Harry O’Connor

Fuaimeanna Nua Composer
2025

Harry O’Connor (b.1999) is an Irish composer.

He holds a BMus (Hons) from the MTU Cork School of Music, and a MSt in Music (Composition) from the University of Oxford. 

Harry’s work is largely focused within the domain of chamber and orchestral music, drawing on jazz fusion, contemporary classical and ancient musical influences. His music is informed by understandings of landscape, nature and other sensory environments, and their interaction with the human experience. He has also worked on more progressive and experimental projects, using both acoustic and software-based media.

Harry’s music has won awards internationally, and has been performed at concerts in Ireland and the UK by professional ensembles and soloists alike. In 2019 his ‘Fantasy for Piano Solo’ was shortlisted in the Classic Pure International Vienna Composition Competition 2019. In 2020 his work ‘Introduction and Dance for Piano Solo’ won the New Ross Piano Festival composition competition, and was subsequently performed at the 2021 festival by Finghin Collins. The same year, his ‘Fantasy for Piano Solo’ was selected for the final round of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra’s 2020 Call for Scores in Los Angeles, USA. In 2023, Harry was selected as the winner of the 2023/24 Irish Heritage Composition Bursary with his piece ‘Diptych: Two Winds’ for solo piano. In October 2024, he was announced as the recipient of the Jerome Hynes Young Composer’s Award by the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland. Harry has received a number of commissions, most recently by Chamber Music on Valentia in 2025.

Harry graduated with a First Class Honours BMus (Hons) undergraduate degree in 2021, before going on to study composition with Prof. Jennifer Walshe at Worcester College, Oxford, graduating in 2024. During his postgraduate degree, Harry had his music workshopped by several high profile musicians and groups, including pianist David Palmer and the BBC Singers. In October 2023, his songs ‘3 Old Irish Miniatures’ were premiered by baritone Jonathan Eyers, and in February 2024, his piece ‘Summer Idyll’ was premiered by the Castalian String Quartet at the Holywell Music Room in Oxford, UK. The same piece has subsequently been toured around Ireland in a series of concerts by the Lir String Quartet with the National String Quartet Foundation, in venues including the National Concert Hall, Dublin and the Triskel Arts Centre, Cork.

Harry has also written music for film, collaborating with poets and artists like Riley Faulds and Xinyue Liu on short art film projects. In September 2024, Harry undertook the artist residency at the Fish Factory Creative Centre in Stöðvarfjörður, Iceland, collaborating with Utahn composer Nicholas Miller to produce GILDIA ORGANORUM HYPERBOREA, a recording project based around free improvisation.