About
Ailís Ní Ríain is an Irish composer and writer who aims to produce work that challenges, provokes and engages. Her work has been performed across Europe, in Israel, Brazil, USA and Japan and broadcast on BBC and RTÉ.
Ailís works broadly in the areas of concert music, music installation, opera, music-theatre and has collaborated with writers, dancers, visual artists, filmmakers, techologists and theatre artists. A portrait album of her music is scheduled to be released by NMC Recordings in 2022.
She has been awarded international fellowships, associate artist positions and residences at Yaddo, USA, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, The Irish Cultural Centre in Paris, the Ragdale Foundation, ArtOMI in New York and Bogliasco in Italy.
In 2016 she was awarded the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Award for Composers and is represented by CMC. Ailís trained as a pianist and has dedicated considerable time to developing work for ‘altered piano’.
Site-specific music-installations include music installations for a lighthouse, a K6 telephone box, a dis-used former cotton mill, the Brontë’s family home, a castle keep, a railway station accumulator tower and a high-street shop unit.
Ailís has a hearing impairment and has made work referencing deafness, disability and mental health since 2006.
She is an advocate for equality, diversity and inclusion and sits on the Ivors Academy EDI steering group and is a Disability Arts Online board member and sits on the Ivors Academy Classical Committee.
As a writer of words for stage, Ailís work is published by Nick Hern and Bloomsbury and has been translated into French, German and Swedish and produced in Ireland, UK, New York, Germany and Sweden. Her work in French is represented by L’Arche
Ailís is grateful to the Irish Arts Council, the PRS Foundation, Unlimited, Arts Council England, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the RVW Trust and the Hinrichsen Foundation for supporting her work.
Awards & Prizes
2021
The PRS for Music Foundation Open Fund
The Irish Arts Council Commissions Award
Arts Council England Developing Creative Practice Award
2020
Unlimited R & D Commission Award
The Arts Council of Ireland Commissions Award
Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust
Hinrichsen Foundation Award
2019
National Endowment for the Arts [USA] Yaddo Residency Fellowship
PRS for Music Foundation Women Make Music Award
The Arts Council of Ireland Music Bursary Award
Unlimited/Shape Arts/ArtsAdmin Commission
2018
Shortlisted ISCM World New Music Days Tallin
Culture Ireland Grant
Arts Council England Project Grant
Finalist Annelie de Man Prix
2017
Shortlisted ISCM World New Music Days Beijing
Travel & Training award Arts Council Ireland
2016
The Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Composers
Spitalfields Music Festival Project Award
Travel & Training Award from The Irish Arts Council
Irish Arts Council Commissions Award
2015
Britten Pears Foundation Bursary
Arts Council England Grants for the Arts Award
PRS Foundation for Music Award
2014
Culture Ireland Travel Award
Travel & Training Award, Irish Arts Council
Sound & Music Composer Curator Award
Unlimited R & D Bursary
ACE/British Council International Artist Development Award
PRS Foundation for New Music Award
2013
Finzi Trust Travel & Research Scholarship
2012
Arts Council England Grants for the Arts Award
2011
Abandon Normal Devices/DaDaFest Research Award
2010
Arts Council England Grants for the Arts Award
2009
Music Bursary from The Irish Arts Council
RVW Trust Grant Award
2006
Vienna Modern Masters Nancy Van De Vate Prize for Opera
First Prize ISCM World Music Days Short Cuts competition
2002
First prize SPNM/Brass in Association competition
2000
First prize, RTÉ Composer of the Future competition
Residencies & Fellowships
2019
Yaddo Artist Colony, Saratoga Springs, USA
Ragdale Foundation Residency, Illinois, USA
2018
MAKE Residency, Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Ireland
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Virginia, USA
2017
Fellowship – Omi International Arts Center, New York
Residency at Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris, France
2016
Associate Artist Residency ACA, Florida
2015
Residency at METALCulture, Southend on Sea, UK
Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship, Italy
2011
Aldeburgh Artist Residency, Aldeburgh Productions, UK
2006
Interact Roskilde, Denmark
2004
THREAD Residency, Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Ireland
Ragdale Foundation, USA, 2019
Mostar, Bosnia, 2017
At Yaddo, USA, 2019
RV Celtic Explorer Irish Marine Institute research vessel, 2019