Saileog Ní Cheannabháin
Saileog Ní Cheannabháin is a musician, singer and composer. A native Irish speaker, who grew up in Dublin, her sean-nós singing style is mainly influenced by singers from Iorras Aithneach in the Connemara Gaeltacht, where she spent a lot of time over the years.
She plays Irish traditional music on fiddle, piano and viola, and also studied classical piano for twelve years at DIT, mainly with Shirin Tobin, and subsequently continued lessons at University College Cork, with Andrew Zolinsky and Tra Nguyen. Saileog had the opportunity to study many genres of music and experience and explore various approaches to music during her time at UCC. Having graduated with a BMus (2009), UCC awarded her the Seán Ó Riada Prize, for a study of the Songs and Singers of Iorras Aithneach. In 2012, Saileog released I bhfíor-dheiriú oidhche, an album of sean nós songs that were collected in the 1940s by Seamus Ennis, from various singers in Iorras Aithneach, Connemara.
One of Saileog’s current projects includes arrangements of sean nós songs from Connemara and An Rinn, as part of a duet with Ailbhe Nic Dhonncha from An Rinn, Waterford.
Saileog Ní Cheannabháin - Rotihleán (2016)
“Her Connemara singing style is a delight: unhurried, ornamented with extreme care, and propelled by a vocal range that makes even the classic Róisín Dubh her own. Ní Cheannabháin’s fiddle and viola mine the deeper seams of her tune choices with grace, but it’s her piano lines that really prick up the listener’s ears”
Siobhan Long, The Irish Times
“The tune is given plenty of air, showing off how well she has translated fiddle and other ornaments to the piano, never the easiest instrument on which to bring out the shape and feel of traditional tunes on – and while cascading triplets, rolls, and scads of cuts undoubtedly help this, it’s the phrasing, the emphases, the stresses, and the rhythm that catch the ear more than anything”
The Journal of Music
“an even-handed and persuasive demonstration of her talents… it’s an experience to be savoured, not to be rushed…there’s a lot of music and song on this one CD, and it repays the time taken to listen through, with the benefit of the fine booklet notes”
David Kidman, The Living Tradition
“Roithleán contains one hour and twenty minutes of excellent, well researched and exquisitely delivered music. The expansive sleeve notes are a testament to Saileog’s devotion to this musical genre, and in particular to the music of past generations, much of which is still buried away in archives and attics. Ní Cheannabháin’s command of song, piano and fiddle, makes her one of the most extraordinary and wide-ranging musicians of her time, and Roithleán is a demonstration of that”
Rawbar Magazine
Produced and Engineered by Jack Talty
Artwork and Photography by Maurice Gunning
Saileog Ní Cheannabháin - i bhfíor-dheiriú oídhche (2012)
“For lovers of sean nós, Saileog Ní Cheannabháin’s debut is an Aladdin’s cave of treasures. A muscular, confident debut”
The Irish Times
Produced and Engineered by Jack Talty