Emily O’Rourke
She/Her
Emily O'Rourke is a guitarist and composer based in Naas, Co. Kildare. She is regularly seen performing on Ireland’s jazz scene and is the founder and manager of The Kind of New Series. Emily is also a part of The Dublin Jazz Co-Op’s administrative team and a passionate guitar and music theory teacher.
Emily graduated with honours from DCU's BA Jazz and Contemporary Music Performance in 2022. During this time she developed a deep love of composition and improvisation. Emily was one of the founding members of DCU’s Jazz Society and was the inaugural chairperson. She was particularly dedicated to creating a safe space for newly emerging jazz artists and students to come together for jam sessions. This dedication led to the birth of The Kind of New Series.
Emily began a trial run of The Kind of New Series as a two month curation with The Dublin Jazz Co-Op in 2022. It now runs as its own independent organisation managed by Emily and is funded by The Arts Council of Ireland since 2023. It provides monthly performances where bands are specially curated to have one professional jazz musician and three newly emerging jazz artists. It is a crucial stepping stone for many young and new jazz musicians as they start their performing career.
In 2018 Emily formed the duo ReRoute with vocalist Rufina Tishina. ReRoute are best known for their intimate show of lyrical, sincere music. Their music draws on their combined influences from jazz and improvised styles of music, as well as Russian and Tatar culture. ReRoute released their first single ‘Temnota’ in March of 2023. They were awarded Kildare County Council’s Platform4Recording Bursary the same year and hope to release their debut EP in 2024.
Emily is the guitarist for River Daughter, a voice, guitar and baritone saxophone jazz trio. They have performed at popular Dublin jazz venues such as The Dublin Jazz Co-Op and Lulu’s Jazz Club. River Daughter draws influence from the recordings of the Jimmy Giuffre 3, or John Zorn’s ‘News for Lulu’ trio, records in which the musical function of each instrument was never set in stone, and something surprising was always ready to fill the absence of a rhythm section.
Emily is regularly called to play in The National Concert Hall’s Eco Band, led by Riona Sally Hartman. This band provides educational and outreach performances to children in schools or with their families. The repertoire is largely comprised of jazz arrangements of popular and children’s songs.
Emily works closely with singer-songwriter Gemma Cox as the guitarist in her band and arranger of guitar parts. She features on Gemma’s first EP ‘Tall Stories’ which was released in 2022 and on her latest single “What If?” released in March 2024. She has performed with Gemma for a number of headline shows across Ireland as well as support act for Soda Blonde and for festivals such as Feile na mBán and Bealtaine Festival.
Emily is also a passionate teacher with The Jam Music Company. She specialises in one-to one guitar and theory lessons for students of all ages and abilities. Emily was delighted to be asked to teach on Ireland’s first Jazz Camp for Girls in the summer of 2023 and is excited to work on the project again in 2024