Oisín McAuley

Berklee College of Music, Danú, John Doyle, Ashley Davis

"Kaplan Vivo strings are my go-to string; long-lasting, sweet-sounding and break in really quickly."

ABOUT Oisín McAuley 

Oisin McAuley was raised in Carrick, County Donegal, an area in rural northwest Ireland renowned as having one of the finest fiddle traditions of the 21st century. Later living in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, he learned from Ben Lennon, Seamus Sweeney, and others, before going on to study music at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland where he began performing with a number of bands including Cran, Stockton's Wing, and Hot Club of Dublin. He also lived a short time in Brittany, studying the indigenous traditional Celtic music in that peninsular region of northwest France.

In 2001, Oisín joined the traditional Irish band Danú with whom he performs to this day. The band now has 10 albums to its name, as well as a highly acclaimed live concert documentary with Danú called One Night Stand and has picked up numerous awards (Gradam Ceoil, BBC Folk Awards) along the way.

His solo album debut Far from The Hills of Donegal (2007) featured a number of McAuley's original compositions and—with long-time collaborators Peter Browne, Tony Byrne, and Shane McGowan—showed his versatility in numerous styles outside of the tradition. A longtime collaborator with the guitarist and singer/songwriter John Doyle and fellow Solas veteran Mick McAuley has brought great acclaim from sparkling performances and recordings in recent years.

McAuley has worked at Berklee College of Music since 2007, collaborating with fellow “Celtic crossover” artists Natalie Haas and Maeve Gilchrist, to name but a few. As artistic director he recently debuted a new project called "Emerald Jazz", televised on WGBH, that introduces jazz elements to traditional Irish music with colleagues Ron Savage, Ron Mahdi, Stan Strickland, Witness Matlou and longtime friend and Lúnasa member Cillian Vallely.