Bren Ó Ruaidh

Bren Ó Ruaidh’s songs are dark tales of love and death, at times surreal and sometimes incorporating an element of dark humour. He has performed as a professional musician all around Europe and America playing Irish traditional, jazz and contemporary music. Bren has worked with musicians from many different genres, including Liam Ó Maonlaí (of the Hothouse Flowers) and Damo Suzuki (of the influential experimental rock band Can). He is also currently a member of professional jazz quartet, The Darktown Strutters.

Having spent several years immersed in rock, jazz, blues and trad, Bren Ó Ruaidh studied music at University College Cork (UCC), which incorporated a wide variety of music from many different genres including minimalism, film music, modern jazz, and ‘world music’. He specialized in experimental music and improvisation, with an emphasis on performer interaction and the exploration of acoustic environments. He has studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Lee Konitz and La Monte Young (in Germany and New York) and is currently completing a PhD in music composition with John Godfrey (of the Crash Ensemble).

He has composed numerous works in a variety of genres, including commissions for the Cork Film Festival and a production of Cesaire’s A Tempest, and collaborated with dancers, sound artists, video artists and artists of other media. In 2004, Bren Ó Ruaidh formed and directed Eachtra, a new music ensemble dedicated to improvisation. The ensemble has played in numerous venues all around Ireland, including the Galway Arts Festival, UCC’s Aula Maxima and St. Finbarr’s Cathedral in Cork. He also created an electronic ‘Dream House’ installation, which was premiered in UCC’s Ó Riada Hall in 2006.

For more information or bookings, please contact Bren Ó Ruaidh on 086 363 4005 or oruaidh@gmail.com.