Maria's Music Experience |
| Maria is a Boston-born folk and blues singer who moved
to Ireland around 1997 and began performing in Europe not long after. She
began her musical work in Dublin as lead singer and percussionist with members
of Irish fiddle player and composer Charlie Lennon's music family, Sean
and Ailish Lennon, in the Lennon Quintet and performed around Ireland and
on television with them for a year or so. She then based herself in Galway
and formed The Blow Ins with ex-Waterboys saxophonist and mandolin player
Anto Thistlethwaite, a local band playing mainly acoustic folk and blues
in and around Galway. Going more electric, Maria formed Ruby Blue not long
after, a jazzy, bluesy, R&B band playing at Galway venues and festivals.
Maria began incorporating jazz into her music and it became increasingly
prominent in her sets. She put together The Jazz Exiles in spring of 1999
in Dublin and the five-piece band have played various venues in Dublin,
including The Gaiety Theatre, Reynards Jazz Club, and J.J. Smyth's, and
Whelan's. Their brand of jazz stems from a solid classic jazz-standards
base with a touch of funk and a very good dose of blues and soul. Maria
landed on her feet when she began gigs in Dublin and the rest of Ireland
as she performed with top Irish jazz musicians like Ritchie, Hugh &
Michael Buckley and the prestigious Guinness Cork Jazz Festival has invited
this mesmerizing performer back three years running. Maria is fast becoming
a regular on the jazz scene and is considered by many to be Ireland's most
respected and promising female jazz performer.
Maria is fast becoming a bright star on the cabaret scene in Ireland and her one-woman jazz/cabaret production "All About Love" was a sell-out success in the ESB Dublin Theatre Fringe Festival 2002. Maria wrote, arranged, and produced the show as well as performing the material. It marries three of Maria's skills, acting, singing, and playing, and most impressive is the fact that this was Maria's first show in an Irish theatre festival and it was a smash hit both with audiences and the critics. Due to its popularity "All About Love" runs again February 5th-15th, 2003 in Dublin at the intimate cabaret venue The Cobalt Cafe. Maria performs an originals/acoustic gig which is folk and blues based, reaching back to her own musical roots back in the U.S.. Two of Maria's original songs, "Go Back Home" and "This Love Is Through", are included on separate CD compilations featuring Grammy Award Winners John Prine, Bella Fleck, and Bruce Mathiske and Irish artists such as Sinead Lohen, Mary Coughlin, The 4 Of Us, Picture House, Kila, Juliet Turner, David Kitt, and Jack L.. Maria also has a passion for folk songs of other countries in their original languages and has a repertoire of Spanish and Italian songs that she adds to and performs regularly; her fluency in Spanish definitely helps. (She's working on her Italian and Polish...) Voice is Maria's first instrument now but it wasn't always. She was
a choral accompanist on piano for 3 years, a concert flutist in Boston
for 5 years, and has played guitar since she was a young one. She also
played saxophone in a jazz swing band for 2 years, and plays a plethora
of percussion instruments. |