Biography

Michael McGlynn is an Irish composer, film maker and founded and directs the vocal groups ANÚNA who have contributed performances to video games and film, and the Icelandic/Irish ensemble M'ANAM. He has directed and produced a number of feature length performance and documentary films. "Invocations of Ireland" (2008) has been broadcast across Australia and New Zealand and released on DVD in Australia [DV1] and Japan [Columbia]. In 2020 his film "ANÚNA : A Whisper of Paradise" (2020) was broadcast as part of the Voces8 "Live from London" series while "ANÚNA : On a Cold Winter's Night" (2020) was broadcast on Sky Arts TV in New Zealand and TG4 TV in Ireland on Christmas Eve 2020. In 2021 he has completed three documentary films "M'ANAM : Tales of Blood and Earth", "ANÚNA - Mutability and Transcendence" and "Songs of the Earth", all of them premiered as part of the Tampere Vocal Music Festival, Finland, in June 2021. He has completed a 50 minute exploration of Irish opera singers entitled "Momenti Musicali" for Wexford Opera Festival (2021) He has created man music video shorts and promotional films for M'ANAM, ANÚNA, Wexford Opera Festival and his promotional film "Shadows of the Lowlands" was used to promote the release of the video game Xenoblade II (Xenoblade Chronicles). Michael specialises in the creation of music for voices. His output includes "Agnus Dei" (2005) commissioned by Chanticleer and his short choral setting of the traditional text "Dúlamán" (1995). This piece fuses modality, alternating time signatures and medieval tonal colours in a unique fashion that is instantly recognisable as the work of McGlynn. Sung all over the world by amateur and professional ensembles, it has come to define an 'Irishness' that has hitherto been elusive in the world of ensemble music.