Ceara Conway: Roots and Wings

Conversations with Musicians, with Leah Roseman

Ceara Conway is an Irish contemporary vocalist and visual artist, and this episode features music from her album CAOIN as well as excerpts from some of her other projects. I find Ceara’s curiosity about so many important topics around arts and culture really inspiring and this conversation circled around to her explorations of different languages and cultures as well as her rootedness as an Irish speaker. She has had many interesting commissions dealing with history, illness, grief, and the natural world. She uses traditional and contemporary song, performance and visual art to explore social issues such as the ecological crisis, migration and feminist concerns. She also spoke to me about some of her roles working with the Clare Arts office with artists with disabilities, and how she started her career as a glassblower in Rome and how her upbringing has helped her navigate the world as a freelance artist. Like all my episodes, this is also a video and the transcript is also linked to my website: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/ceara-conway

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https://www.cearaconway.ie/about photo: Julia Dunin photography

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Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(02:36) Ceara’s background, the album CAOIN

(17:03) Anach Cuain

(18:10) more about CAOIN An Caoinea

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(20:52) singing in different languages, Oumou Sangaré

(23:56) Ceara’s childhood

(27:56) support this independant podcast!

(28:35) glassblowing, start in art and music, Matthew Noonan

(33:03) books

(35:28) Veriditas project

(41:23) Plant Chant

(43:01) Clare Arts Office Embrace arts and disability program

(49:18) CAOIN, intro to Seoith í n Seothó

(51:59) Seoithín Seothó

(56:00) Georgian song, choirs

(1:01:40) Dochas

(1:06:17) Hanna Tuulikki, corncrake

(1:09:05) Time to Say Goodbye

(1:13:14) Irish language

(1:16:50) new projects