Sound Designer

Mel
Mercier

Mel Mercier is a multi-disciplinary, award-winning, Tony–nominated artist with an international reputation as a performer, composer, and sound designer. He received an M.F.A. in World Music from CalArts in 1992 and a Ph.D. in Music from University of Limerick, Ireland, in 2011. He was inaugural Chair of Performing Arts at the Irish World Academy of Music & Dance, University of Limerick, Ireland from 2016 to 2022. He is director of the Irish Gamelan Orchestra, MÓNCKK new music ensemble, and PULSUS, the first Irish traditional percussion ensemble. Mel’s father, Peadar Mercier, a member of The Chieftains from 1966-76, taught him to play the Irish bodhrán and bones. Throughout the 1980s, Mel and his father performed with John Cage and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Mel has created music for theatre in Ireland and internationally for 25 years, during which time he has worked with some of the world’s most respected theatre artists, including Fiona Shaw, Deborah Warner, and Gare St Lazare Ireland.