Caterina Schembri

Caterina Schembri (b.1993) is an Italian-Colombian composer and producer based in Dublin. Through her work, she likes to traverse harmonic explorations, literary motifs, multidisciplinary intersections, symbolic meaning, and different orchestration possibilities within acoustic and hybrid ensembles. Connections with visual imagery and written word are recurrent in her music, often working with original text written by her. In the last years, she has composed pieces for a wide range of musicians including Ficino Ensemble, Tonnta, Chamber Choir Ireland, Spilliaert Trio, the Dublin Viols, members of the UCDSO, the BNR Orchestra, percussion ensemble Tridio, vocalist Michelle O'Rourke, and Cellist Kate Ellis.

In 2022 she was granted a Music Bursary by the Arts Council of Ireland to develop new work, was commissioned to premiere a piece in New Music Dublin 2022 and in 2021 she was awarded a place in the prestigious Alliance for Women Film Composers Mentorship program under the guidance of Lolita Ritmanis. Most recently, MoLI (Museum of Literature Ireland) commissioned her to write a piece for the 2023 Bloomsday video. Caterina was also selected as a CMC (Contemporary Music Centre Ireland) Emerging Composer for the period of 2024/2025. 

Her music has been successful on the screen featuring in short films from diverse genres and origins. Caterina has also worked as Orchestrator and in the score preparation department for TV and Film productions in Ireland, Malaysia, and Korea.

In December 2018 she became one of the founding members of Sonic Gate Studios, an international collective of sound artists working in curated new music.

Caterina is very active in the music scene of Ireland working in music production with some of the main cultural organizations of the country including the record label Ergodos, the Irish National Opera, Kaleidoscope Night, New Music Dublin, West Cork Music, and the Dublin Theatre Festival. She has undertaken the role of music producer in a number of orchestral and hybrid recordings including INO’s Elektra and A Thing I Cannot Name.

She’s currently working as the general manager for the record label Ergodos and developing different projects as a composer, orchestrator, and producer.