Abigail Smith
Abigail Smith is a Dublin based composer and multi-instrumentalist. Her original style of music is the result of a diverse musical upbringing. She studied music in NUI Maynooth and has recently completed the Certificate in Music and Production for Computer Games in Griffith College in association with Pulse College.
In 2021 Abigail was named the winner of the Finding a Voice and Contemporary Music Centre Emerging Composer Composition Prize. She was also awarded an Arts Council Agility Award for a new Composition Sunrise, Day, Sunset, Night. Abigail was awarded the Dublin City Council Incubation Space with long-time collaborator Lioba Petrie in 2020 for their collaborative project Fragments.
Smith has composed music for theatre and film. She was commissioned to write music for the animated film Trolley Boy. It was nominated for an IFTA award in the animation category. Abigail’s score was short listed for the Peer Raben Award for the best music score in a short film. Abigail composed and performed the music for the short documentary film Al-Qarafa, the City of the Dead directed by Alessandro Molatore. The film was screened at numerous international film festivals.
Abigail has released two albums of her own music. She released her second album, Fall Into Silence, which was presented with funding from the Arts Council, managed by the Music Network Recording Scheme. Songs from the album have been featured on Lyric FM Blue of the Night, Introducing BBC6, Newstalk FM, TXFM and Near FM. She released her first album entitled Night Time Walking in 2009. Oh Sam from this album won a prize with Hotpress and the New York Tisch Film School to have a music video made for it.
In 2014 Abigail wrote an orchestral score which was performed and recorded by the RTE Concert Orchestra for the IMRO film score programme. She was awarded a residency in 2012 from Dublin City Council in the Albert Cottages where she wrote music using field recording from the park. These works were premiered in the Lab on Culture Night the following year. She was commissioned to write a piece for the internationally renowned Diversus Guitar Ensemble. This artistic collaboration continued with the inclusion of an arrangement by their director of her song Light A Match in their album release. She composed music for The Dublin City Big Band, Diversus Guitar Orchestra and for The NCH Gamelan Orchestra.