Laoise’s Story

Hebridean Festival - July '99

I grew up outside the beautiful coastal town of Westport, Co. Mayo. My first instrument was the piano on which my father taught me the basics, as well as how to read music. That was when I was six or seven. The first traditional music I learned was on the tin-whistle along with my sister Siochfradha at about eight years of age. We learned from the great piper Rory Sommers who lived in the West at the time and then from multi-instrumentalist John Hoban. John actually gave me a few lessons on the bodhran too! He taught a large amount of children and was a mighty teacher because he exposed me to the various different instruments he played - fiddle, banjo, whistle and mandola, by recording tunes on tape. Looking back, John’s easy-going attitude to the music was a very healthy influence. At the same time I was also learning classical music on the piano.

The first live music I heard at home was when I was about nine, when there were four Breton pipers and some bombard players playing in the house. They were over from Plougastel, a town in Brittany that is twinned with Westport. I remember they had to take out a window in case it broke with the shrill sound! I’m lucky to have parents who were so much into music. They listened to a lot of different types of music. At home you could hear Ray Charles as easily as De Dannan, Scott Joplan or any classical music.

Around that time, I heard Rose Jordan play the harp. Rose was an accomplished musician as were the rest of her family and I remember being in awe of the sound. A couple of years later my father, who always fancied the idea of one of his children playing the harp, went away and bought one! This was when I was twelve. For the first year my teacher was Ann Marie Scanlon. She had expert classical technique and a superb soprano voice. I had little interest in singing so I became lazy and gave up for about a year. Then my Mum brought me to lessons with Kim Fleming in Roscommon. Kim taught me a good crossover of classical and traditional tunes. She was the first person I heard playing offbeat accompaniment to tunes. I went through ‘the drill’ of grades and harp competitions.

Cape Breton - October '98

Cape Breton - October '98

The harp really interfered with my ‘tom-boy’ image(!) and I hadn’t much interest in having to wear skirts for harp competitions, although that’s what we harp players had to do at the time. It’s great that the harp’s image in Ireland has become more like other traditional instruments, because for a long time I felt like a bit of a ‘freak’!!

When I was fifteen there was a group formed called ‘Ciabh Rua’, with musicians, of the same age, from Westport, Newport and Achill, for the ‘groupa cheoil’ competition at the Fleadh. It was my first time playing the harp with other musicians and we had brilliant crack. We travelled at summer time to Scotland and Wales.

Hebrides - Again !

After school I went to college in Maynooth, but I spent most of my time busking or playing in sessions in Dublin. Then I went to UCC to do music but in the end I had no interest in studying so I moved to Galway to play in sessions. Galway was ‘the place to be’ at the time for good sessions. What developed in my playing in sessions was a better understanding of the tunes, being able to play melody up to speed with other instruments with a ‘kind of’ walking bass line.In 1994, Bill Whelan asked me to play the harp solo in "The Seville Suite", along with Davy Spillane, Maire Breathnach, Mairtin O’Connor and the Concert Orchestra. As you can imagine, I nearly died from the nerves! I had never played with such amazing musicians before, let alone a full orchestra! In the end I really enjoyed the concerts. Then in 1995 there was great exposure from the TV series ‘A River of Sound’.

…… Eventually after much encouragement over the years, I recorded a solo album ‘Just Harp’, in January 1999. Sin E!!

‘Common Ground’ - Donal Lunny, with Sinead O’Connor and Kate Bush.
‘Sult’ - TV series, with Sharon Shannon and Donal Lunny.
‘Eurovision ‘95’ - with Micheal O’Suilleabhain, Brian Kennedy and Maire Brennan.
‘Sin E E’ - TV series with Liam O’Maonlai.
‘Message of Love' - track from Mary Black’s ‘Speaking with an Angel’
‘Famine Suite’ - by Charlie Lennon, touring Australia and performed in the Lincoln Center, New York.
‘Idir dha Sholas’ - Maighread and Triona Ni Dhomhnaill.
‘Africa I remember’ - Tunde Jegede (African Kora) and the London Sinfonietta/BBC).
‘Geantrai’ - TG4 TV series with Matt Molloy.
‘Harp and Soul’ - tour of UK with harpers from Scotland, Wales, Brittany and China.
‘In My Hands’ - Natalie McMaster.
‘Water from the Well’ - Chieftains.

   "Laoise Kelly is a young harpist with the disposition of an iconoclast and the talent and technique of a virtuoso." Irish Times
     "Triplets made in Heaven" Derek Bell, The Cheiftains.
    "Laoise Kelly subverts all cliched images of Irish colleens with harps by playing driving instrumental music" Nuala O'Connor - Cara, Aer Lingus Magazine.
    "Her stirring slow air was beautifully mastered" The Living Tradition.

Colette, Eamon O'Dwyer and myself, getting hammered by Mirella in Austria - March 2000 !

"The music of Ireland has been further enriched by this album" -‘Just Harp’ sleeve notes by Donal Lunny "Laoise bounced onto the stage a slight figure, always jolly, a bit mad too betimes…I realised we were only to hear a fraction of her prowess. Alone for the first set of the night, she turned the often sedate harp into an instrument alive with the mirth and gaiety of dance music. It serves as synth, bass and virtuoso solo instrument in her sure and confident hands. She ably changes tunings, syncopates, harmonises and above all plays a stunning melody line, all in the same breath, or sweep of the arm." - Irish Music Magazine.