Dominic Irving, who grew up in Devizes, will perform Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto 1 in Malmesbury Abbey on Saturday April 25th as part of the Royal Wootton Bassett Orchestra’s Spring Concert – London Calling. Click here for tickets and details of the full programme.
Dominic, who last performed with the orchestra in 2024, said, “It’s a real pleasure and a privilege to be invited back to play with the RWBO at Malmesbury Abbey. Last time I played Grieg, but this Mendelssohn concerto is quite different. It’s very compact and tightly structured with not a single unnecessary bar. The three movements flow into each other, so it feels like looking at the same perfectly-formed gem from three different angles. The mood is sunny and optimistic, and it’s a lot of fun to play!”
Dominic studied composition at Trinity Laban (BMus) and Bristol University (MA), where he cultivated an artistic style marked by lush lyricism, virtuosic brilliance and gentle humour, with moments of stern dissonance. His output of more than two hundred compositions ranges from salon miniatures and comic songs to sonatas, concertos, theatre music and film scores.
At the piano, Dominic has appeared as a soloist in the concertos of Grieg and Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Concerto in F, among others, performing with orchestras throughout the South West. He also regularly plays celesta and orchestral piano in works such as Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite.
His occasional solo recitals feature a colourful mix of classical repertoire, light music, and popular transcriptions. From 2021–2023, he presented over fifty Candlelight Concerts of music by Einaudi and Coldplay to packed audiences across the UK.
In opera, he has performed complete productions at the piano, including Don Giovanni, La Traviata, La Bohème and Mansfield Park. Highly skilled at sight-reading, he is often called upon at short notice to tackle challenging piano reductions. He also works as a rehearsal accompanist for choirs and opera companies.
Dominic frequently features as a guest pianist with the Pump Room Trio in Bath, delighting audiences with classical works alongside inventive new interpretations. His own music has become part of the trio’s repertoire, particularly the tongue-in-cheek Mawkish Victoriana (2024) and his joyful arrangement of Tea for Two (2022), both of which are performed even in his absence.
Royal Wootton Bassett Orchestra is a well-established local orchestra who celebrated their 50th Anniversary in 2022. With Musical Director, Nicola Ashton, and Leader, Joanne Barrett, the orchestra performs three concerts every year.
The RWBO Spring Concert programme is an imaginative range of music from different periods and genres, all with a London connection. Tate’s atmospheric St James’s Park and Hampstead Heath, Walton’s majestic Crown Imperial, Three Dances from Henry VIII, March of the Women (the anthem of the women’s suffrage movement) and a Mary Poppins medley are just a taste of what to expect in the magnificent surroundings of Malmesbury Abbey.
Early Years Practitioners & Breakfast/After-School Club Playworkers – Puddleducks Nursery & Pre-School, Pewsey
