Ailís Ní Ríain is an Irish deaf composer and writer. Musically, Ailís works broadly in the areas of concert music, music installation, electroacoustic and music-theatre. She is set to be a featured composer at New Music Biennial, a free festival of new music presented by PRS Foundation, taking place this summer, where she is showcasing her new piece Holocene, which reimagines the sonic possibilities of breath, brass and vibration.
Ahead of her upcoming performance at the Southbank Centre on 5th July, we got the opportunity to interview Ailís about her career as a deaf composer, her latest project, Holocene and her disability advocacy in the arts.
Ailís Ní Ríain: celebrated deaf composer and interdisciplinary artist
Ailís has spoken openly about her hearing loss, and some of her work has referenced these themes. She started by sharing her experience as a deaf person and how she adapts in everyday life:
“I am a composer of classical music, and initially, I lost my hearing, having contracted encephalitis. Later, I experienced further hearing loss and developed tinnitus and hyperacusis. I wear hearing aids and lip-read.”
She continued to explain how she first got drawn to composition and whether she always knew music would be her path:
“I was captivated by music from the beginning. It offered a way for me to begin to express myself and process my feelings. I had a difficult start in life, and music became my everything from a young age.”
Ailís’ interdisciplinary approach has fostered numerous collaborations with writers, dancers, performers, and visual and theatre artists. Her music has been commissioned, performed, and broadcast across the globe, earning her widespread recognition.
Notably, she received the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Award for Composers in 2016, and her work was the subject of a portrait album released by NMC Recordings in 2023, which garnered widespread critical acclaim.
Her recent commissions and projects reflect her international stature and include work with RSO Wien ORF (Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra), Musikfabrik, Wexford Opera Festival, Irish National Symphony Orchestra, New Music Dublin, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, BBC Philharmonic, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Wired the Shed in New York, London Sinfonietta, Royal Academy of Music, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Dame Evelyn Glennie, and the New London Chamber Ensemble.
Ailís’ work often explores silence, emotion, and the limits of communication. When asked what silence means to her, she replied:
“Ironically, for me, there is no such thing as silence. Tinnitus means I have constant sounds rattling in my head. I can’t remember silence. My work has been concerned for many years with the predicaments of communication – on a sensory level, disability level and psychological level. I’m fascinated by the nature of communication itself – how it works and how and why it breaks down.”
Rewriting brass: Ailís Ní Ríain on sound, silence and seismic change
Ailís rewrites the rulebook for brass music in her new piece Holocene – a visceral, otherworldly new work for Onyx Brass and a 25-strong hybrid ensemble of professional players, community musicians and bowed cymbal performers.
Reimagining the sonic possibilities of breath, brass and vibration, Holocene is a textural, shimmering evocation of the planet’s current geological epoch – a time of upheaval, transformation, and human responsibility.
As a deaf composer, Ailís described how she experiences and works with sound, especially in a piece as layered and textural as Holocene:
“I create score-based music. Everything is notated. I work from what I do have access to. I am able to access some of the music and sound created as part of Holocene, as I have focused on the tonal aspects of the piece in the extreme bass registers of the brass collective.
“The piece combines visceral throbbing, vibrational low frequency sounds with spiky, rhythmically details upper brass and large vocal-based gestural material through the largest of the brass instruments. These are huge receptacles of sound! Other aspects I can only experience within extremely close proximity or not at all.
“I imagine I work very differently to other composers as I also rely on my sight, detailed communication with players and collaborators and listening assistance in the process of creating the work.”
Ailís added: “Holocene is deliberately created as a work which engages several senses – sound, vision and physicality through vibration. The work is mostly scored in the lowest ranges of the brass instruments. It rumbles, burps and shudders as it progresses.
“Where an audience member places themselves in relation to the circle of performers will alter their experience of the piece. We’ve placed the two bands across from each other in a semi-circular shape to make the most of the shifting harmonies, air sounds and dense rhythms in the piece. There is a natural antiphonal quality to Holocene at times.”
The title Holocene refers to a period of transformation and human impact. Ailís highlighted how themes like change, responsibility, and accessibility shape her creative practice and advocacy:
“These themes have been present in my artistic practice in myriad forms since the beginning. I am an addict in recovery, for instance, and my experience of deafness, addiction and a challenging upbringing has directly influenced my creative practice and how I engage with the world. Ultimately, it is the intersectional nature of these themes and experiences which stimulates me to create work.”
The NMB summer activity is well underway, having launched with the premiere in Bradford on 7th June. Key highlights include the BBC Radio 3 broadcast on 14th June (listen 21 minutes in) and the upcoming performance at the Southbank Centre on 5th July. A digital release with NMC Recordings is also expected later this summer, providing ongoing opportunities to engage with the project.
Speaking about her upcoming performance at the Southbank Centre, Ailís said:
“To present a work like Holocene at the Southbank Centre is a dream come true. I’ve wanted to create a large-scale brass work for mixed abilities – a mixture of professional and community brass players – for a long time. The instruments themselves are a marvel to look at, touch, hold and engage with. I wanted to create something very different with Holocene and experiment with techniques which are new to my practice and those performing the piece.
“We have had a great experience experimenting and trying things out to achieve this pretty unique sound-world, which also includes multiple bowed and vibrating cymbals. I think most audiences will be very surprised by Holocene as it turns the notion of the traditional brass band and brass ensemble music on its head.”
In addition to her Holocene piece, Ailís revealed some of her other upcoming projects happening in late 2025 and 2026:
“It is a busy period and I’m grateful to have work in the current climate. Presently, I’m working on a large orchestral piece for the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra to premiere in Austria in Autumn 2025, a work for Musikfabrik players in Germany for European touring, and working on a collaborative project for the 2026 Munich Biennale. I am also the Composer in Residence for Wexford Festival Opera 2025-2026.”
Arts and installations: from concert halls to galleries
Arts and heritage, public art and site-specific and immersive music installations have also been part of Ailís’ practice since her first site-responsive work for a derelict cotton mill in Manchester in 2006.
Embedding contemporary music in unexpected settings, creating resonance and atmosphere through a combination of music, history, architecture, and community, are key touchpoints of her vision.
Discussing how she was drawn to installation art, and how she approaches it differently from composing music, Ailís said:
“I have been creating music and sound-based work for a huge variety of spaces and audiences for many years. It presents a completely different set of challenges beyond the composition of the work itself, and means working with a very broad range of people who are often not part of the artistic community. This in itself can be refreshing and appealing.
“I’ve created work for a decommissioned lighthouse, the Bronte Parsonage in West Yorkshire, a Castle Keep in Lancashire, a series of K6 red telephone boxes and empty shop units in Durham and Birmingham.
“The artistic considerations are often quite different to concert music or opera. A great deal depends on how the audiences are likely to access the work – I start from there and work up.”
Ailís Ní Ríain: championing disability advocacy and inclusion in the arts
Ailís is also deeply involved in disability advocacy. She has created work for DadaFest, Unlimited, Arts & Disability Ireland, Shape Arts, Drake Music and Outside In.
She is a long-time advocate for equality, diversity and inclusion in the arts and a board member of Disability Arts Online. She also sits on the Musicians Union EDI committee and the Sound & Music Composer Advisory Group.
Ailís expressed what drives her advocacy work and how she sees change happening in the arts sector for disabled artists:
“To be actively committed to improving work conditions, access and inclusion in the classical music and broader arts sector is something I’ve been committed to for many years. It also provides an excellent opportunity for me to look outside my own practice and my own needs to consider those of others. Ultimately, we all need to advocate for each other. To continually ask, ‘Who isn’t in this room and why aren’t they?’.
“There have been considerable changes and improvements in recent years. However, we need to remain vigilant, as access is for life and for all. We need to change the system fundamentally to ensure equity of access.”
Ailís finished by giving some advice to other aspiring deaf and disabled artists:
“Do some research and experience work. See what support is available to those starting out and wanting to make connections. Disability Arts Online is an excellent starting point to get a sense of who else is out there making work, giving workshops, sharing ideas and giving performances.
“The organisation has been established for over 20 years, and their website provides a huge amount of information, including listings where you can find out how and where to access work by deaf and disabled artists.”
You can find out more about Ailís Ní Ríain by visiting her website and following her on Instagram.