Irish violist, violinist, and composer Aiveen Gallagher-Schembri is a three-time international prize-winner and the recipient of awards from violinist Ivry Gitlis and violist Bruno Giuranna. She is also a prize-winner in her category of the 2022 Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the performance of American Music, and her viola and percussion ensemble, Duo Schembri-Gallagher, was awarded 2nd prize in the chamber music category of the 2022 American Prize for Excellence in the Arts. She has been invited to perform her award-winning compositions, the Trinity Caprices, in Europe, Asia, and the USA. Most recently, she presented them at the 2024 American Viola Society Festival at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. She has performed at multiple International Viola Congresses, including the 43rd congress in Cremona, Italy, where she was invited to showcase Alessandro Rolla’s Concertante for Violin & Viola in a “Violist Today” recital, and perform as violist of the Alessandro Rolla String Quartet.  

Gallagher-Schembri’s international career has seen her perform at historic concert and sacred venues including the Berliner Philharmonie, Musikverein Vienna, Cité Internationale des Arts, Moscow State Conservatory, Mariinsky Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, and the Basilica di San Paolo Fuori le Mura, Vatican City. She has collaborated with leading artists including Massimo Quarta, Helena Wood, Toby Hoffman, Illaria Loatelli, and Stefano Bollani, for the Livorno Music Festival, the National String Quartet Foundation of Ireland, the Victoria International Arts Festival, and the European Foundation for Support of Culture. She has worked with many professional orchestras on viola and violin including the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hulencourt Soloists Orchestra, Orchestra Internazionale d'Italia, the London Film Orchestra, The RTE Concert Orchestra, the Petrozavodsk Symphony Orchestra, and the New Orchestra of Washington.

As a pedagogue, she has delivered masterclasses and workshops at NYU Steinhardt School of Music, University of Central Florida, and the University of Illinois, and served as a string adjudicator for the European String Teachers Association. Gallagher-Schembri has also worked with pre-collegiate string players, and has tutored students of the West Virginia Youth Symphony, the Malta Youth Orchestra, and has served as a volunteer tutor for the exchange students of the Jose Depiro Educational Centre, a music-for-social-inclusion program in Bataan, Philippines. She is also a certified teacher of "A New American School of String Playing," trained directly by its author and founder, Grammy-Award winning American violinist Mark O'Connor.

Gallagher-Schembri received her DMA from James Madison University, where she was the recipient of the JMU Graduate School Innovation Award for outstanding creativity. She began her professional training as a scholarship student at the Royal College of Music, London, with Ivo-Jan van der Werff, and pursued graduate studies in the USA with István Szabó, and Michael Klotz respectively. She has also completed professional studies at ProQuartet-Centre Européen de Musique de Chambre in Paris, and Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena, Italy.

Dr. Gallagher-Schembri serves as Instructor of Violin and General Music at James Madison University where she is the recipient of the 2024 Provost’s Award for Excellence in Part-Time Teaching.