcast widely throughout Ireland and abroad. He has played with the Maynooth University Orchestra, Maynooth Baroque Players, UCD Sinfonia and the Orchestra of St Cecilia, and has served as director of the Maynooth University Chamber Choir and assistant director of the Maynooth University Choral Society. David is currently organist and director of music at St Michael’s Church, Dún Laoghaire, where he is also artistic director of the long-running international organ recital series. His interests lie in the organ and its repertoire, especially in the relationship between plainchant and the French symphonic school, and he is currently pursuing a PhD in this area. He teaches in the Music Department of NUI Maynooth and DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama. He is a contributor on Catholic Church music to the forthcoming Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland, a member of the Dublin Diocesan Church Music Commission, an organist and tutor with the Irish Church Music Association, and a member of the committee of Pipeworks, the Dublin International Organ and Choral Festival.
