biography
Denis studied music (Composition and History of Music) in
NUI Maynooth graduating in 1995. The following year he graduated
from UCD’s Arts Administration course. As part of this
course he worked on placement with Music Network. He then
took up full time employment with IMRO (Irish Music Rights
Organisation) while studying part time on the UCLA/Screen
Training Ireland Film Scoring Programme under the late Don
Brandon Ray (Hawaii 50, Twilight Zone).
In early 1998 Denis’
first professional engagement was producing string arrangements
for the band ‘The Prayerboat’ on their internationally
critically acclaimed album ‘Polichinelle’. He
went on to perform keyboards for the band as a guest musician
over the next two years.
Around this time Denis started
composing music for film projects. His work to date includes,
most recently, ‘His and Hers’ (Venom films) which
won best documentary feature at this year’s Irish Film
and Television Awards (IFTAs), the European Academy Award
winning ‘Undressing my Mother’ (Venom films, 2004),
‘Useless Dog’ (Venom films, 2004) for which he
won best soundtrack at the 2005 European Short Film Biennale
in Stuttgart. He also composed the score for a series of feature
length boxing documentaries ‘A Bloody Canvas’,
‘Babyface Goes to Hollywood’ and ‘The Long
Arm of Dan Donnelly’ (Fastnet Films). Other projects
include ‘Her Mother’s Daughter’ (Underground
Films) for the RTE ‘Dance on the Box’ series.
‘An Dúil’ (2003) and ‘Rolla Saor’
(2007) both for Odyssey productions and the series of four
short films ‘Mouthing Off’ (Venom films, 2007)
commissioned by Channel 4.
It was also around 1998
that Denis composed music for his first play; Theatre of the
Unimpressed’s production of Tennessee Williams’
‘The Glass Menagerie’ in the Crypt Arts Centre
in Dublin Castle.
Since then Denis has composed
Music for over one hundred theatre productions. Highlights
include ‘The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui’ for
Ireland’s national theatre; the Abbey Theatre (2008),
‘Titus Andronicus’ for Siren Productions (2005),
‘Festen’ at the Gate Theatre, Dublin (2006), ‘Don
Carlos’ for Rough Magic (2007), a live score using Japanese
instruments for Storyteller’s production of ‘Rashomon’
(2004), ‘Cracked’ for Quare Hawks Theatre Company
(2000) and a surround sound score for ‘Devotion’
produced by TEAM theatre (2005). In 2008 Denis was an associate
artist of the Abbey theatre
Denis’s television
work comprises of a number of documentary series including
‘The Limits of Liberty’ (South Wind Blows) performed
by the RTE Concert Orchestra, the Barry McGuigan story ‘In
Sunshine or in Shadow’ (Fastnet Films), ‘Journeys
into Genocide’ (Concordia Productions), ‘Making
Babies’ (Mint Productions) and ‘Bibeanna’
(Dovinia).
Check out the News
section of the site to see what projects Denis is currently
involved with.
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