Máire Ní Chathasaigh facts for kids
Máire Ní Chathasaigh (born in 1956) is a famous Irish harp player, composer, and singer. She is known for her amazing skills and for bringing new life to traditional Irish harp music.
Biography
Máire was born in Bandon, County Cork, Ireland, into a musical family. She started playing the harp when she was eleven years old. She created new ways to play the harp, which made it possible to perform traditional Irish dance music perfectly on the instrument.
She won many important harp competitions. She won the All-Ireland (Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann) harp competitions for players under fourteen and under eighteen. Then, in the mid-1970s, she won the Senior All-Ireland competition three years in a row! She also won the Pan-Celtic Harp Competition at both junior and senior levels.
In 1985, she released The New-Strung Harp. This was the first harp album to focus mainly on traditional Irish dance music. Her new playing style made her very popular in the world of Celtic music.
Her musical partnership with English guitarist Chris Newman began in 1987. They performed together for the first time at the Cambridge Folk Festival. Since then, they have toured as a duo all over Europe, North America, Australia, and Japan.
In 1988, they recorded The Living Wood, their first album together. They have since recorded six more albums as a duo. They also made a quartet album called Heartstring Sessions. For this album, they were joined by Máire's sister Nollaig Casey and Nollaig's husband Arty McGlynn. These four musicians toured together as the Heartstring Quartet. In 2015, Máire recorded a trio album, Sibling Revelry, with her sisters Nollaig Casey and Mairéad Ní Chathasaigh. All their albums have received great reviews from music critics.
Máire has been teaching her unique harp ideas and techniques since the mid-1970s. She has taught in Ireland, the UK, Europe, North America, and Australia. Her special arrangements for the harp have been published in two books, The Irish Harper Vols. I and II. She also has a degree in Celtic Studies from University College Cork. She has taught at the Cork Municipal School of Music and at the Leeds College of Music. One of her students was the Scottish harpist Corrina Hewat.
In 2001, Máire received the TG4 Gradam Ceoil Ceoltóir na Bliana / Musician of the Year award. This award recognized her excellent and groundbreaking music. It also celebrated how she helped the harp's music grow and how she positively influenced young harp players.
She has been featured on the cover of the book Bringing It All Back Home. She also appeared on the cover of Germany's Folk Magazin and Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann's magazine, Treoir. In April/May 2021, she and Chris Newman were featured on the cover and in an article in The Living Tradition magazine.
Máire is also mentioned in books like Celtic Women in Music by Mairéad Sullivan and The Rough Guide to Irish Music. A TV documentary about Máire and her sister Nollaig was shown on TG4 on November 29, 2020. It also featured their sister Mairéad, along with Chris Newman and Nollaig's late husband Arty McGlynn.
Albums
- The New Strung Harp (Temple Records, 1985)
- The Living Wood (Green Linnet, 1988; reissued by Black Crow 1989; re-mastered and reissued by Old Bridge Music 1995, OBMCD07) - with guitarist Chris Newman
- Out Of Court (Old Bridge Music OBMCD03, 1991) - with guitarist Chris Newman
- The Carolan Albums (Old Bridge Music OBMCD06,1991) - with guitarist Chris Newman
- Live In The Highlands (Old Bridge Music OBMCD08,1995) - with guitarist Chris Newman
- Dialogues / Agallaimh (Old Bridge Music OBMCD014, 2001) - with guitarist Chris Newman
- Firewire (Old Bridge Music OBMCD017, 2007) - with guitarist Chris Newman
- Heartstring Sessions (Old Bridge Music OBMCD018, 2008) - with guitarist Chris Newman, fiddler / singer Nollaig Casey and guitarist Arty McGlynn
- Christmas Lights (Old Bridge Music OBMCD20, 2013) - with guitarist Chris Newman
- Sibling Revelry (Old Bridge Music OBMCD22, 2015) - with her sisters, fiddler / composer / singer Nollaig Casey and fiddler / singer Mairéad Ní Chathasaigh (The Casey Sisters)
Books
- The Irish Harper (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2)
