Ailís Ní Ríain

Ailís Ní Ríain (born 15 June 1974) is an Irish composer and playwright.[1]

Ní Ríain at The Tank in 2019 for the US premiere of The Tallest Man in the World

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
  • Our First Lesson in Forgetting (2019), for guitar
  • Anomaly (2019), for toy piano
  • Loophole (2018), for saxophone
  • The Height of Me (2018), for piano
  • Terpsichore (2018), for cello
  • Soberado (2017), for toy piano
  • A Black Hole of Idiocy (2016), for accordion
  • Sklonište (2016), 9 pieces for accordion [& video]
  • Linger (2015), 6 pieces for piano
  • Not About Heroes (2014), 6 pieces for cello
  • When I die, you can do what you want (2014), for violin [with video by Adela Jusic]
  • Treasured (2012), 7 pieces for trumpet
  • Beautiful Cracked Eyes (2008), for piano
  • Surrealist Pilgrims (2007), for amplified cello & tape
  • Into the Sea of Waking Dreams ... (2007), 4 pieces for piano with optional texts
  • 2 Steep 4 Sheep (some hills are) (2006), for amplified harpsichord and fixed audio
  • The Falling (2005), 2 pieces for harp
  • Fwd: [no subject] (2003), for trumpet
  • Rude Boy (2002), for piano
  • Flat-Footed-Former-Flyer (2002), for trombone
  • Dogs in Waiting (1999), 7 pieces for double-bass

Duo
  • Highfalutin (2017), for two flutes
  • Consent #7 (2017), for bass-flute and bass-clarinet
  • The Consequences of Falling (2013), for double-bass & trumpet
  • Chainstitchembroidered (2012), for flute & piano
  • Quantitas Speaks (2012)for piano duo & tape
  • End with Words of Hope (2010), 9 pieces for soprano, clarinet (& optional speaker)
  • Brief-Blue-Electric-Bloom (2010), 6 pieces two guitars (acoustic or electric)
  • 10,000 Deviants (2007), for flute, piano (& optional speaker)
  • FIRST ABSOLUTE EXECUTION (2004), 5 pieces for bass-clarinet & accordion
  • DON'T! (2000), for bass-clarinet & cello
  • The Man Made of Rain (1999), for clarinet/speaker & piano
  • Mercury (1997), for violin & piano
  • Down the Rabbit Hole (1994), for flute & piano

Trio
  • Soundless (2016), for violin, oboe, tenor recorder
  • Reinventions (2010), 7 pieces for clarinet, viola, piano (optional texts/speaker)
  • UPTHEWALLS (2007), for trumpet, drum-kit, double-bass
  • Rogue Boar Shot Dead (2007), for trumpet, drum-kit, piano
  • The Last Time I Died ... (2002), for violin, piano, percussion
  • Under the Rose ... (2000), 4 pieces for flute, violin, piano

Quartets & quintets
  • Dubinina’s Tongue (2015), for percussion quartet, 4 bowed cymbals & video
  • Treasured Suite (2012), 5 pieces for brass quintet
  • Orizzontale (1997), for violin, clarinet, cello, piano, perc

Chamber Ensemble
  • Sealán (2017), open score commission for COMA; high, mid-high, mid-low, low, with percussion and piano
  • The Dead Live (2002), for piccolo, bass-clarinet, oboe, bassoon, horn, cello, piano, harp, double-bass, perc & 6 pairs of glasses
  • METRO (2001), for wind band with electric bass guitar

Music theatre
  • I Used to Feel ... (2016), for clarinet & sign-language performer
  • Treasured (2012), for solo trumpet, brass quintet, 6 actors
  • Brief-Blue-Electric-Bloom (2010), for 2 guitars, sign-language performers, animation & fixed media voice
  • The Falling (2005), for harp, electro-acoustic score with text
  • EXIT (2003), for mixed vocal sextet, flute, clarinet, violin, guitar, harp, vibes, double-bass/electric, perc.

Vocal
  • A Crow’s Wisp/Sop Préacháin (2019), text by Aifric Mac Aodha, for soprano and piano
  • Break Down De Doom (2017), text by Mac Wellman, for mezzo-soprano, flute, violin, viola, cello
  • Song of Letters (2016), text by Caroline Clegg, for soprano & trumpet
  • Cimmerian (2015), text by Ailís Ní Ríain, for soprano
  • Eyeless (2012), text by Ailís Ní Ríain (in Irish & English), for folk singer and choir
  • In Sleep ... (2010), text by Ailís Ní Ríain, for mezzo-soprano, flute, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, piano, percussion
  • Valley of Stone (2008), for male voice choir
  • Spurious Balancing (2003), text by Ailís Ní Ríain, for counter-tenor, tenor, baritone
  • Attrition (2001), text by Kenneth Clarke, for soprano & piano
  • A Song for My Body (1998), text by Christy Brown, for soprano, flute, trumpet, cello, piano, percussion
  • Songs for Soprano (1995/6): She Tells Her Love, 'This Moment, Child Of Our Time

Fixed audio
  • Pulse Prelude I (2011)
  • TranSextreme (2007)
  • StreetSong (2007)
  • But Will You? (2006)
  • Wounds, Scars, Screams (2005)

References
  1. Johanne Heraty, "Ní Ríain, Ailís", in: The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland, ed. Harry White and Barra Boydell (Dublin: UCD Press, 2013), pp. 735–736.
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