Caitríona O'Leary Celebrates 'Burns Night' In Honour of Scottish Poet Robert Burns

On Saturday January 23rd, Heresy Records’ recording artist, Caitríona O’Leary, will perform the 34th installment of Unaccompanied her weekly series of micro-concerts live-streamed on Facebook every Saturday at 2:30 PM Dublin time (GMT 1:00).  For Unaccompanied 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 Unaccompanied 34 O’Leary will be celebrating “Burns Night” which is traditionally observed on 25^th January, the birthday of Robert (Rabbie) Burns (1759-1796), known as the Bard of Scotland and one of the great Scottish literary and musical figures. Along with writing some of the most admired poetry of the late 18^th century, Burns was an omnivorous researcher and collector or Scottish traditional and folk music. He also wrote hundreds of lyrics and songs. Among these is the famous New Year’s song Auld Lang Syne (1788). For her pre-celebration of “Burns Night” Caitríona will sing a selection of songs by Robert Burns including: Red, Red Rose, Ae Fond Kiss,The Heather Was Blooming and Hey Ca' Thro'.

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 May 2^nd concert 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.

Unaccompanied 34: Programme – Saturday January 23, 2021

Red, Red Rose

Ae Fond Kiss

The Heather Was Blooming

Hey Ca' Thro'                                                                      

UNACCOMPANIED: FEATURING CAITRÍONA O’LEARY

EVERY SATURDAY 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

 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.