Introducing Áine 

Áine Mallon is an award-winning composer, session musician and musical director from County Armagh. A trained singer, violinist and pianist, Áine moved to Manchester to study Music at the University of Manchester. The music she writes is inspired by a range of genres, including contemporary classical and Irish folk, and she has been commissioned to write for a variety of professional ensembles across the UK and Ireland. 

“I went to the University of Manchester to study music because the degree there seems to be really well constructed, in that you could sort of build your own music degree – you could focus on the things that you wanted to – but also because there's quite a good Irish community in Manchester, and there's always someone to look after you.” 

Áine’s Musical Life History 

Áine grew up playing Irish traditional music with her siblings. 

“I'm from a fairly musical family. I'm one of four. My older sister, Emer, plays the harp. My older brother plays the uilleann pipes. My younger sister plays the fiddle and the concertina, and I play the fiddle and the piano. And so we kind of grew up playing Irish traditional music all together.” 

At one stage, with her dad working for BBC Scotland, Áine lived in Glasgow and became familiar with the Scottish music scene. 

“For the whole summer, basically, our entire family packed up and moved to Scotland for two, three months. And I'd go to a lot of music festivals in Glasgow over the summer. So we were sort of raised between Ireland and Scotland and I had a lot of Scottish folk music influences as well.” 

Musical influences from Scotland were further strengthened by Áine’s engagement with the world pipe band championships and the Glasgow International Piping Festival. 

“I've got quite a lot of links to Scotland in terms of folk music, because I learned traditional music at the Armagh Pipers Club, which is like a music school, essentially, in County Armagh. And they had strong connections with a festival in Portree on the Isle of Skye. And so every few years, a group of us from the Pipers Club would go to the Isle of Skye for a week-long festival and then the following year, they would come to us and so we'd have workshops and go to different concerts and go to céilís and stuff with the other kids from the alternate group, so I learned a lot of Scottish folk music alongside Irish music growing up.” 

The music Áine now writes, based in Manchester, is inspired by the music that she grew up playing and also draws on a variety of styles and genres. 

“I mostly write contemporary classical music, with folk influences. Irish traditional music is still kind of at the heart of my music, but I do write a lot of contemporary classical music and, I guess, new folk music as well. Last year, I wrote a 75-minute folk suite for an ensemble, an Irish ensemble, actually for the Comhaltas, which was performed across the north last November. And it was based around the Counties Fermanagh and Tyrone, sort of like their heritage and culture.” 

“I think Manchester is a really good musical melting pot and the music scene is so diverse […] It’s a really good place to find inspiration.” 

The Purpose and Motivations of Áine’s Music-Creating 

“You never really know where you’re going to get your inspiration from, so you could hear maybe a little motif and that could spur something even in a different genre. It really does all kind of kick in and I think Manchester is so great for that, because you can go to five gigs a night if you want to and it’s really, really helpful.” 

An important process in Áine’s writing is to collaborate with an artist who can reflect her music visually. 

“Something that I really like to do with all of my scores is have an accompanying piece of artwork. So I'll commission an artist and I'll give them the brief that I am working off and say, this is what I want the piece to be about, this is what it means to me, and this is what I'm thinking design-wise. And then they'll go away and draw something that I'll attach to the front of the score to kind of bring it all together.” 

Áine continues to draw on her experience as a performer and singer in order to create new works. 

“I'd mostly say I'm a composer, but I'm not sure you can be one thing completely in isolation really. I think your performance enhances your composition. And then the more experience you have as a performer, that definitely, definitely impacts how you write.” 

Áine listens to a whole range of music and finds inspiration from various sources. 

“Contemporary classical music is really interesting and there’s a lot that you can do with it and I think I’m really only very much at the beginning of my journey with it. There’s a long way to go yet.” 

“Music is really powerful and it has the ability to really impact people.” 

Creating Music in Manchester 

Áine credits Manchester for providing the wealth of concerts, materials and supportive communities that she sees as fundamental to her progression as a composer. 

“Purely from a stylistic point of view, I don't think I would be the composer I am now had I not come to Manchester. And the new music scene here is fantastic. There are so many composers who come here.” 

One of Áine’s future goals is to form new professional collaborations, while maintaining her own individual style. 

“I’ve always enjoyed collaboration as a method of music-making […] For the future of my music-making I think I probably would look to collaborate a bit more. It’s certainly a really fun way to make music. I guess there’s just the matter of having the collaboration element while also being able to exercise a certain amount of control over what it is that you produce.” 

Áine sees a dynamic, lively music scene in Manchester, open for any musician to thrive. 

“It's being here and making those connections and just the whole vibe of the city. Everyone is so friendly.” 

“Music-making in Manchester will never stop! It’s such a musical city. There are so many different kinds of music.”