Kevin O'Connell was born in Derry, Northern Ireland in December 1958. He began composing at the age of twelve. He studied piano and harmony with Michael Hoeg, organist of St. Columb’s Cathedral in Derry, and pursued his O and A levels in music at St. Columb’s College with the composer Redmond Friel (1909-1979).

He studied music at Trinity College Dublin, taking his BA in 1982. In the same year he received his first professional performance (Variants for six instruments). This led to his first commissions, including Concertino for 12 Instruments (BBC Radio 3, 1985), and String Trio (1986).

In 1988 he was commissioned by Derry City Council to write a work to celebrate the tri-centenary of the Siege of Derry. The resulting work was his orchestral cantata From the Besieged City, a setting for mezzo-soprano of a poem by the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert. This work was also performed in the Ulster Hall in Belfast (Ulster Orchestra and Linda Hirst) and transmitted live by the BBC.

O'Connell’s output of the 1990s was dominated by opera. His three chamber operas of this decade were performed throughout Ireland and Britain and in Los Angeles and at the Düsseldorf Festival of Music Theatre. Throughout the decade he kept up a stream of chamber works, including a large-scale Cello Sonata for the Wallfisch –York duo (Northern Ireland Arts Council commission) which was transmitted live on BBC Radio 3. In 1998 his orchestral work North, a BBC Radio 3 commission, was premiered by the Ulster Orchestra.

In 2000 O'Connell completed his enormous String Quartet, a commission from Dun Laoghaire Arts. This 47-minute work was premiered in 2002 by the Lotus Quartet of Stuttgart, who had spent a year learning it. It opened a new phase in O'Connell’s output. Works composed in its immediate wake are most of the 5 Piano Etudes and the Piano Trio.

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