Muireann Ní Shé is an uilleann piper and singer from County Cork.
Muireann regards her mother tongue, the Irish language, as the gateway through which she became immersed in traditional music and song since childhood.
Muireann graduated with a First Class honours from her BMus degree at the MTU Cork School of Music, and was the 2021 recipient of the Tomás Ó Canainn Gradam Ceoil for Excellence in Traditional Music Performance. During this time Muireann not only honed her craft as a traditional musician and composer, mentored by Johnny McCarthy, but she also expanded her skillset and became passionate about arranging music through a more contemporary lens, studying both classical and jazz harmony.
Muireann maintains a busy performance schedule, performing as a traditional soloist as well as collaborating with musicians from both traditional and contemporary backgrounds. Muireann has performed on extensive arena tours of the USA, Europe and Asia as a band member and solo artist. In Ireland most recently, she has performed at events such as the Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy, Sean Corcoran Series, Doolin Arts Hedge School, MusicTown Dublin, the Belfast Piping Tionól, Na Píobairí Uilleann’s Session with the Pipers, Mallow Arts Festival and Ancient Voices at Kells Priory. The Cork Fringe and River Runs Round festivals are among some of the events in Muireann’s performing calendar for this year.
Muireann also maintains a busy schedule as a teacher and has taught uilleann piping workshops at numerous traditional music events in Ireland, as well as in Orlando, Boston, and London. Muireann’s 2025 schedule includes teaching masterclasses in Italy and Austria.
Muireann attributes her main musical influences to the local musicians and singers she had the privilege of learning from and listening to growing up, as well as the old recordings of legendary musicians and singers such as Willie Clancy and Elizabeth Cronin in particular. She finds herself deeply drawn to these older sounds, voices and written collections, such as those gathered across Munster by Canon James Goodman and Martin Freeman during the 19th century.
As an artist, Muireann strives to share the sound world that dominates her mind, one that is rooted in these old melodies and voices of tradition, yet intertwined with the contemporary world she lives in. This is demonstrated on her debut solo album, Éistigh Liomsa Sealad, released in 2023. This is a unique sound-world, where contemporary and traditional influences combine with the dominating sounds of the pipes and ethereal arrangements of sean-nós song. The album features an array of soulful collaborations with artists such as Aoife Blake, Macdara Ó Faoláin, Johnny McCarthy and Jake Kalilec.
Other recordings include tracks on Na Píobairí Uilleann’s 2023 CD release, Mná na bPíob Uilleann, Vol.1 – the first unique recording in a series that represents the many female uilleann pipers playing in the world today. Muireann released a Christmas themed single in December 2024 entitled Oíche Nollag ’s Rince Éabha Nellie; a medley of one of her own compositions and an arrangement of Máire Mhac an tSaoi’s (1922-2021) poem Oíche Nollag.
Most recently, Muireann recorded uilleann pipes for Dublin singer-songwriter Dermot Kennedy’s latest single, Let Me In (March 2025), and she is currently engaged in a number of exciting collaborations that will be debuted at the end of the year.
“Her capacity as a traditional multi-instrumentalist mark her out as an able steward of song, but the scope of Ní Shé’s vision, marrying the weight and grounding of tradition with a keen sense of the evocative, the intransigent. is truly compelling.” - Bandcamp Daily
“County Cork traditional musician Muireann Ní Shé represents something of a convergence of propositions - part of a wave of female musicians taking the uilleann pipes into the current-day revival, she pairs the instrument’s depth and presence with her own prowess in sean nós-inspired vocal stylings, interweaving their niceties and nuances on debut album ‘Éistigh Liomsa Sealad’.” - Evening Echo
Doors 5pm | Show 5:30pm