Biography
Patrick Cassidy draws upon Ireland’s traditional music and mythology as the bedrock for his orchestral output. Renowned for rich melodic lines and densely textured scoring, he has become the country’s foremost composer. The Dorchester Journal labeled him “Ireland’s modern Mozart,” while The Marietta Daily Journal commended his ability to “successfully transfer the intimate nuances of ancient Irish melodies to the orchestral palette.” In 1992 the city of Limerick honored his cultural contributions by naming him “Person of the Year.”
Raised as one of ten siblings in a household where Irish was spoken daily, Cassidy studied piano in childhood and performed in rock groups alongside his brother Frank, who later became his business manager. Although he completed a master’s degree in applied mathematics at Limerick University, music remained his central passion. His first recording, Cruit, appeared in 1988 and presented seventeenth- and eighteenth-century harp repertory arranged for baroque ensemble and Irish harp.
Cassidy’s largest-scale work, The Children of Lir, sets an Irish-language libretto drawn from the ancient Annals of Ulster. It received its premiere at Dublin’s National Concert Hall with guest participation by the Chieftains and was aired by RTF radio; a subsequent performance at the Lorrient Festival reached an audience exceeding 200,000. In October 1992 the London Symphony Orchestra and the Tallis Chamber Choir recorded the piece at Abbey Road Studios. Issued two years afterward, the album earned a gold record in Ireland.
During the hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of the Great Famine, the Irish Echo and Wild Geese, Inc. commissioned Famine Remembrance in 1995. The work was introduced at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York on 10 March 1996, and Windham Hill issued a CD of the live performance the following year. Cassidy revisited the Annals of Ulster for the 1998 orchestral composition Deirdre of the Sorrows.
Raised as one of ten siblings in a household where Irish was spoken daily, Cassidy studied piano in childhood and performed in rock groups alongside his brother Frank, who later became his business manager. Although he completed a master’s degree in applied mathematics at Limerick University, music remained his central passion. His first recording, Cruit, appeared in 1988 and presented seventeenth- and eighteenth-century harp repertory arranged for baroque ensemble and Irish harp.
Cassidy’s largest-scale work, The Children of Lir, sets an Irish-language libretto drawn from the ancient Annals of Ulster. It received its premiere at Dublin’s National Concert Hall with guest participation by the Chieftains and was aired by RTF radio; a subsequent performance at the Lorrient Festival reached an audience exceeding 200,000. In October 1992 the London Symphony Orchestra and the Tallis Chamber Choir recorded the piece at Abbey Road Studios. Issued two years afterward, the album earned a gold record in Ireland.
During the hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of the Great Famine, the Irish Echo and Wild Geese, Inc. commissioned Famine Remembrance in 1995. The work was introduced at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York on 10 March 1996, and Windham Hill issued a CD of the live performance the following year. Cassidy revisited the Annals of Ulster for the 1998 orchestral composition Deirdre of the Sorrows.
Albums
1916 The Irish Rebellion
2016
Calvary (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
2013
Immortal Memory
2004
Cruit
1995
Singles
