Laoise Kelly Harp Workshop at The John McFadden Weekend

Harp Workshop with Laoise Kelly

Harper Laoise Kelly is from Westport and now lives on Achill Island. She learned her music at home and from great local heroes like John Hoban, Pat Friel, Liam Grealis and Jennie Kilroy. In 2020 she was awarded TG4 Gradam Ceoil Musician of the Year. She has recorded three solo albums and two duo albums with fiddle player Michelle O’Brien and uilleann piper Tiarnán Ó Duinnchinn. Laoise was a founding member of trad groups ‘Bumblebees’, and ‘Fiddletree’, from America, Cape Breton and Scotland who play eight instruments made from the same tree. She collaborates regularly with Tiarnán Ó Duinnchinn, fiddler Tola Custy, box players Breanndán Begley and Josephine Marsh, fiddler Tara Breen and singer Nell Ní Chróinín. Her harp has brought her all over the world performing and teaching.

“Her right hand fires out tunes with a fluidity, creativity and clarity that has revolutionised the harp as a solo instrument; her left hand is the source of a new voice in the world of accompaniment and groove, rooted in her engagement with the contemporary world of guitar, bouzouki, bodhrán and keyboard while being distinct in its own right. Laoise has made it OK for a harp to sit in the centre of the session and be the heart of the trad band headlining the festival.” – Niall Keegan, Irish World Academy, UL.

Tickets available here