TG4 Irish Traditional Musician of the Year 2001

“The doyenne of Irish harp players” - Scotland on Sunday

"The most interesting & original player of our Irish harp today"
- Derek Bell

Welcome / Fáilte!

Máire Ní Chathasaigh is “the great innovator of modern Irish harping, a player of outstanding technique and imagination” (THE ROUGH GUIDE TO IRISH MUSIC), “the doyenne of Irish harp players” (SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY), "an absolute legend" (THE IRISH ECHO) and one of Ireland’s most important and influential traditional musicians. She was the 2001 recipient of Irish music’s most prestigious Award, that of MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR - GRADAM CEOIL TG4 - "for the excellence and pioneering force of her music, the remarkable growth she has brought to the music of the harp and for the positive influence she has had on the young generation of harpers".

As a teenager in the 1970s she invented a whole new “traditional Irish” style of harping that quickly became the norm amongst both her contemporaries and the younger generation of Irish players, thereby spearheading the re-introduction of the harp into the mainstream of the living tradition. She was described by the late Derek Bell as “the most interesting and original player of the Irish harp today”. She won the All-Ireland and Pan-Celtic Harp Competitions several times and in 1985 recorded the first harp album ever to concentrate on traditional Irish dance music, The New-Strung Harp - "an intensely passionate and intelligent record and a milestone in Irish harp music" THE IRISH EXAMINER. It was re-released by Old Bridge Music on 8 September, 2023. (Listen to it on Spotify here.)

"Her work restores the harp to its voice." THE IRISH TIMES

She has made seven duo albums with guitarist Chris Newman, two quartet albums with the Heartstring Quartet (Chris, Máire, her sister Nollaig and Nollaig's late husband, Arty McGlynn) and a trio album with her sisters Nollaig and Mairéad (The Casey Sisters).

Her partnership with Chris Newman, “one of the UK’s greatest guitarists” (BBC RADIO 2), has toured in twenty-four countries to venues ranging from the tiniest of village halls and historic European churches to palaces in Kyoto and Istanbul, London’s Barbican, Sydney Town Hall and Cologne's Philharmonie with their distinctive mix of traditional Irish music, hot jazz, bluegrass and baroque - and striking new compositions.

“Dazzling virtuosity” THE DAILY TELEGRAPH “Music of fire and brilliance from the high-wire act in traditional music” * * * * THE IRISH TIMES “Their blinding technique, sizzling Irish reels and hot jazz improvisation brought an extended standing ovation… Newman has the great gift of being informative and hilarious simultaneously” THE WEST AUSTRALIAN “An eclecticism and spirit of adventure that is quite thrilling" * * * THE TIMES “In a class of their own” * * * THE GUARDIAN “Blazing guitar and dancing harp” DIRTY LINEN (USA)·”Brilliant, innovative harping and guitar-playing of astonishing virtuosity and versatility” * * * * SONGLINES

Further information about Máire is here.

A TV documentary about Máire and her sister Nollaig was broadcast on Ireland’s national Irish-language TV station TG4 in November 2020, as part of its 'Sé mo Laoch series, and has been re-broadcast a couple of times since then. Watch it here.

Folk Magazin and The Living Tradition magazine cover features; Treoir magazine cover; Bringing It All Back Home book cover
Máire was featured on the cover of Germany's Folk Magazin in June - July 2017; the accompanying feature is here. She and Chris were featured on the cover of the the April / May 2021 issue of The Living Tradition magazine; the accompanying interview is here. The front cover of a 1989 issue of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann's magazine, Treoir, featured a photo of Máire; the acccompanying article is here.

Máire's albums (in CD & download format); books (in hard copy & download format); and downloadable individual harp pieces and arrangements can be ordered from our Old Bridge Music online shop.

Listen...
....to Máire & Chris play Maurice O'Connor, George Brabazon & The Crooked Road live on KALW (California) Radio's Folk Music & Beyond:

Listen...
...to the newly-remastered (2023) version of Máire's ground-breaking 1985 solo album The New-Strung Harp on Spotify here.

... to Máire playing her compositions with Sharon Shannon, Dónal Lunny, her sister Nollaig Casey and other luminaries of the Celtic music world on Tracks 5 & 13 of Dan ar Braz's Gold Disc-awarded album for Sony France, Finisterres, on Spotify here.

Watch...
...Máire playing her own compositions (slip-jig 'The Chestnut Tree' and reels 'Ríl an tSuaimhnis' and 'The Copper Hills of Beara') with Chris at the televised ceremony at the Cork Opera House on the night she was awarded Gradam Ceoil TG4 - Musician of the Year.

Gradam Ceoil TG4:
Musician of the Year 2001
Information about the award.
Press coverage of the award.

Autumn 2024 tour schedule

Click here for full details.

Máire's classic 1985 album, The New Strung Harp, has been remastered, given new artwork, and re-released by Old Bridge Music

The New Strung Harp, Máire's ground-breaking solo album, is of historical significance as the first harp album ever to concentrate on traditional Irish dance music, but also features songs in English and Irish and Scottish Gaelic, and pieces from the 17th- and 18th-century Irish harp tradition. It was first released in 1985 by Scotland-based Temple Records to much critical acclaim. It was described as "An intensely passionate and intelligent record... a masterpiece of virtuosity... a milestone in Irish harp music" by the CORK EVENING ECHO (Ireland), as "A classic exercise in music-making" by THE SCOTSMAN, as "Exquisite... exhilarating harp virtuosity... an undoubted classic" by THE IRISH PRESS, and "Sublime... Máire is an absolute legend" by THE IRISH ECHO

Before his death in 2021, Robin Morton, the owner of Temple Records, decided to wind up the company and very kindly gifted the the album rights back to the recording artists. The New Strung Harp has therefore been digitally remastered, given a new cover and artwork (though it still features the original cover painting by Colm Murphy) and was re-released by Old Bridge Music on 8 September, 2023. It's now available in CD and download format from our Old Bridge Music online shop.

Some reviews the album received after its first release in 1985:
"A milestone in Irish harp music" "An intensely passionate and intelligent record" "A work of art" "The harp album I’ve been waiting for" "A classic exercise in music-making" "Intricate, subtle, inventive, captivating, exhilarating, spellbinding - a truly beautiful album" "One of the loveliest albums for many a year... if you have tears to shed, prepare to shed them" "Magical" "Unquestionably deserves to be hailed as a classic exercise in music-making" "Extraordinary: a labour of love and a joy to the listener" "An ornate, astonishing, glorious record" "Exhilarating harp virtuosity... From her deep knowledge and love of her music she has developed a unique approach to the harp and to ornamentation which makes this album an undoubted classic".

Further details and tracklisting here.

The Second Edition of The Irish Harper Volume Two: 24 Pieces by Turlough O’Carolan Arranged for the Irish Harp by Máire Ní Chathasaigh was published on 25 July, 2022. It contains original arrangements of 24 of Carolan's beautiful tunes (with suggested fingering), a brief biography of Carolan, historical notes on the pieces and performance guidance. The arrangements are suitable for intermediate to advanced players.

The book was first published by Old Bridge Music in 2001. It has been amended, updated and given a new cover for the Second Edition, published in July 2022.

More information and purchase links here.

Máire's previous book of harp arrangements, The Irish Harper Volume One , is available in both hard copy and downloadable pdf format here (just scroll down the page) and her arrangements of 'DonOíche Úd i mBeithil', 'Fan mar a bhfuil tú, a Chladhaire' (Stay where you are, you rogue), 'Molly St George', 'Connamara', 'Lady Gethin', 'The Lost Summer' and 'The Song of the Harp' (the latter available for both solo harp and harp duet) are now available in downloadable pdf format and can be purchased here.

More news...

Máire and Chris on the front cover of the new April / May 2021 issue of The Living Tradition.
More covers below, here and here...

Máire on the front cover of the June-July 2017 issue of Folk Magazin (Germany).
The accompanying interview is here.
More covers above, here and here...

A documentary about Máire and her sister Nollaig (also featuring their sister Mairéad in addition to Chris and Nollaig's late husband Arty McGlynn) was broadcast on TG4 on November 29th, 2020, as part of its 'SéŽ mo Laoch' series. (TG4 is Ireland's national Irish-language TV station.)
You can watch it on the TG4 Player here.

Poster for the premiere of the Casey Sisters' work, Corcach: A Journey, commissioned by the 2018 Cork Folk Festival.
Corcach Mór na Mumhan, or the Great Marsh of Munster, gave Cork its name.·Corcach·is a collection of original·music inspired by the city’s·colourful history,·from its 7th century monastic origins through to its vibrant present.

"First-class musicianship... wonderfully
atmospheric" * * * * The Daily Telegraph

"Intimacy and intuition are at the heart of this radiant collection... a treat" * * * * The Irish Times

"Blissfully beautiful... channelling mythology, nostalgia and geography to bewitching effect in heartfelt music" * * * * Songlines
More reviews here and here...

Latest

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