David Flynn (composer)

David Flynn (also known as Dave Flynn, born 6 January 1977) is an Irish composer and musician with a number of major awards and commissions to his name. He is the founder and artistic director of the Irish Memory Orchestra.[1] Many of his works music merge the influence of traditional Irish music with contemporary classical music and jazz.[2] He is also a multi-instrumentalist who works across many genres including classical, jazz, rock and traditional Irish music, with guitar being his main instrument.[3]

Flynn was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland. His early musical experiences included brief periods studying piano and tin whistle, but it was not until his early teens that Flynn really took to music, teaching himself how to play rock guitar. He developed an interest in classical guitar in his mid-teens and taught himself how to read music notation, he also learnt classical guitar by ear from recordings.[4] He composed his first piece for classical guitar aged 16.[5]

Upon leaving school in 1995 he studied rock music at Ballyfermot College of Further Education, Dublin.[6] Around this time Flynn started composing songs and performed on the Dublin singer-songwriter scene, including at Dave Murphy’s “famous Tuesday night gigs” that helped then up-and-coming musicians like Glen Hansard, Damien Dempsey and Declan O’Rourke.[7] He later developed a strong interest in traditional Irish music which he learnt through recordings and workshops at various Irish music festivals.[8]