Over the past 25 years Niall Vallely has established himself worldwide as one of Ireland’s most significant musicians and composers. Born in Armagh in 1970 he began learning the concertina at the age of seven, taught by his parents Brian and Eithne Vallely, founders of the Armagh Pipers' Club. Over the years he has developed a unique approach to playing the instrument and his compositions have gained widespread acclaim both within the world of Irish traditional music and further afield.

A resident of Cork since 1988, Niall completed a degree in music at UCC in 1992 and a PhD in composition in 2018. After college Niall embarked on a performance career, touring throughout the world and recording with the likes of Nomos, Buille, Karan Casey, Paddy Keenan, Tim O’Brien and recently Jazz legend Cassandra Wilson.

Since the early 1990s Niall has been working at composing traditional-style tunes. His tunes have been recorded on more than 80 albums while some of them have become ‘standards’ in sessions throughout the world.

In more recent years he has been expanding the scope of his compositions to embrace larger scale forms and instrumentation and involving musicians from the worlds of traditional and classical musics. He has received commissions from RTÉ LyricFM, BBC, TG4, Cork Opera House, Crash Ensemble, UCC, Kate Ellis, Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Council, Boston Pops Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, NI Arts Council and the Vanbrugh Quartet and has had his works broadcast on radio and television in Ireland, the US and throughout Europe.