Christy Doran was born in Dublin (Ireland) and has lived in Lucerne (Switzerland) since his childhood. His father was an Irish ballad singer, providing Christy with his first exposure to music.
In the 1970s he was a founding member (along with Fredy Studer, Urs Leimgruber and Bobby Burri) of the seminal Swiss band “OM”. Tours throughout Europe, radio/TV-appearances, workshops, music for ballet, theatre and film. Over the years, his career has included countless solo concerts, in which he regularly pushes to the limits the capabilities of a single guitar. He has played in duos with Marty Ehrlich, Harry Pepl, Fritz Hauser, Dave Doran, Dom Um Romão, John Wolf-Brennan, Robert Dick, Ray Anderson, among others. After playing in a trio with Jasper van´t Hof, he went on to form the “Christy Doran´s May 84” septet with Norma Winstone, Trilok Gurtu, Urs Leimgruber, Rosko Gee, Dom Um Romão and Dave Doran. He has been a member of the “Peter Warren Quartet” with Victor Lewis and John Surman, and “RED TWIST & TUNED ARROW” with Stephan Wittwer and Fredy Studer (1985 – 1987).

Christy Doran was also a co-founder of “Doran/Studer/Burri/Magnenat,” (later “Doran/Studer/Gerber/Magnenat”) and member of a quartet with Bobby Previte, Mark Helias and Gary Thomas. He played in a trio with Marilyn Mazur and Kim Clarke, as well as with Sibylle Pomorin´s “Augeries of Speed” meeting Terry Jenoure, Annie Whitehead, Kim Clarke, Herb Robertson, and Kamal Sabir. As a member of Urs Leimgruber´s “Ensemble Bleu” he also played with Françoise Kubler, Louis Sclavis, Hans Koch.
Other performances have included work with Carla Bley, Albert Mangelsdorff, Bob Stewart, Edward Vesala, Charlie Mariano, Manfred Schoof, Iréne Schweizer, Aldo Romano, Piérre Favre, Peter Schärli, Glenn Ferris, Wolfgang Dauner, Fernando Saunders, Heiri Känzig, Julio Barreto, Sonny Sharrock, Jim Meneses, Kevin Bruce Harris, Martin Schütz, Daniel Mouton, Ronan Guilfoyle, Marc Peterson, Burhan Öçal, Werner Lüdi, Christoph Baumann, Lars Lindvall, Mark Halbheer, Urs Blöchlinger, Günter Müller, Lauren Newton, Tim Berne, Jim Black, Gunther Schuller, Airto Moreira a.o. He has toured in Europe, North-Africa, India, the Caribbean, Mexico, Bolivia, the U.S. and Canada.