Plúirín na mBan are Cathy Jordan (vocals / guitarlele/ bouzouki / bodhrán / guitar), Claudia Schwab (violins / vocals / harmonium / keys / thumb harp) and Irene Buckley (electronics / vocals / keys).
CATHY JORDAN
Roscommon born Cathy Jordan has been a professional singer with the traditional group Dervish for nearly 30 years. She is a self-taught guitar, bouzouki, bodhrán and bones player.
She has led Dervish as a frontwoman through thousands of concerts in hundreds of cities in nearly 40 countries and has 16 albums under her belt. Among the most notable performances were The Great Wall of China and the biggest rock music festival in the world - Rock in Rio to over 250,000 people.
As a songwriter, she has written songs with internationally renowned Brendan Graham, best known for the most successful song of the twentieth century, You Raise Me Up.
In 2014, she took up the role of presenter of Fleadh TV with TG4. Cathy has been an ambassador for Irish culture and music for over a quarter of a century, has a deep understanding of traditional Irish songs and singing and has collected hundreds of songs that otherwise may have been forgotten.
Over the years, Cathy has picked up many awards for her contribution to traditional Irish music, including BBC Lifetime Achievement Award 2019, Sligo Cultural Ambassador 2018, Annie McNulty Award 2014 and The Freedom of The City of Sligo in 2010.
See more at www.cathyjordan.com
CLAUDIA SCHWAB
Claudia Schwab is an Austrian fiddle player, singer and composer. Described as 'one of the most creative artists on the Irish music scene today’ (Dr Mel Mercier- Irish World Academy Limerick), Claudia amalgamates different traditions and styles in her own unique way.
Her debut solo album Amber Sands was released in April 2014. A regular feature on Irish radio, with reviews by magazines such as FATEA ('pretty much unforgettable'), Folkworld ('she makes Yodel music modern and happening'), Songlines and Roots ('crazy and yet strangely attractive').
In October 2016, she released her first EP, Attic Mornings, followed by her second full album Attic Mornings in 2017. Claudia was commissioned to write for the NCH-Sounding the Feminists Commissioning Scheme 2019 and was awarded a Next Generation Bursary Award from the Irish Arts Council, the Neuer Deutscher Jazzpreis 2019 with the Band "Shreefpunk + Strings", followed by the Hubert Von Goisern Förderpreis in 2020.
Claudia writes and tours her own works regularly, while also featuring on numerous recordings and collaborations with a range of cross-genre artists, including Seamie O'Dowd, Cathy Jordan and Brian McDonagh (Dervish), Seanan Brennan and Dee Armstrong (Kíla).
See more at www.claudiaschwab.com
IRENE BUCKLEY
Composer Irene Buckley is active across many music disciplines including choral, opera, orchestral, dance, theatre, film and electronics. In recent years she has focused on composing live scores for silent films, which include The Passion of Joan of Arc, The Fall of the House of Usher, and also Nosferatu and Metropolis (both co-composed with Linda Buckley).
These have been performed in venues such as Glasgow Cathedral for Glasgow Film Festival, Union Chapel London for Organ Reframed Festival, Brookfield Place, NYC for SilentFilms/LiveMusic Series and Zwinglikirche, Berlin (with Gudrun Gut).
She was nominated for an IFTA in 2023 for Best Original score and Outstanding Original Score for ‘Nothing Compares’ (co-composed with Linda Buckley) at the 16th Cinema Eye Honors and her score for The Swing was nominated for Best Original Music at the Festival International du Film d'Aubagne, France.
She has received commissions from Union Chapel London, Irish National Opera, Cork International Film Festival and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra.
Irene holds an MA in Music Technology from Queen’s University Belfast and a PhD in Composition from University College Cork.
See more at www.irenebuckley.com