Rose Connolly (born 1999/2000), known mononymously as Róis ( , , often capitalised RÓIS) is a

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

, singer and

multi-instrumentalist A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays two or more musical instruments, often but not exclusively at a professional level of proficiency. Also known as woodwind doubler, doubling, the practice allows greater ensemble flexibility and mor ...

from

County Fermanagh County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of six counties of Northern Ireland. The county covers an area of and had a population of 63,585 as of 2021. Enniskillen is the ...

, Northern Ireland. She is known for singing in a

keening Keening (, ) is a traditional form of vocal lament for the dead in the Gaelic Celtic tradition, known to have taken place in Ireland and Scotland. Keening, which can be seen as a form of sean-nós singing, is performed in the Irish and Scotti ...

style, the traditional Irish

lament A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about something ...

Early life

Róis was born and grew up in

. She did not learn Irish until she was in college. She later studied music at the

Royal Conservatory of The Hague The Royal Conservatoire (, KC) is a conservatoire in The Hague, providing higher education in music and dance. The conservatoire was founded by King William I in 1826, making it the oldest conservatoire in the Netherlands. Since September 2021, t ...

Career

Róis first album was ' (), released in 2023. She cites

Meredith Monk Meredith Jane Monk (born November 20, 1942) is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer. From the 1960s onwards, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which combine music, theatre, and dance, recordi ...

Marina Herlop Marina Hernández López (born 1992), known professionally as Marina Herlop, is a Catalan pianist, singer, and experimental musician. She is known for her fusion of classical and avant-garde styles in her music. Herlop uses an invented language i ...

Daniela Lalita Daniela Lalita (), born Daniela Czenstochowski (, ), is a Peruvian vocalist, songwriter, producer, artist and model. She was born in Lima and moved to New York to study at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). She currently lives and works ...

and Hatis Noit as inspirations. Her second album ' () was released in 2024 and was nominated for the

Choice Music Prize The Choice Music Prize (), known for sponsorship reasons as the RTÉ Choice Music Prize is an annual music prize awarded to music from a band or solo musician who is born in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland or holds an Irish passport. ...

. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' gave it four

stars A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by self-gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night; their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed points of ...

out of five, saying that "Connolly fills eeningwith new, startling life, mixing the ancient with

synthesis Synthesis or synthesize may refer to: Science Chemistry and biochemistry *Chemical synthesis, the execution of chemical reactions to form a more complex molecule from chemical precursors **Organic synthesis, the chemical synthesis of organi ...

distortion In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signal ...

and drones."

Personal life

Róis is based in

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

Discography

EPs *' (2023) *' (2024)

References

External links

* * 21st-century Irish people Living people Musicians from County Fermanagh Irish women singers Sean-nós singers Irish language activists 21st-century Irish-language singers Royal Conservatory of The Hague alumni {{Ireland-musician-stub