Born and raised in Cork, Ireland, Cian began playing piano at the age of five. He progressed quickly, winning several piano competitions as a young teenager and at the age of seventeen was awarded a scholarship to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 2007, Cian graduated with a degree in Composition and was given the Jazz Piano Award. He also took 3rd Prize in the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory's International Competition for Young Composers.
At just 23, after relocating to New York City, Cian began conducting the Tony and Grammy Award winning musical IN THE HEIGHTS and, since then, has conducted and/or performed for such shows as AVENUE Q, THE BOOK OF MORMON, FROZEN and MISS SAIGON. In 2012, he played keyboards for the world premiere of the score to Lin-Manuel Miranda's HAMILTON at Lincoln Center and that same year he was nominated for a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Best Musical Direction of Armistead Maupin’s TALES OF THE CITY (music by the Scissor Sisters and direction by Jason Moore). From 2012 to 2016 he served as Music Director of Broadway's THE BOOK OF MORMON and has traveled to London's West End and Sydney, Australia to musically supervise the mounting of the award-winning production in both countries.
Most recently, Cian has worked regularly as a composer, arranger and/or orchestrator for several productions in development including Young Jean Lee's WE'RE GONNA DIE and INVISIBLE THREAD at New York’s Second Stage Theatre (directed by Tony-Winner Diane Paulus) and BURN ALL NIGHT at American Repertory Theater in Boston. In 2016, Cian composed an original score and produced the soundtrack for SOMETHING LIKE SUMMER, the feature film adaptation Jay Bell's best-selling novel (now available on Amazon, Google Play, iTunes and Youtube Movies).
Upcoming projects include creating orchestrations for the new musical LEMPICKA - starring Eden Espinosa and led by TONY-winning director, Rachel Chavkin (HADESTOWN), supervising and orchestrating the new musical ONLY GOLD - music by BRIT-Award winner Kate Nash, direction and choreography by TONY-Winner Andy Blankenbuehler - and is serving as the Associate Music Supervisor for MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL mounting the TONY-winning Best Musical in London and Australia.