Biography
Ailís Ní Ríain, pronounced ai-leesh nee REE-an, was born in Cork, Ireland, on June 15, 1974. Although she trained initially as a pianist and never envisioned a compositional career, a 1990 concert at Ireland’s National Concert Hall introduced her to Jane O’Leary’s Islands of Discovery and revealed that women could create music. Captivated, she enrolled in a composition course at University College, Cork, gradually shifting her focus from performance to writing. She pursued further studies at the University of York, Manchester University, and the Royal Northern College of Music. Additional training came through residencies at the Yaddo Artists’ Colony in upstate New York, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Bogliasco Foundation in Italy; in 2017 she received a Composer Residency from the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists, Europe’s largest monetary prize for individual artists.
Identifying as deaf/hard of hearing, Ní Ríain has addressed disability in her work since 2007 and has collaborated with advocacy groups promoting access in the arts; she has also partnered with deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie. Most of her scores are written for solo instruments or modest chamber ensembles, with a recurring emphasis on prepared or altered pianos—one example being Soberado, composed for toy piano. She has likewise contributed to ambitious collective ventures such as a year-long installation inside a castle, a cycle of brief operas staged in a single hotel room, a music-theater work incorporating sign-language interpretation, and a site-specific piece for the Brontë sisters’ former home. Her debut album, The Last Time I Died, appeared on the NMC label in 2023. In addition to composing, Ní Ríain writes plays that have been staged in several countries.
Identifying as deaf/hard of hearing, Ní Ríain has addressed disability in her work since 2007 and has collaborated with advocacy groups promoting access in the arts; she has also partnered with deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie. Most of her scores are written for solo instruments or modest chamber ensembles, with a recurring emphasis on prepared or altered pianos—one example being Soberado, composed for toy piano. She has likewise contributed to ambitious collective ventures such as a year-long installation inside a castle, a cycle of brief operas staged in a single hotel room, a music-theater work incorporating sign-language interpretation, and a site-specific piece for the Brontë sisters’ former home. Her debut album, The Last Time I Died, appeared on the NMC label in 2023. In addition to composing, Ní Ríain writes plays that have been staged in several countries.