Emma O’Halloran is a GRAMMY-nominated Irish composer whose music is driven by a fascination with joy, wonder, hope, and human connection. Freely intertwining acoustic and electronic music, her work seeks to capture moments of intimacy and magic, and has been described as “intensely beautiful” (Washington Post) and “unencumbered, authentic, and joyful” (I Care If You Listen).
Emma’s work spans collaborations with folk musicians, chamber ensembles, turntables, laptop orchestra, symphony orchestra, opera, and theatre. Known for her distinctive fusion of pop, rock, and electronic influences with the rich colours and textures of acoustic instruments, her work has found a wide audience and has been featured at various music festivals such as Classical NEXT, Cork International Choral Festival, PODIUM Esslingen, New Music Dublin, Tokyo’s Born Creative Festival, and Bang on a Can LOUD Weekend. Additionally, her music has been performed by Crash Ensemble, Chamber Choir Ireland, ensemble reflector, Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, and the Irish National Symphony Orchestra, amongst others.
In recent years, Emma’s passion for storytelling has led her towards multidisciplinary projects such as soundwalks and opera. She has written for Irish National Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, and Beth Morrison Projects, and her recent operas TRADE and Mary Motorhead received critical acclaim at LA Opera and New York’s PROTOTYPE Festival, with the Los Angeles Times describing her as “a kind of modern-day Monteverdi.” Released on Signum Records in 2025, the album of these operas earned Emma a GRAMMY nomination for Best Opera Recording at the 68th GRAMMY Awards.
Emma loves working with people of all ages to explore and create music, and she has served as a mentor for various composition programmes in Ireland and the United States. In 2021, in partnership with the Irish National Concert Hall, she founded the Creative Lab, an award-winning mentorship programme for young composers from traditionally underrepresented groups in music composition. Emma holds a PhD in Music Composition from Princeton University.