
Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh
Irish viola player living in Glasgow
She grew up playing classical music but became increasingly interested in improvisation and undertook studies in jazz performance. After graduating, her focus shifted to early
and Baroque music which led her to explore the tonal possibilities of gut strings in both amplified and acoustic contexts. Her amalgamations of influences from improvised, traditional and early music styles can be heard on her solo recordings Oreing (Fort Evil Fruit 2017) and The Rounds (KRUT 2021).
Nic Oireachtaigh has played in and toured with experimental Irish bands Woven Skull and Cian Nugent & the Cosmos and has performed internationally with artists 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 was commissioned to compose a piece for Tectonics Festival, in which she created a surround composition for gamelan musicians and members of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra called New Mountain, Reaching Plane.
In Glasgow she has performed with Quinie, Alasdair Roberts & Friends, collaborated with artist Anne-Marie Copestake and plays in improv quartet Dome Riders with Fritz Welch, Armin Sturm and Mike Parr-Burman.