Vanessa Donelly

Vanessa studied piano and conducting at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media and was fortunate to meet film composer Randall Meyers (SOPHIE'S WORLD) in Munich and learn from him for several years.
Vanessa attended many international master classes by some of the world's greatest film composers such as Alexandre Desplat (GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL), James Newton Howard (THE DARK KNIGHT) and Danny Elfman (ALICE IN WONDERLAND). After working on her first student film for Peter Zeitlinger (QUEEN OF THE DESERT), she worked her way into a valuable partnership, composing many more films for him as well as for esteemed director Silvia Zeitlinger. Today, the Zeitlingers count among her closest friends.
In 2017 Vanessa started her own recording studio "Donelly Records", where she produces her film music and songs.
Since 2020 she is a member of "Books, Music and Lyrics" London, otherwise known as BML, and writes music at London's West End. Currently, she and her mentor David James, who has been involved in musical production for over 50 years, are writing a German musicals together with Rune Baruschke.
Working alongside Vanessa and Rune Baruschke are the professional singers Lisa Hintzke and Rafael Albert. This group also happens to be the members of "passivattraktiv", a cabaret group performing Vanessa's music latest at the Schmidtchen (Hamburg). In April 2023 passivattraktiv became act of the month at the Wabe Berlin, voted by the audience.

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Recently Vanessa Donelly won the Vespertilio Award at Ore d'Orrore in the category "Best Filmmusic" in Rome, Italy.

Vanessa works and lives near Hanover and Berlin, Germany