By the age of 11, Gleeson was the recipient of many piano and percussion competition prizes within Ireland and Great Britain. At the age of 15 he was selected to represent Ireland as an orchestral musician in the European Community Youth Orchestra, where he had the opportunity to perform at the great European music festivals, such as Salzburg, Edinburgh and Lucerne Festivals under Meastros Herbert Van Karajan, Claudio Abbado, Sir George Solti and Leonard Bernstein. These early experiences moved him specifically toward a career in conducting. In 1984 he was also a prize winner in the Shell/LSO music scholarship program.

As a freelance orchestral musician, Gleeson performed with most of the British orchestras before directing his time exclusively to conducting and composition in 1989. He held the position of Music Director of the Ruckert Orchestra of Dublin from 1990 through 1993. He is presently Music Director of The Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra. (A per-service professional orchestra choosing its members from the best of Ireland's orchestral musicians.)

"Thanks to the authority & dynamism of their young and talented conductor Derek Gleeson, the orchestra excelled itself."
The Irish Times (Dublin)

"His Mahler's Fifth Symphony was glorious."
The Irish Times (Dublin)

An ardent champion of contemporary music, Gleeson has provided many premier performances of works by living composers, his works also having been broadcast in Europe and the U.S.

Derek Gleeson has conducted the premier CD recording of Tchaikovsky's oratorio, "Ode to Joy," The Original Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture," and Prokofoev's Zdravitsa" with The London Philharmonic Orchestra, The London Philharmonic Choir and the Geoffrey Mitchell Choir; available on Carlton Classics/IMP Masters.


"Performances are entirely convincing, polished and stylish under Irish conductor Gleeson's able leadership."
In Tune

"Derek Gleeson conducted with spirit...striking detail...A must for anyone who loves Russian music."
Classic CD

Derek Gleeson has composed film scores for the feature films "The White Pony" (Director: Brian Kely) "Irish Whiskey" (Director: Jon Stevens), "Moving Target" (Director Paul Ziller) and "The Doorway "(Director Michael Druxman), and additional music on "The Suicide Club" (Director: Rachel Samuels). In addition to composing music for film, Gleeson is the Director of Screen Training Ireland's Film Scoring Programme, Dublin, and was Executive Producer for MCA/Universal recording artist Carly Hennessy's debut album.

Amongst others, Gleeson has conducted The London Philharmonic Orchestra, The RTE Concert Orchestra (Ireland's national broadcaster), The Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra (Ireland), Orchestra Da Camera Fiorentina (Italy), The Brohuslav Martinu Philharmonic (Czech Republic), Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra (Czech Republic), Philharmonic Orchestra Hradec Kralove (Czech Republic), RTL Orchestra (Luxembourg), NOS Orchestra (Holland), The Ruckert Orchestra (Ireland), Szombathely-Savaria Symphony Orchestra (Hungary), The Danish Radio Concert Orchestra (Denmark), Orchestra of the Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet (England), Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bulgaria), Vatrsa Philharmonic (Bulgaria) and The Los Angeles Composers Guild Chamber Orchestra (U.S.A). Gleeson's opera repertoire includes performances of Verdi's "La Traviata", "Il Trovatore", "Rigoletto", Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro" and "Don Giovanni" and Bizet's "Carmen".

Gleeson recorded the first Gaelic rendition of Prokofiev's "Peter & The Wolf". He conducts The Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra ("DPO") in "Carolan Suite" on Patrick Cassidy's CD, "Deirdre of the Sorrows" (BMG/Windham Hill), and with The DPO recorded and conducted American composer Don Ray's orchestral suite, "Family Portrait", and the premier recording of Ray's "Concerto for Piano and Orchestra" in 2003 with the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra to be released on Albany Records in 2004.