A Woman's Touch

Prior to their first U.S. tour, the Echo finds out more about Ireland's newest musical sensation

In less than a year, Irish vocal group Celtic Woman have achieved an enviable level of success.

Their gold selling, eponymously titled debut album and DVD are currently top of the U.S. world music charts. This week, they kick off their first U.S. tour in Cleveland, which will take them to 23 cities over the next four months, culminating in a performance at New York's Carnegie Hall in November.

Celtic Woman is the brainchild of Irish composer David Downes, a onetime musical director of Riverdance who has worked with artists such as Charlotte Church and Bonnie Tyler.

The group comprises vocalists Orla Fallon, Chloe Agnew, Lisa Kelly, Meav Ni Mhaolchatha and fiddle player Mairead Nesbitt.

Formed in September of 2004, Celtic Woman's debut tour received critical acclaim in Ireland. However, the group's chance to crack the U.S. market came when PBS decided to broadcast their sellout concert in Dublin's Helix Theater.

"We were so lucky that PBS were interested in filming our show," said Fallon in an interview with the Echo. "That was an amazing break."

In March, Celtic Woman performed on the Today show as part of the St. Patrick's celebrations in New York.

"The response to us over here has been so positive and so supportive," she said. Fallon attributes the success of Celtic Woman to their broad musical appeal.

"It's a lovely mix of vocal numbers and music," she said. "As a group, we have a broad spectrum of styles with traditional, classical and songs we wrote ourselves. The show will appeal to everyone. It will appeal to older people, it will appeal to musical highbrows. Last year, I brought my young, very cool sisters along to one of the shows and they loved it."

In spite of their album's success, live performance is what Celtic Woman love best, according to Fallon.

"You can't beat getting out in front of a live audience, its magical," she said.

"We feel their energy and want to give them something really great."

In addition to singing, Orla is an accomplished harpist who has performed at the National Concert Hall in Dublin and the Opera House in Belfast. In September 2000, she played for Pope John Paul II in Rome. She gives regular performances at Aras an Uachtaran for the President of Ireland.

Chloe Agnew, the daughter of composer David Agnew and well-known Irish entertainer Twink, has been singing since she was six years old. At twelve years of age, she released her debut album, "Walking in the Air."

Mother-of-two Lisa Kelly was lead female vocalist for the American Touring production of Riverdance. She has just finished filming her first Solo DVD.

Meav Ni Mhaolchatha has released two solo albums and has performed her own music at festivals worldwide, including the Celtic Festival in Tokyo. In 2002, she headlined at an open-air festival in Seoul as part of the Korean World Cup celebrations.

Former all-Ireland fiddle champion Mairead Nesbitt is a professional violinist with the RTE Concert Orchestra. She has worked with an enviable list of music stars from Van Morrision to Emmylou Harris. Last September, she performed for Princess Anne during her secret visit to Dublin.

With such strong solo backgrounds, is there any rivalry between the Celtic Women?

"No, none at all," Orla insists. "When Celtic Woman first started, we didn't really know each other but we all get on really well. I'm not exaggerating when I say that; there's no competitiveness at all, we really encourage each other."

For Fallon, Carnegie Hall will mark the pinnacle of her career to date.

"It has been a longtime dream of mine," she said. "I get emotional just thinking about it."

This article was written in the issue of July 20 - 26, 2005
(c) 2006 Irish Echo Newspaper Corp.

This story appeared in the issue of April 5 - 11, 2006
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