Ailbhe McDonagh

Ailbhe McDonagh (born 29 November 1982) is an Irish concert cellist and composer. She performs internationally as a soloist, chamber musician and recording artist with several studio albums to her name. McDonagh has composed works for orchestra, chamber music ensembles and pedagocial purposes. Collections of her compositions have been published by Boosey & Hawkes and are featured regularly in the ABRSM, Royal Irish Academy of Music and other exam syllabi. McDonagh is a professor of cello at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin, Ireland.

Career
Born in Dublin, Ailbhe McDonagh is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York, USA, where she studied under Steven Doane, and the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM), Dublin, Ireland. She currently teaches cello performance at the RIAM.

She performs internationally and has appeared as a concerto soloist numerous times in Ireland and abroad, with performances at Carnegie Hall, the Yale Norfolk Festival, Schleswig Holstein Music Festival, Great Irish Houses Festival, for the Irish President at Áras an Uachtaráin and on Irish national television and radio.

As a chamber musician, McDonagh performs with pianist John O'Conor and also in a duo, The McDonagh Sisters, with her sister and pianist Orla McDonagh. She is a member of the chamber music group Ficino Ensemble and the crossover group Trio Elatha where she plays traditional Irish music on the cello.

McDonagh joined the cello faculty of the RIAM in 2010 and has been invited to give masterclasses worldwide. Her debut solo album It’s a Cello Thing was named CD of the Week on Ireland's national classical music station RTÉ Lyric FM. Her second studio album Skellig was released in 2020 with pianist Orla McDonagh.

In 2021, McDonagh released the complete Beethoven cello and piano sonatas with John O'Conor on the Steinway & Sons label. The recording was positively reviewed with Classical Music Sentinel stating "McDonagh and O'Conor coalesce perfectly, as if propelled by the music's undertow, and echo each other's expressive mien with dynamic balance", awarding it as one of their "Essential Recordings". Classical Explorer remarked that the duo "take the opening of Op. 102/1 to whispered heights, and again later there is a most appealing sense of two-as-one. They find buoyant, almost dancing, rhythms". AllMusic gave the album 4.5 out of 5 stars.

McDonagh released her album Bach: Complete Solo Cello Suites in 2024 on the Steinway & Sons label. It was the first such recording of these works by an Irish cellist. Reviewer Simon Corely from Concerto Net writing about the recording says that "McDonagh convinces with her clear articulation, her drive and vigour, and her very meticulous phrasing. In a very clear recording, she progresses in a firm and resolute manner to the truth and solidity of the discourse, without the interpreter's, or the composer's, ego becoming excessively prominent."

McDonagh performs on a Postacchini cello.

Composer career
In addition to her performing career, McDonagh is also an established composer with numerous compositions and commissions to her name. London-based publishers Boosey & Hawkes have released two books of her piano music entitled It's a Piano Thing. In 2021, McDonagh published further collections of compositions titled It's a Cello Thing, a collection of two books of pedagogical pieces for cello. Her compositions have featured regularly in the syllabi of ABRSM, RCM, RIAM, and other music institutions. She collaborates with many composers and other artists worldwide and has recorded several works of contemporary music.

Her debut orchestral work, the Irish Isles Suite, was released in 2023. Each movement of the composition is based around a specific island off the west coast of Ireland. A recording of this three-movement piece for orchestra was made by RTÉ Concert Orchestra and conductor David Brophy in the same year. McDonagh composed and released her String Quartet No.2 'Lore Quartet' in December 2023 which was premiered by the Ficino Ensemble and featured in The Strad magazine's 'Premiere of the Month'.