Oisin McAuley

Oisin McAuley was raised in Carrick, County Donegal an area in rural North Western Ireland renowned as having one of the finest fiddle traditions of the 21st century. Later living in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, he learned from Ben Lennon, Seamus Sweeney and others before going on to study music at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland and began performing with a number of bands including Cran, Stockton’s Wing and Hot Club of Dublin. He also lived a short time in Brittany studying the indigenous traditional Celtic music in that peninsular region of North West France.

In 2001 Oisín joined the traditional Irish band Danú with whom he performs to the present day. The band now has 10 albums to its name as well as a highly acclaimed live Concert documentary with Danú called ‘One Night Stand’ and has picked up numerous awards (Gradam Ceoil, BBC Folk Awards), along the way.

His solo album debut “Far From The Hills Of Donegal” from 2007 featured a number of McAuley’s original compositions and with long-time collaborators Peter Browne, Tony Byrne and Shane McGowan, showed his versatility in number of styles outside of the tradition. A long time collaborator with the guitarist and singer/songwriter John Doyle and fellow Solas veteran Mick McAuley has brought great acclaim from sparkling performances and recordings in recent years.

McAuley has worked at Berklee College of Music since 2007 and recently debuted a new project called “Emerald Jazz”, televised on WGBH, that introduces jazz elements to traditional Irish music with colleagues Ron Savage, Ron Mahdi, Stan Strickland, Witness Matlou and longtime friend and Lúnasa member Cillian Vallely.