It has been quite a while since my last blog! Apologies!
It has been a busy time since our last concerts in Red Rocks!
Thank you so much to all of you and all our marvelous crew for making our long tour so special.
I have been at home catching up with family and friends, and playing music of course!
We filmed our latest DVD Songs from the Heart in the beautiful setting of Powerscourt House and Gardens in Wicklow. It was an incredible experience to be in such an historical place and we enjoyed every second of it! My parents, Seán, Caroline & Emma, Mike & Fiona, made it there, this was such a treat for me as I know how busy they all are. Frances, Noel and Karl were in Lorient, Brittany, but rang me just before I went on. Bruce, my webmaster also made it over from Germany and had a well earned break in Ireland over the next week.
It was fantastic too to see so many of our fans from America. What a trip they made and the support was incredible.We were all delighted so many made it over and I hope they enjoyed both nights despite the weather the first night!
Thanks too to all our friends from EMI, Ian Ralfini and Tara Chiari who were there cheering us on along with Dave Kavanagh, our Executive Producer, Scott Porter, our CEO, and Jonathan Hochwald of Madstone Productions.
We had huge help from Rachel Davis our Tour Manager, Scotty Ross our Production Manager and all our amazing crew from America and Ireland, who oversaw everything for us in Powerscourt. Our amazing Director Alex Coletti who, along with Tom Kenny our Lighting Designer, made it all look phenomenal. It really felt like a big family and everyone pulling together to make it work.
It was a big surprise that my parents were there and everyone knew except me!
I could not believe it when I saw them in the front row as I'm sure my expression conveyed! I was delighted and a bit nervous too, but it all went so well.
During a pause in the concert due to weather, my Mam got up from her seat and came up to us to the stage, and gave me a kiss. It was such a lovely spontaneous thing and was so moving.
Before and after our two nights in Powerscourt, it was studio time for us for the Songs from the Heart CD. David surpassed himself again with the stunning arrangements and compositions.
Andrew too was brilliant as usual with the recordings, mixing and all the other hard work that goes into making a CD. Thanks to both of them. We even got time to have lunch near my house and catch up in a more relaxed scenario!
It was great news too to hear that Celtic Woman won Best Celtic Group at Ireland's Music Awards at the World Fleadh this year, the competition was tough and we are delighted! Thank you to everyone that voted for us!
Moving on to the long awaited release of Tinker Bell The Lost Treasure! It hit the shops in the States yesterday I believe and I can't wait to see it!
It was again an honor to feature on such a beautiful score by Joel McNeely.
Lisa is singing the main title song 'If You Believe' which is really fantastic, warm and powerful.
There is beautiful work done by David and the choir on the score from the recording sessions in Dublin with Joel, David and Andrew. Alongside that, Méav, who sang in the choir, also sings 'Sunbeams', which is a lovely moving song.
I'm really excited to hear and see the movie, it's magical, and all the music and the songs are so emotive with a powerful message. It was a dream come true for me and I know you will all love it!
As I'm sure you must know, we are all heading back to the States in ten days to do our second leg of the Isle of Hope tour. We are very excited to be coming back to play and perform for you all. It gives us an opportunity to visit places that we didn't get to go to on our last tour. So the suitcase will be down in the next few days to get organized! As always your support is tremendous.
We are all doing interviews and some performances coming up to the tour and in the first week so keep tuned and look on www.celticwoman.com for info.
Other things too that have happened that are very special is that Karl's CD Vista Point is out and is available in all cool places, online and off!
Karl gave me some CD.S for the online shop at www.maireadnesbitt.com and ten are autographed! They will be up on the shop in the next few days.
It was so great to play on it and I know you will all enjoy the different tracks, compositions, arrangements and musicians that are on it.
Onto Berne in Switzerland, where I am honored to be soloist with the BSO for their New Year's Concert. This takes place on the 2nd January. I hope to be playing the premiere performance of the Tinker Bell Suite by Joel McNeely, music by David Downes, and music by Colm Ó Foghlú. More details will follow on www.maireadnesbitt.com and on the BSO site (link below).
http://www.bsorchester.ch/
There will be some new pics from the Tinker Bell The Lost Treasure sessions; the rehearsals at Powerscourt for Songs from the Heart; and pics from the World Music Festival Dunlaoighre '09, coming up on the site soon. The composer Colm Ó Foghlú has done a remix of Skidoo from Raining Up and as a thank you to all of you it will be available for free download from my site very soon! So don't forget to visit!
Thank you all for your continued support and see you on tour in ten days!
Le grá,
Máiréad.
