Description
The “celebrated virtuoso partnership” (The Daily Telegraph) of Máire Ní Chathasaigh, “the doyenne of Irish harpers” (Scotland on Sunday) and and Chris Newman, a “brilliant English master of the acoustic guitar” (The Daily Telegraph), has brought its unique musical vision to venues large and small – from the tiniest of historic churches in England, Germany and Italy to palaces in Kyoto and Istanbul, London’s Barbican, Cologne’s Philharmonie, and Town Halls from Sydney to Seattle – in twenty-four countries on five continents.
Their performances are rooted but eclectic, emotional but adventurous: a breathtaking blend of traditional Irish music, hot jazz, bluegrass and baroque, coupled with striking new compositions, pieces from Chris’ groundbreaking newest solo album Breaking Bach, and what The West Australian calls “delightfully subversive wit!”
They made their début as a duo on the main stage at the 1987 Cambridge Folk Festival. Highlights from their career since then include a 1988 tour of Australia as special guests of Siamsa Tíre – the Irish National Folk Theatre – in celebration of Australia’s Bicentennial, at the invitation of Bob Hawke, then Prime Minister of Australia; a concert in the Ottoman Çırağan Palace as part of the Istanbul Harp Encounter in 2010; a concert with revered Japanese percussionist Stomu Yamashta and Ensemble Kabul in Nijo Castle (the Shogun’s Palace), Kyoto, Japan; a 2023 concert at the legendary Muthaiga Club in Nairobi, Kenya: many wonderful tours of Italy and Germany; a magical concert at the castle in Malcesine, Italy, overlooking a moonlit Lake Garda; four Irish Folk Festival tours of Germany in the late 80s and early 90s; four major tours of Australasia as part of the Guinness Celebration of Irish Music (Guinness Australia issued a special edition of their can for the Guinness Celebration of Irish Music tour of Australasia 1990, showing Máire and Chris’s names and listing all the very prestigious tour venues); and countless tours in the UK and Ireland, North America, Europe and Australia. They married in 2005.