Ciara Ni Bhriain

Ciara was born into a very musical family in North County Dublin. Following in the footsteps of her older sister Aoife, Ciara started violin classes a the age of three. Ciara started learning the harp at the age of seven with Michael Rooney who encouraged her to apply for a place in the College of Music with renowned harpist Denise Kelly with whom Ciara is now studying both Irish harp and Concert Harp. While still studying violin in the R.I.A.M. Ciara was asked to try the viola and so she changed instruments and has been studying viola with Ms. Liz Csibi for the past 5 years, obtaining scholarships each year. She has been awarded prizes in the E.S.B. Feis Ceol Dublin and the Sligo Feis Ceoil on both harp and viola. She won the 2012 Senior All-Ireland competition for miscellaneous instruments, performing on viola and she won the Under 18 All-Ireland Fiddle title in 2013. In 2011, she was a member of the National Youth Orchesta of Ireland under the baton of Gearóid Grant, where she was a member of the viola section. She has a an active recording schedule and she has also performed in many concerts and on radio. She recently worked with the Grammy Award-Winning producer Judith Sherman recording the viola parts for Dave Flynn's work 'Stories from the Old World'. A founder member of the IMO aged just 15, Ciara has since performed in Moscow and South Korea with us. She assumed lead fiddle duties on our South Korean tour.