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Saileog Ní Cheannabháin is a musician, sean-nós singer, and composer who grew up in a musical family. She is a native Irish speaker who has played traditional and classical music on the piano from a very young age. She also plays traditional music on the fiddle and viola. Saileog has a BMus degree from UCC, where she studied many different traditions and approaches to music—academically, within composition, and in a performance context.
She has released two albums to date. Her first album, I bhfíor-dheiriú oidhche (2012), is an album of sean-nós songs which Saileog learned from Seamus Ennis' collection, from various singers in Iorras Aithneach, Connemara.
Roithleán (2016) is mainly a solo album of Irish traditional music and sean-nós songs, with some newly composed tunes, with guest musicians on some tracks. Roithleán was awarded Albam Thraidisiúnta na Bliana (Traditional Album of the Year) by Nós magazine in 2018.
Saileog worked in two theatre productions professionally, firstly as a performer and later on as a performer, composer, and arranger. The first was an outdoor production in Beaufort, Co. Kerry, of Shakespeare's The Tempest, by St John's Mill Theatre Company, in 2013. The second was for Darach Mac Con Iomaire's play Baoite, performed in An Taibhdhearc at the Galway Arts Festival in 2018, and again at The Peacock Theatre, Dublin in 2019.
She also participated as a musician in Sarah Dowling's dance work, The Wake, at the Dublin Dance Festival in 2012.
Saileog features as a guest on Ensemble Ériu's debut album (2011), on the Tunes in the Church compilation album (2013), on the Rogha Raelach Volume 1 compilation (2020), on Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin's album The Deepest Breath (2022), along with Muireann Ní Cheannabháin, on Úna Monaghan's Aonaracht (2023), and on Nyahh Records' compilation of slow airs on fiddle and viola (2025).
She also contributed to research work for the Amhráin Ó Iorrus compilation (2014).
In February 2020, Saileog took part in Úna Monaghan's Aonaracht project at the NCH, performing a piece for piano and electronics. The piece now features on Úna's 2023 album, Aonaracht.
One of Saileog’s most long-term projects was arranging sean-nós songs from Connemara and Rinn Ó gCuanach, along with Ailbhe Nic Dhonncha and Pádraic Keane (2017–2019 and late 2021–2023).
They recorded with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in 2022, for which Saileog arranged string parts for a St Patrick's Day programme. The trio continued to arrange songs from their respective repertoire in 2022 and 2023.
Saileog is currently working on some new solo compositions, which she plans to release in due course.
She has released two albums to date. Her first album, I bhfíor-dheiriú oidhche (2012), is an album of sean-nós songs which Saileog learned from Seamus Ennis' collection, from various singers in Iorras Aithneach, Connemara.
Roithleán (2016) is mainly a solo album of Irish traditional music and sean-nós songs, with some newly composed tunes, with guest musicians on some tracks. Roithleán was awarded Albam Thraidisiúnta na Bliana (Traditional Album of the Year) by Nós magazine in 2018.
Saileog worked in two theatre productions professionally, firstly as a performer and later on as a performer, composer, and arranger. The first was an outdoor production in Beaufort, Co. Kerry, of Shakespeare's The Tempest, by St John's Mill Theatre Company, in 2013. The second was for Darach Mac Con Iomaire's play Baoite, performed in An Taibhdhearc at the Galway Arts Festival in 2018, and again at The Peacock Theatre, Dublin in 2019.
She also participated as a musician in Sarah Dowling's dance work, The Wake, at the Dublin Dance Festival in 2012.
Saileog features as a guest on Ensemble Ériu's debut album (2011), on the Tunes in the Church compilation album (2013), on the Rogha Raelach Volume 1 compilation (2020), on Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin's album The Deepest Breath (2022), along with Muireann Ní Cheannabháin, on Úna Monaghan's Aonaracht (2023), and on Nyahh Records' compilation of slow airs on fiddle and viola (2025).
She also contributed to research work for the Amhráin Ó Iorrus compilation (2014).
In February 2020, Saileog took part in Úna Monaghan's Aonaracht project at the NCH, performing a piece for piano and electronics. The piece now features on Úna's 2023 album, Aonaracht.
One of Saileog’s most long-term projects was arranging sean-nós songs from Connemara and Rinn Ó gCuanach, along with Ailbhe Nic Dhonncha and Pádraic Keane (2017–2019 and late 2021–2023).
They recorded with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in 2022, for which Saileog arranged string parts for a St Patrick's Day programme. The trio continued to arrange songs from their respective repertoire in 2022 and 2023.
Saileog is currently working on some new solo compositions, which she plans to release in due course.
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