Ailís Ní Ríain


Ailís Ní Ríain is an Irish composer and playwright.

Music

Born in Cork, Ní Ríain was formally trained in classical music as a composer and pianist. She was awarded the Paul Hamlyn Award for Composers in November 2016. She studied at The Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester University, the University of York and University College Cork. Her music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, RTÉ and BBC Radio 4 and performed in Europe, Israel, Brazil and the United States.
As a pianist she has an interest in extended piano techniques, prepared piano and piano alterations. She has been a Fellow at the Ragdale Foundation, Illinois, USA, Virginia Center for the Arts, the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris and the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida.
Her debut album, a Brontë concept album Linger, was released in 2015 alongside a music installation for the Brontë Parsonage in Yorkshire.
She is represented by the Contemporary Music Centre, Dublin. The British Music Collection also holds a selection of her musical work.

Writing

Ní Ríain's literary work is published by Bloomsbury and Nick Hern Books. Her first play, BEATEN, premiered in Liverpool in 2007, was published as Tilt by Nick Hern Books. Desolate Heaven was produced by Theatre503 in 2013 and published by Methuen Drama. The Tallest Man in the World was premiered by Corcadorca Theatre Company in Cork, Ireland, in 2014 and shortlisted for the Eugene O'Neill Playwright's Conference, USA. The American premiere of The Tallest Man in the World took place at The Tank Theater in New York in March 2019.

List of Works

Solo