Ceara Conway presents

CAOIN

Ceara Conway performs a collection of sean-nós and world music songs exploring love, loss and longing in traditional song – with Kevin Murphy (cello), Ultan O’Brien (viola, fiddle) and Anna Mullarkey (piano, electronics).

Known for her unique use of traditional song and lament in contemporary art, for this performance vocalist/artist Ceara Conway collaborates with musicians Kevin Murphy (cello) and Ultan O’Brien (viola, fiddle) of Slow Moving Clouds, and Anna Mullarkey (piano, electronics) to bring you a collection of sean-nós and world music songs that explore the beautiful sounds and sentiments of love, loss and longing, found in traditional praise songs, lullabies with core emphasis on the traditional Irish ‘caoineadh’, lament.

Ceara Conway has gained recognition for her singing in traditional repertoires across cultures from Irish traditional sean-nós, to Portuguese, Arabic and African song and Georgian Chant. The essence of her music is its unique hybridity, a merging of her love and respect for tradition coupled with her interest in new styles, genres and contemporary music.

Performers: Ceara Conway – vocals Kevin Murphy – cello Ultan O’Brien – violin, viola Anna Mullarkey – piano, electronics

This CAOIN tour is produced by glór following the commissioned premiere at glór in April 2022, kindly supported by The Arts Council. glór celebrates its 21st birthday this autumn.

CAOIN the album is commissioned by Creative Ireland Galway County Council.

‘Conway provides heartfelt interpretations throughout, adroitly pitched vocals matched by delicate, poetically evocative accompaniments. Sung entirely in Irish, CAOIN pitches Ceara Conway at the forefront of a new generation of sean-nós singers’

★★★★★ Songlines Magazine

‘As if it were possible for the smell of a hearth and home to be preserved in a jar for hundreds of years, or the taste of a meal frozen in ice to be thawed and tasted again after centuries, Ceara's rendition of the ancient 'An Caoineadh' is truly the sound of an emotion transported through the ages to be felt by anyone who hears it now.’

Myles O’Reilly

‘I loved playing on and listening back to An Caoineadh. The ebow piano drones and plucked piano integrate so seamlessly with the beautiful strings and create a delicate ever shifting palette of colours as background to the purity of your voice and of this melody.’

Francesco Turrisi