News

This concert will showcase the works of leading female composers from around the world, performed by an all-female classical ensemble. Ailís will give a pre-concert talk at 11.45am followed by the performance at 12.30pm. The programme will include Charlotte Bray’s,...

Ailís has been working with New York based dance Company Kinetic Light on a new full-length dance-theatre piece. In October 2019 they took residency at renowned Jacob's Pillow in Massachusetts to continue to focus on developing the work which will be premiered at The...

Ailís is very grateful to have been awarded a Fellowship to attend the Ragdale Foundation's Artist Residency for the month of February 2019. Ragdale is a non-profit artists’ community located 30 miles north of Chicago, USA. She will spend her time at Ragdale focusing...

St Brigid's Day Celebration - Intimate Performances from Powerful Irish Women "This night of musical and spoken word performances is the perfect way to wave goodbye to winter and look forward to the year ahead with some of the most creative and talented female...

Temenos - Paul Roe (Clarinets) and Laoise O' Brien (Recorders) will give the premiere of Parambassis at The Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin on Sunday 27th January 2019 as part of the Hugh Lane Gallery Concert Series.  Parambassis was commissioned by Paul Roe in 2016 with...

The pianist and contemporary music specialist Xenia Pestova will perform Into the Sea of Waking Dreams – a suite of pieces for speaking pianist at Canterbury Christ Church University on 23rd January 2019. More details.Award-winning professional pianist Xenia Pestova...

 Wolodymyr Smishkewych (tenor) and Yonit Kosovske (piano) premiered Ailís Ní Ríain's song Regret Not Me with text by Thomas Hardy on 15th December 2018 at Gan Shemu'el in Northern Israel. "Regret not me;Beneath the sunny treeI lie uncaring, slumbering peacefully.Swift...

Ní Ríain's 'Soundless' for tenor recorder, violin and oboe will have its UK premiere in Leeds on 8th December 2018. LSTwo ensemble directed by Dr Mic Spencer performs a diverse programme of works by international composers and University of Leeds students, exploring...

The Royal Irish Academy of Music, National Museum of Ireland and the Houses of the Oireachtas mark the centenary of women's suffrage with a very special event in the Seanad Chamber, which celebrates the legacy of women composers and highlights the next generation of...

The American GRIT Collaborative will present the USA premiere of 'Soundless' by Ailís Ní Ríain as part of a multi-concert interdisciplinary arts festival in Phoenix, Arizona, USA from November 16-17, 2018.  The two concerts, “Are You Alarmed?” and “Get Woke!” will...

The pianist and contemporary music specialist Xenia Pestova will perform Into the Sea of Waking Dreams - a suite of pieces for speaking pianist at Queens University Belfast on 6th December 2018. Reviews for Xenia Pestova “Outstanding” (Tempo), “stunning” (Wales Arts...

We Are Still Here a specially commissioned new work for brass instruments - trumpet, saxophones and tuba - in collaboration with digital artist Simon Mckeown for a large-scale outdoor projection, next-gen digital mapping software and immersive soundscape transform the...

“These Days – The Manchester Peace Song Cycle” A specially commissioned classical Song Cycle to commemorate Manchester’s 100 years of war and peace. Featuring a libretto by celebrated Manchester poet Tony Walsh and music by nine distinguished composers. Ailís has...

Kate Halsall will give the Scottish premiere of 2 Steep 4 Sheep (some hills are) on 27th October 2018 as part of her recital at 2018's Sound Festival in Aberdeen, Scotland. Details.  Kate has performed at international festivals and series, including Marte festival...

The People's Orchestra as part of Contemporary Music for All Festival Sealán - a new work commissioned by COMA - Contemporary Music Making for Amateurs - will be premiered at the CBSO Centre in Birmingham on Sunday 14th October 2018 alongside new work by Nigel Osborne...

There will be a reading of Ailís' new play Bitterweed at The Everyman Palace Theatre in Cork, Ireland on Thursday 11th Oct at 8pm. BITTERWEED hones in on a splintered family struggling to regain a sense of identity some twenty years after the devastation wreaked...

Ní Ríain's Soundless has been shortlisted by the Association of Irish Composers for ISCM World Music Days 2019 international new music festival in Tallin, Estonia. Soundless is a 6 minute chamber work with theatrical elements scored for flute, violin, percussion,...

University College Cork Alumni Network Alumni Spotlight - Ailís Ní Ríain, Composer & Writer Ailís Ní Ríain is a contemporary classical composer and playwright. The Yorkshire-based artist was the winner of the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists in 2016. Her...

Award-winning recording artist, the Polish flautist Iwona Glinka presents a recital of 53 pieces by 40 composers from 14 countries whose creativity is rooted in various popular trends in the 21st century.  Glinka has gained a substantial reputation, in Europe...

The British pianist James Willshire premiered The Height of Me by Ailís Ní Ríain commissioned by the Late Music Series in York on 1st September 2018. The evening commemorated the centenary of Debussy’s death with ten premieres, each starting with a minute of a Debussy...

Carla Rees (bass-flute) and Sarah Watts (bass-clarinet) give the UK premiere of Consent #7 on Wednesday 1st August at the Rarescale Summer School in Harlaxton Manor, Lincolnshire in England. Carla Rees is a UK-based low flutes specialist who has developed an...

The Contemporary Music Centre of Ireland approached Ailis to write an article about her recent residency at The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in the United States. "...this is one of the few places where a composer/musician can avail of an independent studio...

Following on from performances in Paris, Manchester, Dublin, Derry, London, Birmingham, Leeds and Sarajevo, we present two performances of Sklonište at Cork Midsummer Festival on Sunday 24th June at the Crypt at St Lukes Church. Click here for further information....

Trio XelmYa - Alexa Renger, Freddi Börnchen, Sylvia Hinz - perform Ailís Ní Ríain's Soundless [oboe, violin and recorder] as part of Enact/direct/Escape at Berlin's Unerhoerte Musik on Tuesday 5th June 2018 at 1945. Sylvia Hinz is one of the leading recorder players...

The Spanish harpsichordist Silvia Martinez gave the Dutch premiere of Ní Ríain's work for harpsichord and fixed media/tape 2 Steep 4 Sheep (some hills are) on 24th May at Orgelpark, Amsterdam as part of the finalists recital in the Annelie de Man Composition...

Ailís spent the month of April at The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in the United States, where she primarily focused on developing new material for altered piano. Here is a short video extract of Ailís playing the altered instrument.

There will be two performances of Ailís Ní Ríain's DON'T! for bass-clarinet and cello at on Monday 23rd April 2018 in Dublin at both Rathmines Public Library and the Ilac Centre in Dublin City as part of the Contemporary Music Centre’s Musical Tales programme which...

The Irish harpist Anne-Marie O' Farrell will give the Irish premiere of Ailís Ní Ríain's of Fear Is from The Falling for harp solo at Riverstown Hall, Maynooth University, Co. Dublin on Friday 21st April 2018. This is the concert version of Fear Is with texts by Ailís...

  Ailís' piece for solo harpsichord and fixed audio media 2 Steep 4 Sheep (some hills are) has been shortlisted for the 2018 Prix Annelie de Man in the Netherlands. A competition for composers and harpsichordists to promote and support contemporary harpsichord...

Serving more than 350 artists a year, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts is one of America's largest year-round artists' communities. VCCA Fellows have received worldwide attention through publications, exhibitions, compositions, performances, and major awards...

'No-strings-attached' awards designed to give artists the time and freedom to develop their creative ideas. The Paul Hamlyn Foundation in London has announced that Irish composer Ailís Ní Ríain is one of the recipients of the Awards for Artists 2016, with a value of...

SHOWCASE NEW MUSIC::NEW IRELAND This showcase performance, presented by the Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland will feature the works of, and short interviews with, composers featured on CMC’s new promotional double CD new music::new Ireland three. Xenia Pestova will...

Ailís' music-theatre work for voice and small ensemble Break Down De Doom has been shortlisted by the Irish Association of Composers to represent Ireland at the International Society of Contemporary Music in Beijing in May 2018. The piece is a setting of extracts from...

Ailís was selected to participate in MAKE 2018 as a writer. It took place from 23rd Feb- 4th March 2018 at The Tyrone Guthrie Centre, a centre for creative artists at Annaghmakerrig, Co Monaghan. Ailís focused on the writing of a new work for theatre in relation to...

Dermot Dunne will perform Sklonište - Ailís' 60 minute work for live classical accordion and video combining the experiences and motivations of international aid-workers and the surrealism of war. Sklonište is alternative reflection on the longest siege in modern...

The Contemporary Music Centre of Ireland releases a new album in its promotional series new music::new Ireland on 6 February. The album, the third in the series, will be launched at a reception at the Irish Embassy in London by the Irish Ambassador to the United...

Iwona Glinka and Renata Guzik will premiere Highfalutin for two flutes in December 2017 in Greece in two concerts. Concert No 1 December 18, 20:30 P.M., PATRA Municipal Conservatory of Patra Old Municipal Hospital of Patras Kirillou 13 262 25 Patra Concert No 2...

Perspectives on Contemporary Irish Theatre: Populating the Stage edited by Anne Etienne and Thierry Dubost has been published by Palgrave Macmillan. The publication includes an essay by Dubost on Ailís' 2013 play The Tallest Man in the World which was presented at...

Duo X O - Hanan Hadžajlić (flauta) i Vasa Vučković (klarinet) will give another performance of Ailís' 2017 duo for bass flute and bass clarinet Consent #7 this time in Novi Sad, Serbia on 10th December at 9pm. More info. Venue: Zavod za kulturu Vojvodine Programme:...

From 27th November 2017 to 1st December, there will be a development workshop of Manifold - a new theatre piece by Ailís Ní Ríain - directed by Pat Kiernan. Presented by Corcadorca Theatre Company as part of SHOW 2017 at the Theatre Development Centre, Cork City,...

The Tallest Man in the World received a staged reading at The Tank Theater, Manhattan, New York City on 10th November 2017. Directed by Meghan Finn. "Poetic, rhythmic and highly nuanced."  The Tallest Man in the World was a finalist in the 2015 Eugene O’ Neill...

Soundless composed by Ailís Ní Ríain and performed by XelmYa Trio, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin October 2017. XelmYa is a contemporary music ensemble interested in improvisation, unusual instrumental combinations and collaborations with other arts. The Berlin based...

Currently the Director of Performance at the University of Nottingham, Xenia Pestova’s performances and recordings have earned her a reputation as a leading interpreter of uncompromising repertoire of her generation. This programme presents meticulously crafted works...

Ailís spent most of August in the USA in both New York and ArtOMI Upstate New York, as the Unlimit Music Fellow as part of OMI's annual international musician's residency where she focused on improvisation, performance and developing solo repertoire for prepared and...

Read the interview on the British Music Collection website here. Sound and Music's New Voices 2017/18 "For me, as someone who considers themselves conceptually led, the term composer can often be too limiting..." Every year, Sound and Music - the UK's national agency...

Ailís Ní Ríain’s monodrama, Break Down De Doom, uses as its text, by special permission, excerpts from 'The Invention of Tragedy' by experimental American playwright Mac Wellman. Mr Wellman is known for his use of unconventional dramatic form, often abandoning the...

Hanan Hadžajlić (bass-flute) and Vasa Vučković (bass-clarinet) will premiere Ailís Ní Ríain's Consent #7 on 14th June 2017 at Muzej Narodnog Pozorišta (The Museum of the National Theater in Belgrade). Hanan Hadžajlić was born in Slovenia and lives in Sarajevo where...

Cobolt piano duo comprising Kate Halsall and Fumiko Miyachi will perform Ailís Ní Ríain's Quantitas Speaks on 19th June, 2017 at 7pm at Coda, Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, UK. The programme also includes music by Michael Wolters, Fumiko Miyachi, Howard...

Ailís has been awarded the Unlimit Fellowship to attend OMIMusic International Residency in Ghent, Columbia County, Upstate New York in August 2017 where she will work alongside 12 international musicians, composers and improvisers. Every summer, Music Omi invites...

The Tallest Man in the World, a play, has been selected for the 2017 Great Plains Theater Conference in Omaha, USA. It will be performed on 28th May and directed by Meghan Finn (The Tank, New York). Mac Wellman is this year's honoured playwright. More information...

Every year, Sound and Music shine a light on the work of the composers who are currently on their Artist Development programmes and who are coming from a diverse range of musical styles - across the UK - they are pioneering some of the most exciting innovations in...

"During the siege, Sarajevo’s nearly 400,000 inhabitants struggled on without electricity, running water during hot summers or heating during chilling winters, scuttling desperately to get to desperately needed supplies even as they avoided incoming fire from the...

"Take a life. Do with it what you will. Hang a left and shuffle the pack for the next guy. No plan is safe from laughter." A new theatre piece Manifold will be read at La Mama in New York on 2nd April 2017 directed by Mark Cabus. La MaMa has a worldwide reputation for...

The New York based Irish pianist Isabelle O' Connell will give another performance of Beautiful Cracked Eyes for solo piano at SARC Belfast on 30th March 2017. The piece was commissioned in 2008 and premiered at The Purcell Room on the Southbank, London. Its title...

Following a UK tour in 2016 Sklonište was presented in Sarajevo on St. Patrick's Day 2017 as part of the Sarajevo Irish Festival at the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina shown alongside the photographic exhibition which originally inspired the piece by...

Elizabeth Hilliard (soprano) & Paul Roe (clarinet) perform End with Words of Hope at Saluting the Feminists at The Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin on Friday 24th March at 6pm alongside music by Amanda Feery, Jane O' Leary, Rhona Clarke and Gráinne Mulvey....

On 2nd March 2017 Xenia Pestova premiered Soberado for solo toy piano at BBC Radio 3's Open Ear at St John Hackney Church in London which was broadcast on 8th March on BBC Radio 3. 2nd March 2017, 6.45pm St John at Hackney Church, London. Sara Mohr-Pietsch hosted a...

Ailís recently completed her residency at the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris in partnership with The Contemporary Music Centre of Ireland [Jan-Feb 2017]. She focused on research, composing, performing and writing. More details. Below is a recording made in St....

We are presenting Sklonište at the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris on 9th February. This powerful work evokes the experiences and motivations of international aid-workers, the surrealist circumstances of war as well as the humour of a people determined to survive....

Ailís Ní Ríain has been awarded the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists 2016. Ailís Ní Ríain is a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s (PHF) Awards for Artists 2016. The announcement came at a reception hosted by the foundation in London on 10...

New music journalist and broadcaster John Schaefer has broadcast a feature on the 2016 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival on his legendary radio show New Sounds which includes a substantial feature on Ní Ríain's Sklonište. WNYC is America's most listened-to...

An evening of new music inspired by words, poetry inspired by music and things in between. Composed by living composers including Ní Ríain's End with Words of Hope (2010) for soprano and clarinet with texts by Sappho and Ailís Ní Ríain. Guillaume Connesson, Ben Gaunt...

First performing at the Atlantic Centre for the Arts (Florida) in May 2016, AKA is comprised of three musicians from Canada, Ireland and the USA who are exploring the depths of their respective instruments through acoustic and electroacoustic means. Sculpting sound...

Following on from four dates in October, the Sklonište tour continues from 21st November; combining the experiences and motivations of international aid-workers and the surrealism of war; Sklonište tours to the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Manchester,...

Gavin Brennan (saxophone) and Adrian Mantu (cello) gave a performance of Ní Ríain's duo DON'T! (for bass clarinet and cello) in an adapted version for sax and cello as part of Galway Music Residency's Winter Concert. 

London's Spitalfield's Festival in its 40th anniversary year supports three music creators in laboratory-style commissions; offering opportunities to challenge compositional practice, explore working in new ways and provoke dialogue between composers, ideas and...

Ailís' theatre monologue Shadow on Summer has been shortlisted for The Octagon Prize in partnership with the Bolton Octagon Theatre. The script was one of over 500 received. The jury included Max Stafford Clarke (Out of Joint), Elizabeth Newman (Octagon Theatre), Sue...

Gavin Brennan (saxophone) and Adrian Mantu (cello) will perform DON'T! at the Luthern Church in Dublin at 7.30pm on Thursday 27th October as part of the Irish Contemporary Music Centre's Salon Series has been running since 2004 and aims to encourage newcomers and...

A new residency with Sound and Music's Embedded programme at British Music Collection archive (which is housed in Huddersfield) and Unlimited Impact.  This is a disability-led creative response to the collection initially consisting of research and curation. Ailís...

The Irish clarinettist Paul Roe performs End With Words of Hope (2010) with Dutch soprano Anne Grimm at the Phillip T. Young Recital Hall at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada on 29th September 2016. Paul Roe is one of Ireland’s most creative and...

Sklonište combines live music, photography, video, archive footage, story-telling and texts marking 20 years since the end of the siege of Sarajevo. 1425 days - is a long time to have to run for shelter in your own city. Buy Tickets. Sklonište is an alternative...

Following the sold-out success of this beautiful piece in May, Whispers returns by special request. For three days only at this time of Remembrance, the great rooms of Heaton Hall will once again echo with the voices of the past revealing a myriad of timeless stories....

Temenos - Paul Roe (clarinets) and Laoise O' Brien (recorders) have commissioned Ailís to compose a new work for their highly unusual combination to be premiered in Dublin in 2017.  The commission is funded by the Irish Arts Council. Paul Roe is a performer (clarinet...

The acclaimed jazz bassist Dave Kane will incorporate Ailís Ní Ríain's virtuosic bass solo Dogs in Waiting into a newly commissioned piece for the Marsden Jazz Festival in West Yorkshire on Saturday 8th October 2016. Dave was born in Bangor, N.Ireland where his first...

The pianist Xenia Pestova will give the Irish premiere of Into the Sea of Waking Dreams in Cork, at the CIT Cork School of Music on 15th September as part of the Cork Orchestral Society Series. Ahead of this she will give a London performance at The Forge in London on...

The Irish, New York based pianist Isabelle O' Connell will give the Irish premiere of Beautiful Cracked Eyes (solo piano, 2008) on Wednesday 21st September 2016 at the National Concert Hall of Ireland as part of the Composing the Island. Isabelle is a dynamic...

Ailís recently completed the 2016 Playwright's Retreat at La MaMa Umbria near Spoleto, Perugia with the renowned USA playwright Mac Wellman where she focused on interrogating his essay on theatre Speculations and writing a new theatre piece. Founded in 1990 by...

The double-bassist Heather Bird will give a performance of Ailís' virtuosic set of pieces for solo double-bass Dogs in Waiting at the opening of a new exhibition of ink drawings of female composers by the artist Margit Van der Zwan at The Koffee Pot, Northern Quarter,...

Ailís is creating a new work for Kirkos Ensemble in collaboration with the UK visual poet Andrew Topel which will be premiered in Dublin on Saturday 15th October 2016 as part of Fluxfest. Details and tickets. Kirkos is a contemporary music ensemble made up of a dozen...

Gavin Brennan and Adrian Mantu will perform DON'T! (2001) as part of a programme of contemporary Irish classical music on Thursday 27 Oct at 7pm at Lutheran Hall, Adelaide Road, Dublin 2. This concert is part of The Contemporary Music Centre of Ireland's Salon...

Manchester based MOP (Manchester Opera Project) has commissioned a new monodrama for solo female voice, video and chamber ensemble from Ailís Ní Ríain to be premiered in July 2017 in Manchester alongside new work by Philip Venables.

The British pianist Daniel Grimwood will give the Welsh premiere of Linger on 21st June 2016 as part of the Gregynog Music Festival, Wales. Founded in 1933, Gregynog Festival is the oldest extant classical music festival in Wales. Set principally in the beautiful...

Fresh Yorkshire Aires have published their new online showcase of graphic scores including Ailís Ní Ríain's DOWN (2010). Curated by composer and producer Jacob Thompson-Bell, the project brings together live exhibitions of newly commissioned graphic scores, an online...

Ailís has been asked to contribute an article to the Institute of Composing's Journal of new music about Linger; a commission for the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, West Yorkshire, Northern England. "Some listeners have commented on the album’s sense of...

"Whispers of Heaton is something to shout about." - Manchester Theatre Awards This world premiere is a beautiful piece of site-specific theatre presented by Feelgood Theatre Productions in partnership with Heaton Park and Tangled Dance Company. All performances sold...

Ailís spent three highly productive weeks on residency as an Associate Artist working with pianist/composer Myra Melford at The Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida. Ailís focused on extending the sonic vocabulary of the piano, improvisation, playing with other...

There will be a rehearsed reading of a new monologue by Ailís Ní Ríain Shadow on Summer at The Everyman Palace Theatre, Cork City, Ireland on 7th May 2016. 'It tells the story of Professor Summer, an eminent female scientist whose life mutates and transforms alongside...

The Irish composer Ailís Ní Riaín has been selected for a residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais. The composer residency, in association with CMC, is part of the CCI’s annual residency programme and will enable the composer to spend time at the centre on a number...

  Presented by Feelgood Theatre directed by Caroline Clegg, for a brief five days the great rooms of Heaton Hall will be open and echo with the voices of the past, revealing a myriad of timeless stories captured by this award winning company. Two new short plays...

"Linger is an enigmatic beast."  Buy Linger The BBC have included music from the Brontë concept album Linger in Being the Brontës on BBC 2 on Saturday 26th March 2016. Journalist and broadcaster Martha Kearney, novelist Helen Oyeyemi, and columnist and author Lucy...

A collaborative exploration of identity and trauma. SICK! Lab is a focussed 4-day programme of performances, presentations and discussions bringing together artists, academics from a wide range of disciplines, clinicians, commentators and the public to explore...

Ailís will perform her piano suite Into the Sea of Waking Dreams... at Cafe Oto, London on Wednesday 2nd March as part of The World According to Bob - a night of Irish music is an immersive showcase of the vibrant and diverse world of Irish composition to honour the...

The series consists of six concerts, each curated by a different composer with a selection of Irish and international works. €12/10 (plus booking). Tickets available at https://aic-intimate-music.eventbrite.ie The Association of Irish Composers’ Directions concert...

An alternative reflection on the longest siege in modern warfare – 13,952 were killed. Expect the surreal, the tragic and the humour of a people determined to survive. Combining the experiences and motivations of international aid-workers and the surrealism of war;...

Ailís will be an Associate Artist working with the American pianist Myra Melford in May 2016 at The Atlantic Center for the Arts. Melford is a composer with a singular, kinetic, and lyrical voice in piano improvisation. Her conceptually expansive music draws...

Ailís has been working on a new song for Sue Rynhart commissioned by Arts & Disability Ireland which forms part of a showcase of new Irish songs curated by the Irish singer-songwriter Dylan Tighe to be showcased in Spring 2016. Sue Rynhart is an Irish vocalist and...

Ailís has been invited to speak at the 2016 Creative Connections Conference in Galway, in the West of Ireland 27-28th January. Presented by Arts & Disability Ireland and funded by the Arts Council, Creative Connections will offer an unprecedented opportunity to...

Composer Ailís Ní Ríain plays The Children's Room, one of six newly commissioned piano pieces written especially for Emily Brontë's piano and installed throughout The Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, West Yorkshire, Northern England for three months during...

A video extract from the Contemporary Music Centre of Ireland's Salon Series, 24th November, at The Royal Irish Academy of Music. A percussion quartet by Ailís Ní Ríain. Commissioned by The Royal Irish Academy of Music's Percussion Ensemble in 2015. Conducted by...

Liverpool Philharmonic Hall's Music Room 23rd November 2015. Brendan Ball (solo trumpet) gave the premiere of the concert suite version of Treasured from 2012 along a new works by four contemporary British composers.  More details here and an article here The...