The Allabair Trio featuring Melanie O’Reilly (vocals), David Creevy (guitar) & Brewen Favreau (uilleann pipes & Irish whistle)

Sat, 24 Jun 2023 20:00, Tickets €20

Farmleigh House & Estate White's Road D15 TD50 Phoenix Park
Doors 7.30pm, performance at 8pm.

The Allabair Trio features three masters of music - guitarist-songwriter David Creevy, Celtic jazz singer Melanie O’Reilly, and Breton musician Brewen Favrau on uilleann pipes and Irish whistle - who together collaborate to perform their unique musical project presenting the music and songs of Turlough O'Carolan, recognized as the first great Irish composer of the 17th century. David will perform a development of the transcription of O’Carolan's music on guitar, Melanie weaves O’Carolan’s own lyrics into the melodies; renowned Breton musician Brewen Favreau will join them to play uilleann pipes and Irish whistle. Together will create a unique soundscape that includes some of their own compositions, which are rooted in tradition yet are utterly contemporary.

Melanie O’Reilly (vocals)

Dublin-born Melanie has become one of Ireland’s internationally known Celtic-jazz singers and composers and performs extensively at festivals and venues throughout the USA, Scotland, Ireland and France, including at the Voix du Monde Festival in Lilles, the National Concert Hall, Dublin, and the Schoenburg Hall in Los Angeles, among others. She has represented Ireland in the European Heritage Festival in Normandy in 2019, was a Visiting Scholar/Musician in Residence at UC Berkeley's Celtic Studies department, and was awarded an Artist Visa for “Extraordinary ability” by the US. Currently Jazz Artist in Residence at the Wexford Arts Centre, She recently represented Wexford on Culture Night with her Celtic Jazz Ensemble, and was commissioned to write a musical suite for the Camino Heritage Festival in Ferns, at which The Allabair Trio performed at St Edan’s Cathedral to launch the pilgrimage.

O’Reilly is co-founder of the new Wexford-Rosslare Harbour Heritage Festival and is also a highly respected music educator, having taught “The Irish Song Tradition” at the California Jazz Conservatory as part of the Vocal World Music studies programme. She is currently Director of her “Sing & Swing” jazz vocal ensemble at Waltons New School of Music. Melanie is creator and host of the award-winning radio series ‘Jazz on the Bay’, which was originally broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 and which is currently being re-broadcast on the California jazz station KCSM.org

www.melanieoreilly.com

https://www.wexfordartscentre.ie/jazz-artist-in-residence-2021/

David Creevy (guitar)

David is one of Ireland’s best known contemporary guitarists and is currently festival Director of the New Ross Guitar Festival. He is a graduate of the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama where he studied with John Feely, after a string of successful competitions he was selected as one of six guitarists from around the world to study with the heir to the legacy of Andres Segovia, Christopher Parkening in Southern California. Parkening proclaims that “David Creevy is a very talented young classical guitarist. An instrument speaks from the heart of the player and it is this young man’s heart that speaks when he plays.” Creevy has received standing ovations at concerts in the USA, most notably for his St. Patrick’s Day O’Carolan recital.

Brewen Favrau (uilleann pipes & Irish whistle)

After a career in classical music and then learning Scottish bagpipes as a teenager, Brewen Favrau perfected his skills on the uilleann pipes having lived in Ireland for several years. A graduate of the Rennes Conservatory of Music and a Breton & Celtic university course in 2014, he has since collaborated with Scottish, Irish and Breton musicians on his musical travels. A multi-instrumentalist, he continues to perform as a soloist in the Celtic Symphony of Alan Stivell, linking traditional and classical music with the National Orchestra of Brittany.