About Ciara
From an early age Ciara Considine was humming and harmonizing along with her older sister and brothers - according to her mother "she could sing before she was able to talk!'' She was the youngest of four children of Irish parents from Counties Clare and Galway - they'd met in London as fresh immigrants in the 1950s. Theirs was a musical family, with a whole range of instruments filling the family home in Maidstone, Kent, UK. She gained a County Scholarship to study the flute and piano and toured Brazil and Argentina with the Kent Youth Orchestra; she was selected to join the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, touring the US, Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore - all by the age of just 18. She proceeded to Manchester to train as a classical concert-pianist at the Royal Northern College of Music. Not content with her Bachelors Degree in Music, she went on to gain both a Masters' Degree and a Postgraduate Diploma in Music. Meanwhile she spent 12 yrs teaching the piano, flute and singing in Manchester, inspiring many children in that time.
However, she came full-circle and returned to her cultural roots when the seed was set after hearing 'Once I Loved' sung by Rita & Sarah Keane from Co. Galway. Learning it by ear, she intrigued listeners with her untrained talent at Irish folk singing. She then taught herself the celtic harp, celtic lyre, Irish tin-whistle and Irish flute in January 2007: just four months later, she was ready to go into the studio. Learning all these songs by ear, she stripped them down to their original lyrics and melody, then harmonized and arranged them herself to draw out the individual characters of each story.
Steeped in history, these stories emerge from the wealth and beauty of Irish folk culture; the rawness of the material is never compromised as she sings each with an unusual intimacy.
Recording 'She Moved Through The Fair' with Celtic harp
Recording 'Farewell My Love Remember Me' with piano
Noel Rafferty recording this album "Ó Mo Chroí" 2007
Recording 'The Parting of Friends' with the Irish flute
Practising 'Kilkelly Ireland' between takes in the studio!
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