About

Photo by Emma Raginel

Laoise McMullin is a Galway-born pianist, harpsichordist and composer, with a particular passion for early music performance, historically informed performance practice and 20th century and contemporary music performance.

As a pianist, Laoise has a wide range of performing experience, covering a wide range of repertoire. Most recently, she gave her final recital as part of her Master’s Degree in the Royal Irish Academy of Music, performing Bach’s Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, Chopin’s Polonaise Op. 26 No. 1, Janáček’s Piano Sonata 1. X. 1905, and Albéniz’s Iberia Suite Book 1, Evocación and El Puerto. Laoise has been the recipient of numerous awards and bursaries. She was the 2023 recipient of the Lucien and Maura Teissier Bursary Award for pianists in the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and reached the 2022 final of the Irish Freemasons Young Musician of the Year Award. She has also performed in the final of the Morris Grant Bursary at the ESB Feis Ceoil in 2019, 2023 and 2024, having placed second in the Benson Cup in these years. Additionally in 2024, Laoise reached the final of the Nordell Cup. As a chamber musician, Laoise has won both the Trimble Cup (2021, with Rachel O’Hara) and the Senior Pianoforte Duet (2019, with Tess Dowling).

Equally comfortable at the harpsichord, both solo and as a continuo player, Laoise has performed in numerous venues around Ireland and the UK. She recently gave her concerto debut with the City of Dublin Chamber Orchestra, performing Bach’s F minor Concerto and Górecki’s Harpsichord Concerto. She has also performed at the world renowned Cobbe Collection at Hatchlands Park in Surrey, home to the largest collection of historical keyboard instruments in the world, as part of two performance projects in 2023 and 2024. The 2024 performance was repeated at the Royal College of Music in London. Laoise has also performed with her early music focused chamber music group at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival (2023, 2024) and the Sligo Baroque Festival (2023), as well as at performances in the National Gallery of Ireland as part of their exhibition ‘Lavinia Fontana: Trailblazer, Rule Breaker.’ Laoise has also performed in professional settings as an organ continuo player, most recently having played with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.

As a composer, Laoise’s works draw inspiration from her love of early music, film music and science. They have been performed in venues such as the National Gallery of Ireland, the Whyte Recital Hall and the Pepper Cannister Church. She was commissioned by the National Gallery of Ireland to compose a work for the ‘Lavinia Fontana: Trailblazer, Rule Breaker’ exhibition, in response to the painting ‘The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon.’ The result was a vocal trio, Makeda, which has been performed numerous times in the National Gallery of Ireland. Laoise was also the recipient of the Matheson x RIAM Commission Bursary in 2023, for which she composed Inicio, which is intended for use as call waiting music for Matheson. This work was performed at numerous Matheson events, and received its official premiere at the RIAM 175 Gala Concert in the Whyte Recital Hall in October 2023.

Laoise is a graduate of the Royal Irish Academy of Music, having completed her Bachelor of Music Performance Degree with First Class Honours in 2022, and most recently achieving a Distinction in her Master in Music Performance Degree in 2024, with a split principal study of piano and composition, and a second performance study of harpsichord. Laoise commenced her piano studies in RIAM with Professor Thérèse Fahy in 2018, with whom she completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees. She took up harpsichord and composition studies in the final year of her Bachelor’s Degree, studying harpsichord under Dr. David Adams and composition under Jonathan Nangle.