Celebrate 1 May Live from Dublin with Singer Caitríona O’Leary

UNACCOMPANIED: FEATURING IRISH SINGER CAITRÍONA O’LEARY

THE FIRST SATURDAY OF EACH MONTH BEGINNING 2:30 PM (GMT 1)

FACEBOOK LINK TO CONCERT-  https://www.facebook.com/caitriona.oleary.3/

YOUTUBE CHANNEL - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-O5nz3FMldmVrdGP1eAAhw?view_as=subscriber

Unaccompanied 38: Programme – Saturday May 1, 2021

King Orfeo - traditional Shetland Islands
A Bright May Morning - traditional Irish
Kalenda Maya - Raimbaut de Vaqueiras (fl. 1180-1207), Occitan
Tiocfaidh an Samhradh - traditional Irish (Donegal)

 On Saturday 1^st May, Heresy Records’ recording artist, Caitríona O’Leary, will perform the 38th installment of Unaccompanied,  her monthly series of micro-concerts live-streamed on Facebook on the first Saturday of each month at 2:30 PM Dublin time (GMT 1:00).  For Unaccompanied 38 O’Leary performs a wide range of songs written - or intended - to be performed without accompaniment. The repertoire for Unaccompanied includes medieval songs, sean nòs, folk and traditional songs from Ireland, England, Scotland and North America among other rarely heard works. During the broadcast O’Leary speaks about the history, provenance and texts of the songs. She often performs variants of the same song which may be found in different countries and on different continents. She performs in costumes which she designs and makes for each performance. Videos of the concert are available for replay on her YouTube channel. For her May Day concert Caitríona will perform four songs. They are, King Orfeo, a traditional song from the Unst the northern most of the Shetland Islands (formerly a province of Norway, now part of Scotland). The repeating chorus known as the burden is in old Norwegian and the rest of the song is in Shetland dialect.  A Bright May Morning, a traditional Irish reel, Kalenda Maya - is a song about courtly love by one of the most famous Ocitan troubadours, Raimbaut de Vaqueiras (fl. 1180-1207), Tiocfaidh an Samhradh (The Summer will Come) a traditional Irish song from County Donegal.

Caitríona O’Leary is internationally renowned as a singer of early music, traditional Irish song and folk music. She is particularly known for her performances and recordings of unaccompanied song. In reference to a concert which she performed at Beethovenfest Bonn, the General Anzeiger wrote, “This is a special genre of vocal art, called sean nós…in this type of singing O’Leary is a master.” Her latest recording for Heresy Records, The Red Book of Ossory with her ensemble, Anakronos received five stars from the Irish Times, ArtMuseLondon called it “a singular work of genius” and RTÉ Lyric fm and The Journal of Music lauded it as “One of the records of the year”. Most recently she is featured in the short film, Love’s Fever based on the song Deh Lassa La Mia Vita from Day 7 of Boccaccio’s Decameron - Watch it here.

The idea for Unaccompanied was inspired by a 2 May 2020concert O’Leary performed as part of Ireland Performs, an online series of concerts established in response to the Covid-19 pandemic presented by Culture Ireland and Facebook Ireland.

ABOUT CAITRÍONA O’LEARY

Caitríona O’Leary (www.caitrionaoleary.com) has recorded twenty-five critically acclaimed albums with her band Dúlra and the celebrated early music ensembles Sequentia, The Harp Consort, Joglaresa, eX among others. Her recording of The Wexford Carols (producer Joe Henry, guest artists Tom Jones, Rosanne Cash, Rhiannon Giddens, Dónal Lunny) reached #1 on Billboard.

Caitríona has worked closely with many of early music's leading artists including Christopher Hogwood, Ben Bagby, Andrew Lawrence King, Konrad Junghaenel, Pedro Memelsdorff, Hille Perl, Lee Santana and many others. 

Caitríona has toured and performed around the world, including such venues as the Royal Albert Hall, Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall, Cité de la Musique and the National Concert Hall, Dublin to name a few. She regularly performs at festivals throughout Europe and beyond including Halle Handel Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn, Tage Alter Musik Herne, Utrecht Early Music Festival, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, Festival Montalbâne, Festival Cervantino Guanajuato (Mexico), Festival Interceltique de Lorient, Concerts Spirituels Geneva, Zagreb Summer Evenings Festival, Split Summer Festival (Croatia), Dublin Theatre Festival, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Belfast Festival at Queen’s, etc.