BIOGRAPHY
(You can read the Story of Anúna Here)
In 1987, Dublin composer Michael McGlynn founded ANÚNA and the name was derived from the Irish An Uaithne, a collective term for the three ancient types of Irish music Suantraí (lullaby), Geantraí (happy song) and Goltraí (lament). The music they perform is composed by Michael McGlynn and includes reconstructions of medieval song from Ireland and traditional arrangements.
Anúna is the parent ensemble of The Anúna Collective that include Systir and M’ANAM.
The ensemble have sung on many of the greatest stages in the world including the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Orchard Hall Tokyo, Radio City Music Hall in New York and Minneapolis Symphony Hall. The group have headlined at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall.
In February 2017 ANÚNA performed in collaboration with a full Noh theatrical company for the play Takahime, a Japanese adaptation of W.B. Yeats' At the Hawk's Well in Tokyo, and in December 2024 performed “Yuki-onna / The Snow Woman” at Sumida Hall in Tokyo.
ANÚNA have been signed to some of the world's major record labels including Decca, Atlantic, Gimell, Universal Classics, Polygram, E1 and Philips.
Takahime ~ Complete Performance : Tokyo, 2017
ANÚNA have a long and distinguished history of collaborative work, beginning in 1994 with their their seminal involvement in Riverdance.The soundtrack album Riverdance the Show won a Grammy Award in ‘96. While curating the Meltdown Festival at London's South Bank, Elvis Costello invited ANÚNA to perform with him as featured guests at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and in 1998 their collaboration with Costello and The Chieftains The Long Journey Home was the title track of the Grammy Award-Winning album of the same name. In 2011 they featured on DVD and CD with the pioneering Australian entertainers The Wiggles.
In February 2018 the group won the Outstanding Ensemble category of the Annual Game Music Awards for their contributions to the soundtrack of the hugely successful video game Xenoblade Chronicles II (Square Enix) singing the music of Yasunori Mitsuda. In 2012 they appeared as the "Voices of Hell" on the video game Diablo 3 (Blizzard]) gaining a Game Audio Network Guild nomination for the Best Original Choral Performance in February 2013 and working with composer Russell Brower. The score was nominated for a BAFTA Award.
The unique nature of the group’s performance has resulted in the creation of a ground-breaking Education & Outreach programme that has been responsible for workshops across China, Iceland, Germany, the USA, Japan, Spain, Belgium, Israel, Sweden, Canada, Poland, the UK. The ANÚNA International Schools were inaugurated in Dublin in 2011 and in 2025 their Easter School will take place in Modena, Italy.
ANÚNA has released eighteen albums since 1991. Invocation won a National Entertainment Award for classical music in Ireland while Deep Dead Blue was nominated for a Classical Brit Award in 1999. Celtic Origins (2007), also an award-winning PBS show and DVD and became the number one selling CD on the US World Music Charts while the album Christmas Memories, also a PBS TV special and DVD, reached the Hot 100 of the Billboard Album Chart in 2011. In February 2025 ANÚNA release Eilifð, a startlingly beautiful record that promises much for the future of the group.
Michael McGlynn's sheet music is available from www.michaelmcglynn.com.