HK Ní Shioradáin is a multi-disciplinary artist from Ireland. They have a BA in English Literature and Film Studies from Trinity College Dublin, and they have a Certificate in Music Composition for Games from Griffith College Dublin. They compose, music direct, and sound design for film, theatre, musical theatre, radio, and bands. They are a songwriter and lyricist who has been writing lyrics for over a decade. They have had their work shown and perform at many festivals and venues. They are the resident sound designer at Lemon Soap Productions and a participant of Rough Magic SEEDS 2023/2024. They have had their work performed at various festivals and platforms at home and abroad such as RTÉ, Virgin Media, Dublin International Film Festival, and Longitude Festival.
They are a bilingual spoken word poet, writing in Irish and English. They were chosen for Poetry Ireland’s Introductions/Céadlínte Éigse Éireann 2022. They recently won the Máire Mac an tSaoi Poetry Award for their poetry. They have read their poetry at the International Literary Festival Dublin, Dublin Book Festival, the New Theatre’s Push Forward Festival, Irish Writer Centre, Neuropride Ireland, Pride Poets, and more. They studied under Harry Clifton in college where they began developing a chapbook under his guidance. Their work frequently interrogates queerness and disability through a humorous lens.
They were an Axis Assemble 2022 artist and used their residency to develop their multi-disciplinary mediums in tandem with each other. They received the Creative Ireland Incubator Award 2022 to develop a spoken word musical piece. They are a recent recipient of the Arts and Disability Mentoring Award and received mentoring from the esteemed composer, Emer Landers.
They completed a residency in Backstage Theatre Longford in 2021 (pictured with Ultan Pringle) to continue development of an original musical. They received the Art Council’s Agility Award in 2021 to continue development on this musical.
They completed the Young Music Graduate Programme with Music and Healthcare Ireland (pictured at Tallaght Hospital) to train to become a musician in healthcare. This has provided HK with valuable skills in community arts participation. They were selected for the Art Council’s Artist in the Community Award where they partnered with AsIAm to explore musical composition with the Autistic community. They have experience teaching and music directing, and have taught music to children, teenagers, and adults at the Independent Theatre Workshop, St Agnes CCMA, and Rosary College.
They were selected as one of the curators for the Lasta Festival for the Pavilion Theatre. The festival programme can be read here.
During their time in Trinity College Dublin, they were chairperson of TCD Jazz Society. They founded and ran The Film Scene for filmmakers to networking and screen their films. They ran every aspect from hosting the Q&A sessions, social media, event planning, and curating the programme each month. During the pandemic, they curated an audio-visual sister publication, called The Film Zine. This publication was nominated for Best Magazine Layout and Design at the SMEDIAS 2021.