Gerard Victory

Gerard Victory (December 24, 1921 – March 14, 1995) was a prolific Irish composer, writing over two hundred works across many genres and styles including tonal, serial, aleatoric and electroacoustic music.

Victory was born in Dublin, Ireland. After schooling, he read Celtic Studies at University College, Dublin and Music at Trinity College, Dublin, earning a doctorate in 1972. In terms of composition, Victory was mostly self-taught, although he received some formal training from John Larchett, Alan Rawsthorne and Walter Beckett. He also attended the "International Summer Courses for New Music" in Darmstadt.


Victory's career was primarily in music administration, serving as Director of Music for Ireland's national broadcasting station RTÉ from 1967 to 1982. He was a president of UNESCO's International Rostrum of Composers, a Fellow of the Royal Irish Academy of Music and a recipient of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and German Bundesverdienstkreuz. He died in Dublin aged 73, on March 14, 1995.

A few years before his death Victory was asked the old question of which one work he would choose to survive his others. He chose his Symphony No. 3 (1984), which to date (2006) has been published but not recorded commercially.