EMERALD

Hi Everyone!

We are well on the the way into our Emerald Musical Gems tour in the U.S. of A & thank you for all the support, lovely tweets & beautiful gifts along the way!

As the girls have said, we are so very fortunate to have so much in this life & to give back as much as we can along the way is not only so important but hugely rewarding as well.

I have been so extremely lucky to get such beautiful gifts from so many of you out there & they take pride of place wherever I am. 
I have also been very fortunate that my charity of choice
https://www.oxfamireland.org/shop/oxfam-unwrapped
have been helped in the past by the creative endeavors of the
www.maireadforum.com numerous times as well as others.
This pic is of a cheque presented to me in 2010 of the contributions made by one very generous anonymous contributor & by all at the forum firstly & also by the auction of a beautiful portrait by Glen '@RottenRebel' which altogether made up $7,500.00 for Oxfam Unwrapped Ireland.
I want to thank all at the forum & Glen again for this amazing achievement.

This all came about with my idea that instead of people spending their hard earned money on gifts to me, that they could donate to my charity of choice instead. I would love for this to remain happening instead of sending & giving gifts to me. As much as I appreciate them I feel it would be fantastic to donate instead. So thank you all so much in advance for that & for all the help in the past too.

Over the last few weeks we have done lots here in the States from being on the Today Show, then saying a temporary bye to Lisa & wishing her the very best in what she is doing, to welcoming back Lynn for that time. We are very excited to be in Radio City on May 21st also & seeing all of you back again in the audiences for our new show Emerald. It's been fantastic to hear all the rave reviews  to the new numbers, the new arrangements & new look of our show.
It was fantastic also for Emerald to debut at #1 in the Billboard World Music Charts, to get World Artist of the Year & to make it to the top 12 in the Billboard Top 200 Chart. 
Here's to the rest of our tour here! Thanks to you all for your support as always to us, we really appreciate it & we have loved meeting up with you all at Meet & Greets.

See you along the way on the rest of our US tour & beyond!

Slán go fóill,

Le ghrá,

Máiréad

2013/2014!

Hi All!

What another year it's been & here we all are into 2014!

Another amazing year for us & thanks to all of you out there for all your support.

We of course saw a lot of our friends & supporters on our US tour which continues to be a huge part of our year! It was great to see a lot of familiar faces again at the meet & greets before our shows.
The audiences were astounding with lots of energy that really keeps us going & as we always say, the audience is our 5th Celtic Woman!
The filming of our Emerald DVD on that tour was testament to the energy of our audiences every night!
The genius of Sy O'Mahony was again obvious in his beautiful gowns!
I can't wait to see him in Nashville for our rehearsals where he will again undoubtedly work his magic!

Onwards from the US to our tour of Europe! 
It was really wonderful again to see our friends here & to experience again the history in every city!
I got the chance to meet up on a few occasions with my close friends Bruce Somers & Simone Fromm. Always a very special occasion for me!

From our European Tour to doing some promo in Australia, it was a chance for us to get acquainted again with this great country! A whirlwind visit it was for 5 days before we then traveled to Vegas for rehearsals for our Symphony Tour.

Starting our Symphony Tour at the Venetian for the opening of their Winter in Venice Season laid the bench mark for what was to come. We had amazing concerts with fantastic orchestras including members of the Boston Pops Orchestra, The Boston Symphony Orchestra & Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Every night was wonderful musical experience for us and our lovely audiences.

Our promo trip to Oz paved the way for our tour just done in Jan.
It was incredible & we had such great audiences there also.
The weather was incredible & we even got a few chances to enjoy it!

 

From doing our new Home for Christmas DVD which made it to #1 & enabled us to be awarded  World Artist of the Year to now embarking on our Emerald Tour for 2014 in the US, it has been one packed year til now! Looking forward now to our production rehearsals coming up in Nashville & to seeing you all out on the road again very soon!

Slán go fóill!

MáiréadXX
 

2012/2013! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN!!

Hi Everyone!

What is there to say only sorry it's been so long!
With twitter & Facebook going on every day, poor Blog gets forgotten!!

But suffice to say it's been massively busy for the last almost 2 years!!

With Celtic Woman, we have done all our touring taking in the U.S of A  of course in both 2012 & in 2013 for almost 7  months of the year taking in our Symphony Tour which has now become an annual event!
2012 also had us going to the most amazing places on our promo tours when our colleagues were having a very well deserved break! 
A highlight for me & us all was to go back to South Africa both on a promo trip & also on tour. We had the most amazing experience of going on a whale watching trip organized by one of my closest friends Hannie Euser with Southern West Charters at the New Harbor in beautiful Hermanus, about an hours drive from Capetown. What a chance of a lifetime this was & we have memories forever!
Here are some pics from that special day! 

We also went up Table Mountain which is always an amazing experience. I am lucky enough to have gone up there 5 times now & it never ceases to amaze me with it's awe-inspiring beauty. Some more pics!....

As well as touring Germany, we had a great Symphony Tour of the States in December & got back to Ireland just in time for Christmas! 

We also went to China to do a TV show (as you do!!) ringing in the New Year for 2013 with a viewership of 7 million people! That was certainly different with China being such a unique & wonderful country.

2013  started with our tour of the States, our second home at this stage!
It showcased our new show which was then shot in Southbend IN on April 8th. It was a whirlwind two days & will be shown in PBS as well as our new Home For Christmas DVD which was shot where it all began at the Helix, Dublin on August 12th. This will be seen this holiday season on PBS so keep tuned for that!

A highlight for  us was also featuring on the famous 'Bold and the Beautiful'!
It was a great day in LA & also to do a second episode en route on tour too was an icredible experience!

 

2013 also saw beautiful Chloë spreading her wings & going on to do new projects.
We have both been with Celtic Woman from the very beginning & I am delighted for her on her new endeavors! I will miss you 'Chlomeister' my little pal! 
The texting will be ferocious & will be exciting to hear of all the projects ahead!

We did get to celebrate together two triple platinum awards for Celtic Woman DVD & CD & A Christmas Celebration DVD & CD presented to us at Capitol Records in LA! A fantastic day was had! We also had 'Home For Christmas' reaching #1 in the Billboard Charts giving us a Billboard world record of 8 consecutive #1's! Not too shabby! Thanks to all our amazing fans for all the support & appreciation for all the hard work!

We will be going back to Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, Belgium, Holland & Switzerland in October so look at www.celticwoman.com for dates & venues closest to you!
We will be joined by our newest member, the lovely Mairéad Carlin, & welcome her to our gang! Germany will be in for some great music making!

2013 continues to be a busy year for me personally & professionally!
I have a few projects getting underway & hope there are enough hours in the day to get them all started & done!
I have an enormous amount of requests to do a violin tutor &/or a collection of my music in book form. I hope to get that up & running soon. My solo album will also be in the pipeline & some other exciting projects which I will keep you posted on!

Thank for for all your support, friendship & tweets etc! 
None for any of what is done would be possible without you all & also without the great team who keep everything going!

Bye All & will really try & keep my blog updated!

Le ghrá,

MáiréadXX

2012 Already!

Hi All!

Wow, it's been a LONG time since my last blog! Apologies but it's been a hectic year and at least tweets keep everyone out there up to speed day to day! I will try not to let it get this long again though!

What a year it's been!

We did a tour of the States, our second home at this stage, with Songs from the Heart. We then went on to do tours of Europe and Japan with lots of promo trips in between in Germany and Tokyo.
Here are some links below to the promo clip from one of our trips to Germany and also two links from Japan; a cause close to our hearts, the Tsunami fundraiser and our red carpet moment doing the theme song for the movie Princess Toyotomi.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3cy69hBomo

http://www.celticwoman.com/tsunami-fundraiser/

http://www.tokyograph.com/news/celtic-woman-does-princess-toyotomi-theme-song/

We went on to do our new DVD and CD Believe at the beautiful Fox Theater in Atlanta. It was an incredible experience and one that we all hope you will enjoy when we go on tour in February.
As of today we are No.1 on the Amazon charts ahead of great company! Have a look above!!
Such exciting news!

I know my #Celticcuties won't mind me saying that the highlight of my year in 2011 had to be my marriage!! We got away to Maui, Hawaii and had the most amazing time! The beauty of the place was really astounding as you can see in the pic above. It was super relaxed and could not have been more perfect.
There have been a lot of questions about my dress! It was the first one I tried and I fell in love with it straight away! It is a 40's vintage couture Lillie Rubin silk & gold thread gown from the beautiful Goddess Room in Ireland. I also got my 40's vintage couture clutch from Paris 1900 in Santa Monica.
There you go! Two amazing places to check out!

We then had some TV shows in Germany for Christmas and also our Christmas Celebration Symphony Tour of the States which was a new departure for us! It was amazing to perform with orchestras in different cities and we hope to do it again in 2012!

Christmas and New Year was great for us with family and a lovely end to 2011!

It hard to believe it is now 2012 and we are about to start a new tour in a few weeks!
Believe, our new live tour, will be very exciting. We will not have the wonderful Lisa Kelly with us this time as you know. She has been with us from the beginning and will be keeping an eye on us and visiting from time to time! We will miss your beautiful presence on and off stage Lisa! I know though that Lisa is as happy as we are with our new Celtic Woman Susan McFadden. It will be fantastic to work with Susan and welcome her to the Celtic Woman family!
We start rehearsals really soon and are in studio too next week so keep tuned to see what's coming up next!
We can't wait to bring Believe to you and take you on a new journey with us.

2012 also brings us a new Tinker Bell movie! I am so excited to be doing Tinker Bell Secret of the Wings. It has always been a dream come true for me to be featured in the Tinker Bell movies and now that Tink is coming back to Pixie Hollow for the fourth movie in the series, I am beyond psyched to be featured once again! Here is a link to the new clip!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKpiONdeK20&feature=player_embedded#!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year and really looking forward to seeing you all on Believe very soon!

Le grá

Máiréad.

St. Patrick's Day!

Hi All!

Thanks so much for all the support and messages here on my blog, guestbook and twitter.
I'm sorry it's taken so long to do a blog but at least twitter keeps everyone informed day to day!

It's been a busy time and I hope you all had a great St.Patrick's Day yesterday! We had! and a busy one too!
The Today Show was fantastic and it so nice to be welcomed back by the lovely staff there. It was an early sound check at 5.30am and they could not have been more helpful and nice.
Our sound man Tom was fantastic and was there from 3.30am-thank you Tom!
We then had hair and make up with our amazing Lucy and Sara and then it was back to the NBC studios for the Today Show. Check out my twitter for pics too.

We then went to the beautiful Radio City Music Hall for our sound check for the show.
What a pleasure it is to be there every time! It was a challenge getting through the crowds that were out for the parade! Great outfits too! It was the first time in seven years we have been to NY on Paddy's Day, that it wasn't snowing! What a day! lovely sunshine.

We had a great sound check, dinner and then the show. The audience was fantastic and to look out onto Radio City Music Hall was breathtaking. What a beautiful place to perform, it never ceases to amaze me.

We arrived in Pittsburgh this morning. I've been lucky to see a lot of my relatives and extended family on this tour and on our last tour, tonight is one of those nights and that's always exciting for me.

The tour has been going great and I know you can all follow the day to day antics on twitter etc!....the audiences have been phenomenal and Lisa Lambe is incredible as our new Celtic Woman!
We all love her and welcome her to our family on the road!

There are, and have been, some really exciting projects for us. As well as all the touring, we did the theme song for the Japanese film, Princess Toyotomi. It was very special for us as it's the first time we've got to do a theme song for a film all together.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Japan at this time and we are constantly reminded every day how strong, noble, brave and resilient they are in the face of such tragedy.
We loved doing this song in the studio and hope you like it too.

Our European release of Songs From the Heart and our new album Lullaby kept us very busy with new songs when we got home from our last tour of the States, Australia and European trip. It is fantastic news too that Lullaby is no.1 in the World Music Charts and Songs from the Heart is up there in the top 12 of the main charts in Germany. All the hard work is worth it when that happens and when you get such positive feedback from everyone!

Our next project which was announced on twitter last night is our

Celtic Woman

A Christmas Celebration

The Symphony Tour

I am very excited about this and love playing with orchestras, it's such a powerful feeling.
This is from November 28th to December 22nd in the States. Details will follow on www.celticwoman.com and on my site too.

Next year promises to be a busy one and thanks for all the well wishes and support.

Slán,

Máiréad.

Holidays!

Hi Everyone!

Just wanted to send one last blog before the Holidays and wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving coming up.

As you all know, the Australian Tour just done is our last tour with the lovely Lynn. She has a lovely message at www.celticwoman.com which I'm sure you have all seen.
Her elegance, purity of voice and fun loving personality will be missed by everyone and I wish her the very best of everything in the future. You never know, she might come out and visit us on tour!

It's a busy time coming up with some recording and promo to do nearer to home in the coming two weeks so look at the Celtic Woman website for updates and to my own website for some new pics!

On another note, I wanted to let everyone know, in case you have been swayed by some strange posts on my guestbook in the last few weeks, that I have never been more happy than I am now. These posts have been removed as it is a guestbook for relevance and truth and is always seen by me, friends and family as well as you who are so supportive in everything. I did not want you and the people I care about to worry needlessly. They were as much of a surprise to me as they were to you and I just wanted to clear that up and thank everyone for their continued love and friendship and wish you all Peace, Love, Happiness and Health for the holiday Season and the New Year.

It's a very exciting time of the year now and I love being at home getting to do all the cool normal things! Decorations are starting to go up in the towns and cities here and there's a buzz happening!
Thank you to the maireadnesbittforum for raising such a generous amount of money for Oxfam Ireland Unwrapped. It's especially at this time of year that this help is hugely beneficial to people in need and it not only alleviates pressures from day to day, but also in the long term with life sustaining programs.
So thank you for that.

Have a great Holiday Season and I will see you all in the New Year on our tour and thanks again for all the support!

Le grá,

Máiréad.

Australian Tour and Home!

Hi Everyone!

Again it's been a long time!
It's been mental since the end of our U.S. Tour! It was an awesome night in red Rocks Colorado which marked the end of our tour in the U.S. The audience were incredible and of course the venue is unsurpassed by anywhere in my book!

We had a short time at home which was spend relaxing a bit, and catching up on unopened post, things that had been put on the long finger, and family and friends.

Then it was off to Australia for our first tour there as Celtic Woman.
It was amazing! We started off in Newcastle rehearsing and had our first show there. Every show in every city rocked and the Australian Girls Choir certainly helped that to happen! It is also an honor for us to be Ambassadors for National Breast Cancer Foundation and we wear our pink ribbons and t-shirts proudly in support of the research that they are doing.
There are lots of pics and info on www.celticwoman.com
We were constantly tweeting so check those out on twitter too! There's a direct link on my website www.maireadnesbitt.com
There was a day off in Brisbane and it was great! We went to the Lone Pine Sanctuary and got to be near very beautiful and exotics creatures. I have some pics up on twitter of my chance to hold a koala, a snake and a raptor ( not all at the same time, ha!) and it was deadly altogether!
The next day was the show in Brisbane and as if all the other cities didn't rock hugely, Brisbane was not to be outdone. It was an incredible last show and the audience really made it happen for us. What a night!

Then it was on the plane the next day for the first of three flights home!
Home now, and I get to relax with family and friends, do the things that have been on the long finger! and I suppose I'll open my post too!
Thank you to all the lovely people we met, to those who came to our shows and supported us so well and gave us such a huge welcome.

Thank you to our marvelous management and crew who did an awesome job!

And lastly, a huge thanks to a great friend and colleague, Des Moore, who has been with us from the beginning. His last show with us was Brisbane. He is an incredible musician. I've never come across anyone who is such a calm, sensitive, musical, virtuoso.
His playing is always perfection and I will miss him on stage and as a friend off stage. I grew up working and listening to Des featuring in the Concert Orchestra from when I was 15 years old. I've learned a huge amount from him as a player and a person. I will continue to do so. So, thanks Des and I will come to see you in concert soon!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Holidays and an amazing rest of the year.
See you in the New Year!

Le grá,

Máiréad.