Harper and singer Máire Ní Chathasaigh and guitarist Chris Newman are doing a short tour in Ireland in October before a more extensive UK tour.

The partnership of Máire Ní Chathasaigh and Chris Newman made its debut at the 1987 Cambridge Folk Festival. Though rooted in Irish traditional music, their performances include elements jazz, bluegrass and baroque. Their sixth album together, FireWire, was released in 2007.

Ní Chathasaigh is harp/voice soloist with the New English Chamber Orchestra and the Choir of New College Oxford on John Cameron’s Missa Celtica (Erato Disques, Paris). The Goldcrest film Driftwood features her singing, and her harping and compositions feature on Dan ar Braz’s Gold Disc-awarded album Finisterres (Sony France).

As a teenager in County Cork in the early 1970s, having no role models as such, she developed a variety of new harping techniques, particularly in relation to ornamentation, that have influenced a whole generation of players. She won the All-Ireland and Pan-Celtic Harp Competitions several times, and in 1985 recorded the first harp album ever to concentrate on traditional Irish dance music, The New-Strung Harp. In 2001 she was awarded the TG4 Gradam Cheoil Traditional Musician of the Year ‘for the excellence and pioneering force of her music, the remarkable growth she has brought to the music of the harp and for the positive influence she has had on the young generation of harpers.’

In addition to his work with Ní Chathasaigh, Newman toured until 1997 as a member of Boys of the Lough. He began to play guitar at the age of four and at fourteen gave his first paid concert in a folk club. He dabbled in the jazz scene in his late teens (playing with and learning from people like Stephane Grappelli and Diz Disley). A prolific composer, arranger and record producer, he now concentrates on traditional music and composition. He has been principal guitar tutor for Newcastle University’s Folk B.Mus course since its inception.

The tour dates are as follows:

Saturday, 6 October O’Carolan College, Nobber, Co. Meath as part of the O’Carolan Harp, Cultural & Heritage Festival www.carolanfestival.com.

Friday, 12 October Down Arts Centre, Downpatrick, Co. Down www.downartscentre.com        

Saturday, 13 October Minogue’s Bar, Tulla, Co. Clare at the Island Music Club www.claregigs.com

Sunday, 14 October The Village Centre, Kilworth, Co. Cork 025 32227 or 087 649 2514

oldbridgemusic.com.