Iarla Ó Lionáird

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Twice Grammy-nominated sean-nós singer Iarla Ó Lionáird reunites with fellow member of The Gloaming, hardanger d’amore fiddle visionary Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, alongside pianist-composer Cormac McCarthy. This new trio traces luminous paths between Irish song and folk instrumental tradition, contemporary classical music and jazz.

Iarla Ó Lionáird’s voice has long occupied a place between worlds: rooted in the unaccompanied sean-nós tradition of his native West Cork, yet equally at home within contemporary classical, electronic and orchestral settings. Here, it becomes the focal point for a newly formed trio of exceptional subtlety and range.

Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh’s ten-string Hardanger d’amore surrounds the voice with bowed lines, drones and shimmering sympathetic resonance. Cormac McCarthy’s piano brings a different dimension: spacious and lyrical, but informed by his deep experience of jazz, traditional music and large-scale orchestral arrangement. Together, the three musicians create a sound that can move from near silence to startling intensity.

The programme draws on Irish-language songs and poetry, Iarla’s solo repertoire and music associated with The Gloaming. Iarla and Caoimhín were central to that group’s transformation of Irish traditional music into a new form of chamber music, heard at the Royal Albert Hall, Lincoln Center, Sydney Opera House and across an extended series of residencies at Dublin’s National Concert Hall.