Derek Ball is an Irish composer and musician, based in Scotland.

Derek Ball is a composer and amateur string, woodwind and brass player who “took 30 years off” to work as a doctor and then at the end of 2004 returned to a musical career he had never really left. Born in County Donegal, he spent his teens in Dublin and studied composition with the larger-than-life Archie Potter and later with Jim Wilson, winning various competitions, having chamber pieces performed, and having some orchestral performances and one broadcast, as well as being represented in international festivals in France.

He qualified in medicine at TCD and worked as a psychiatrist in Dublin before moving to Glasgow in 1978. He is married with one daughter who is a sometime clarsach player, an instrument he himself can play slightly, as well as various string, woodwind and brass instruments (also at a strictly amateur level).

In the 1970s he was regularly performed at young composer concerts at the 20th Century Festival in Dublin. Movement for String Orchestra was performed in 1969 by what was then known as the RTE Light Orchestra, and broadcast on RTE Radio. Four Chimaerae was performed by the Dublin Symphony Orchestra and RTE Symphony Orchestra. Wormwood was performed by Dublin Symphony Orchestra. While at the RIAM he was one of the founder members of the Association of Young Irish Composers, of which he is still a member.

12 years after moving to Glasgow he joined the Scottish Society of Composers, becoming its Secretary and Treasurer from 1991 to 2003, and his compositional activity increased to the point where he produced numerous chamber works and a couple of orchestral works each year, even before his retirement from medicine at the end of 2004.

In recent years his pieces have been played by Dublin pianist Owen Lorigan, Unison (University of Glasgow), NYSOS, Two’s Company, the Saltire Quartet, the Dublin Guitar Quartet, the Paragon Ensemble (Glasgow), Paul Roe and Leonie Curtin (Dublin),the RTE National Symphony Orchestra, the Crash Ensemble (Dublin), Carol McGonnell & friends (New York), and French cellist Marc Coppey. He has collaborated with a storyteller and a sculptor. Recent collaborations with librettists have resulted in 7 operas so far, ranging from chamber groups to full orchestra and from 15 minutes to 2 hours.