Máire Ní Chathasaigh

Biography

Máire is “the doyenne of Irish harp players” (SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY) and 2001 recipient of Irish music’s most prestigious Award, Gradam Ceoil TG4 – Musician of the Year – “for the excellence and pioneering force of her music, the remarkable growth she has brought to the music of the harp in Ireland and for the positive influence she has had on the young generation of harpers.” A multiple All-Ireland and Pan-Celtic winner, Máire developed profoundly influential techniques for harp performance of traditional Irish music in the 1970s and in 1985 recorded the first harp album ever to concentrate on traditional Irish dance music, The New-Strung Harp – “a masterpiece of virtuosity… a mile-stone in Irish harp music” (THE EVENING ECHO). She has subsequently made seven duo albums with guitarist Chris Newman, two quartet albums with the Heartstring Quartet and a trio album, Sibling Revelry, with her sisters (The Casey Sisters) – all critically-acclaimed. Her “celebrated virtuoso partnership” (THE DAILY TELEGRAPH) with guitarist Chris Newman has toured in twenty-three countries to venues ranging from the tiniest of village halls to palaces in Kyoto and Istanbul, London’s Barbican, Sydney Town Hall and Cologne’s Philharmonie. 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.

Tunes Máire has composed have been recorded by Lúnasa, Dan ar Bras, Tony McManus and many others.

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

In a class of her own
THE GUARDIAN