Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh

Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh is a viola player exploring the tones of gut strings and wood in both amplified and acoustic contexts. Influenced by improvised, experimental and early music styles, she has released three solo recordings focused on exploring the instrument – Oreing (Fort Evil Fruit 2017), The Rounds (KRUT 2021) and most recently Live At Sonic Acts (Scatter Archive 2023).

She lives in Glasgow where she plays in free-improv quartet Dome Riders with Fritz Welch, Armin Sturm and MikeParr-Burman. An active collaborator, Nic Oireachtaigh has toured with experimental Irish bands Woven Skull and Cian Nugent & the Cosmos and has performed internationally with Josephine Foster and Circuit des Yeux. She has created music for theatre works by Isadora Epstein and collaboratively with Pat Thomas and Rhodri Davies. In May 2022 she composed New Mountain, Reaching Plane, a surround sound piece for orchestral and gamelan musicians as a commission for BBC Scotland’s Tectonics Festival.