Artist Details![]() Caitríona O'LearyKategorie: SängerVon den Kritikern wird ihr Stimme häufig als engelgleich und ätherisch beschrieben. Diese Attribute verbindet die Sängerin Caitríona O’ Leary mit der Fähigkeit, ihren Zuhörern das gesamte Spektrum an Emotionen zu vermitteln, das sich in den gesungenen Worten verbirgt. Und sie verfügt über eine seltene Qualität: Bühnenpräsenz. Noch bevor der ersten Ton erklungen ist, hat sie ihr Publikum in ihren Bann gezogen. BiografieCaitríona O’Leary is known for her intense and passionate performances of Early Music and Traditional Irish song.
In 2011 she served as music director and starred in eX’s production of Christ Lag in Todes Banden at the Regensburg Early Music Festival. She also performed Ansacht Na Ansacht, a duo-concert of early Irish music with harpist, Andrew Lawrence-King at the Montalbâne International Festival of Medieval Music (Germany), an Irish tour of eX’s acclaimed production of Shipwrecked which culminated in a performance at the Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queens. She is featured on a new recording, Emblem, also released in 2011 with frequent collaborator, singer, Clara Sanabras. BIOGRAPHY Caitríona’s performing activities in 2010 included a national tour of Australia with The Harp Consort, Possessed, a production which she performed in and created for the Galway Early Music Festival, performances as featured soloist in London, Portsmouth, Bristol and Cambridge for Harvey Brough’s Requiem in Blue. She also performed in a concert with University College Cork’s Gamelan Orchestra and toured throughout Ireland (sponsored by the Arts Council), in a concert titled Ecstasy with her band Dúlra.
As co-artistic director of eX, the Irish-based early music performance company she founded, she has conceived, led and sang in several critically acclaimed works for the stage. These include; Possessed(2010), a work exploring diverse cultural and psychological manifestations of trance and possesion, Shipwrecked (2009), a renaissance cabaret oratorio based on the adventures of a shipwrecked captain from the Spanish Armada, Motion of the Heart (2009), an English masque that celebrated the virtues of the human heart, Songs from a Gothic Room (2009), featuring music of the Ars Nova and Ars Subtiliorwith music direction by the celebrated medievalist Pedro Memelsdorff, The Rape of the Lock, a baroque spectacle combining a staging of Alexander Pope’s poem interpolated with Handel duets with music director Christopher Hogwood, BAROCK, a staged concert of early German baroque cantatas with Konrad Junghänel, Christ Lag in Todes Banden (2007), a hallucinatory theatricalization of Bach’s first cantata and the sources that inspired it and Ex Tenebris (2006), a dance theatre dream work set to Christmas music of the middle ages and the renaissance. As a member of the early music ensembles The Harp Consort, Sequentia and Joglaresa, Caitríona has toured throughout North America, Europe, Mexico, Australia and Israel, including such venues as The Royal Albert Hall, Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall and Cité de la Musique and has appeared at numerous festivals including, the Utrecht Early Music Festival, Festival Cervantino Guanajuato, Festival Interceltique de Lorient. As a member of these ensembles and others she has made 17 commercial recordings.
She is a featured soloist on four upcoming recordings that will be released internationally in 2012 on Heresy Records.
Her two solo CDs (with her band Dúlra), I am Stretched on Your Grave (BMG Classics/DHM) and Dúil, Irish Songs of Love and Nature (EMI/Virgin Classics) were released to rave reviews in 2000, and 2001, and continue to haunt radio playlists in Ireland and abroad.
While living in New York, Caitríona was a member of Banshee, a collective of Irish women artists whose offbeat performances became a fixture on the downtown scene. After relocating to Dublin, Caitríona wrote and starred in "The Stolen Child", a fully staged musical theatre work, which toured Ireland for over 30 performances. She also wrote and performed the soundtrack to Emer Martin’s film “Unaccompanied”. ReviewsIt was in [Caitriona O'Leary's] performance of Carolan’s lamentation for his dear friend MacCabe that O’Leary revealed a mastery of Irish singing, achieving Andrew Lawrence King’s ambition for the ensemble of taking the audience ‘on a journey- not just to a place, but also to a time.’ Jennifer Gall, The Canberra Times (May 2010)
Steve Moffat, The North Shore Times (May 2010)
Clive O’Connell, The Age (May 2010)
REVIEWS Singer Caitriona O’Leary has a voice free of modern operatic vibrato and projection… [she] created intense and pure sweet notes in Carolan’s Lamentation for his friend MacCabe. Peter McCallum, Sydney Morning Herald (May 2010)
Gillian Wills, The Australian (May 2010)
“[O’Leary’s] caressing tones…fit seamlessly into a consistent fabric of sound and expression” The Wall Street Journal “The gentle tones of Caitríona O’Leary were lovely” The Boston Globe “Do not hesitate for a second! Caitríona O’Leary has one of those incredibly crystalline voices that roots you to the spot” La Vie. “It is singing a cappella that Caitríona O’Leary is at her most moving and where she best presents a very rare and very lovely repertoire.” Le Monde de la Musique “downright angelic” St. Louis Post-Dispatch “I relished the flavors of the individual voices and characters…the focused calm of Caitríona O’Leary” Boston Bay Windows “The clear voice, like a flowing river, and gracious silhouette, of Caitríona O’Leary has also accompanied the ensemble Sequentia and the Harp Consort” Valeurs Actuelles “Spreading a poignant pall over the proceedings, O’Leary’s lamenting voice rose and fell flawlessly, entrancing the audience with heart-wrenching songs.” The Irish Echo “Vocal grace, majestic formal fluidity, from traditional Irish ballads to early music: a disc (Dúil, Irish Songs of Love and Nature), which unites tradition and sensuality” Geo “Her singing style, clear articulation, and beautiful soprano voice – with or without accompaniment – are brought to great effect in these and all the songs in Dúil” Irish Music Magazine “Here is a disc (Dúil, Irish Songs of Love and Nature) that revels in the joy of singing and of making music and the joy of being alive” La Marseillaise “Wonderful interpretation by Caitríona O’Leary and her band” Femme Actuelle “[O’Leary] creates an elegiac atmosphere with her clear voice and authentic Gaelic pronunciation” The Plain Dealer“seamless, ethereal sean nós voice” The Irish Echo Discography
Motion of the Heart/¡Viva Frida! Dublin Drag Orchestra 2012 Heresy 003
Shipwrecked eX 2012 Heresy 001
Ecstasy Caitríona O'Leary and Dúlra 2012 Heresy 002
Carolan's Harp The Harp Consort and Andrew Lawrence-King 2009 Deutsche Harmonia Mundi
Dúil: Irish Songs of Love and Nature Caitriona O'Leary and Dúlra 2000 Virgin Classics 7243 5 45363 2 8
Táim Sínte ar do Thuama: I am Stretched on your Grave Caitríona O'Leary and Dúlra 2000 Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 05472 77393 2 DISCOGRAPHY Ludus Danielis: The Play of Daniel The Harp Consort and Andrew Lawrence-King 1998 Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 05472 77395 2
Aquitania: Christmas Music from Aquitanian Monasteries Sequentia (Vox Feminae) 1997 Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 05472 77383 2
Shining Light: Music from Aquitanian Monasteries (12th Century) Sequentia (Vox Feminae) 1996 Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 05472 77370 2 Upcoming EventsDúlra perform Ecstasy 14 June 2013 St. John's Smith Square, London,
Caitríona O'Leary and Dúlra perform the Geantraí or Irish songs of joy and rapture from their Heresy-released album Ecstasy.
Caitríona O’Leary – Singer Adrian Hart - Fiddle Eamon Galldubh - Flute/Whistle lioba Petrie - Cello Frank Torpey – Bodhrán Andrea Piccioni - Frame drums
Dúlra at Beethovenfest 2013, Bonn 26 September 2013: Ecstasy 27 September 2013: Ansacht na nAnsacht
Bonn's annual festival host two concerts by Caitríona O'Leary and Dúlra. The first is Ecstasy, a bouquet of songs and dances that express an irrepressible joy of life. The second isAnsacht na nAnsacht or Love of Loves, a programme of rarely-heard, passionate traditional Irish songs.
Wexford Carols 6 December 2013, Droichead Arts Centre 7 December 2013, Glór
In 1684 Luke Wadding, Bishop of Ferns, published A Smale Garland of Pious & Godly Songs in Ghent. Fr. William Devereux in 1728 composed A New Garland Containing Songs for Christmas. These two collections along with the famous Enniscorthy Carol form the basis of the repertoire of Wexford carol singing (particularly in the parish of Kilmore) and, more significantly, the greatest body of Irish folk carols.
The Wadding and Devereux garlands contain lyrics for 22 Christmas songs. Approximately half of these carols are presently sung and many of them are sung to the same 3 tunes, for only 6 of the original melodies are extant.
The music for the remaining 16 carols is considered lost and unknown. Through her own research over the past 15 years, Caitríona O’Leary has discovered 4 additional melodies for the lyrics from the two garlands, she expects to find several more. Her research and exploration will be the basis of Wexford Carols. The programme will bring this overlooked and remarkable repertoire to the attention of the general public and result in public performances of the carols, many of which have not been heard for perhaps the past 200 years.
Caitríona O’Leary – Voice Adrian Hart – Fiddle Emer Mayock – Flute, Whistles Kate Ellis – Cello plus guests
EVENTS
Past Events: Drumsongs
Irish World Academy of Music & Dance University of Limerick Wednesday, 13 February, 6.45pm
Join singer Caitríona O’Leary and drummers Mel Mercier, Andrea Piccioni, Francesco Turrisi and Noel Eccles on an exploratory journey through traditional Irish song. Sean nós songs and ballads, straight-up and deconstructed, intertwine with traditional Irish, Italian, Indian and Javanese percussion to give listeners a new and exciting musical experience.
Deirdre O’Leary brings more sonic colours to the tonal palette with her lyrical bass and Bb clarinets, while dancer Michael Cooney adds physical movement to the mix, dancing duets with the voice.
Devised by Caitríona O’Leary, drumsongs is an innovative project that brings together exceptional artists from a variety of musical backgrounds and cultural perspectives to create a unique experience that expands the boundaries of traditional Irish music as it is performed today.
Caitríona O’Leary, voice Mel Mercier, bodhrán, bones & diverse percussion Andrea Piccioni, frame drums Francesco Turrisi, percussion Noel Eccles, percussion Deirdre O’Leary, bass & Bb clarinets Michael Cooney, dance
Made possible by a Deis grant from The Arts Council
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Caitríona O'Leary

Tower Theatre