Vincent Kennedy, the Rathfarnham Concert Band Society’s Musical Director, is a leading Irish composer-conductor. He received his earliest music education in CBS Westland Row, Dublin and won the under-18 category in the Feis Ceoil Trumpet competition at age 12. Two years later, he won the adult Feis Ceoil. He was performing trumpet with the National Symphony Orchestra by the age of 19. Vincent’s life experiences have defined his musical purpose, and he describes it thus; “Music has been a faithful friend: always there to uplift, distract, colour, and comfort. I write music to enrich life and take my inspiration from many sources and possibilities, like a bee using the nectar of different flowers to produce a unique honey.”

Vincent’s music is rooted in western tonal music and is also influenced by Irish folk music; music that has been handed down through the generations of one of the oldest civilisations. As a composer, he came to national prominence when he won the RTÉ Music Prize for his composition Soliloquy and March in Memory of Michael O’Hehir. Since then he has written a symphony, an oratorio, cantatas, overtures, concertos, a children’s musical, a great deal of chamber music, and, co-written with Little John Nee, the award winning stage setting of The Happy Prince (2012), based on Oscar Wilde’s beautiful and poignant children’s story.

The Rathfarnham Concert Band Society has premiered 17 of Vincent’s band compositions. On 1st December 2023, Navona Records (USA) will release his latest album “MUSIC OF PEOPLE AND PLACE”. All 19 tracks are composed by Vincent and he conducts the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in the recordings. Mark Redmond is uilleann pipe soloist on 5 tracks. Vincent is a member of the international composer and performer collective Three Essential Elements, and with them has had recent world premieres in London, Berlin, Athens, Thessaloniki, and The Conservatoire Maurice André Alès, France, and he has future premieres in Athens and Berlin in 2024.

Vincent is a founding member of RCBS and originally taught Trumpet and French Horn. He was the first conductor of our very first Junior Band. Vincent is also the conductor of the Donegal Youth Orchestra, an international jury member of the Flicorno D’Oro wind band competition in Italy, a member of the Artistic Committee of the Geneva International Band Competition, and a jury member and composer in residence for 2024 Marie Cantagrill International Violin competition in France. He is currently working on a commission for 2 harps and 2 Sopranos setting the poems of Patrick Pearse commissioned for Mary and Teresa O’Donnell by Fingal County Council.

Vincent considers it a great honour to be the Musical Director of RCBS and to also make music with so many people from Rathfarnham, Ballyroan and Marlay.