Abigail Smith

Abigail Smith is a Dublin based multi-instrumentalist musician and composer. She has released two albums of her own music Night Time Walking and Fall Into Silence. Fall Into Silence was written and released with funding from the Irish Arts Council. Abigail was awarded an Arts Council Music Bursary in 2022 to compose a new work. She was the winner of the 2021 Finding a Voice and CMC Emerging Female Composer Composition Prize for her work Certain of Uncertainty which was premiered by the internationally renowned percussionist Alex Petcu. She was awarded an Agility Award from the Irish Arts Council in 2021. She enjoys experimenting with new music technology and collaborating with others. She composes music for film, theatre and computer games. Abigail is a member of the Screen Composers Guild of Ireland.

Abigail performs her own music regularly. She enjoys using a loop station and electronic elements to give her freedom in a live setting. Using the combination of live and electronic music creates a unique live experience for the audience. Abigail enjoys layering her vocals with viola, flute, autoharp and midi she has produced and mixed for live performance. Her songs focus on themes such as nature, creativity and the experiences of everyday life that are full of wonder. She often performs with cellist and multi-instrumentalist Lioba Petrie who also uses a loop station. The duo has forged a unique understanding when performing live. They performed their show Permission Granted in The Dublin Fringe Festival 2023.

They recently completed a residency at the Lexicon where they created a new work entitled Fragments. They performed the work on Culture Night at the Lexicon Theatre and also performed the work at The Hugh Lane Gallery.

Abigail has performed her own music at many festivals and venues including at Body and Soul at The Electric Picnic, Culture Night and live on radio. Her music has been broadcast on BBC Introducing with Tom Robinson, The Blue of the Night on Lyric FM and Today FM. Abigail has written music for the Dublin City Big Band, the RTE Concert Orchestra, the Diversus Guitar Orchestra and the NCH Gamelan Orchestra. She has featured as a viola player on the music of David Kitt, Somadrone, Briana Corrigan and Good Time John.

Abigail took part in the Oh Yeah Music Centre pioneering mentorship programme Mothers in Music where the participants had mentorship from world renowned producers and songwriters.

Abigail is a member of the Astral String Quartet. They perform regularly and also do session work.

What the critics say…
“Multi-instrumentalist and composer Abigail Smith....is also one to watch. Night Time Walking is a wonderfully bizarre collection of Smith's own songs that sounds like Kate Bush and Bjork had a love-child with Schubert and the Cocteau Twins. …”
Cormac Larkin, The Sunday Tribune.

“…her album, Night Time Walking, a series of songs arranged for voice, piano, viola and cello, is a thing of rare beauty indeed. It is to be tracked down and devoured immediately....”
Derek O’Connor, Image Magazine.

Image by Simon Lazewski