Clár Ní Argáin
Individual
Baile an Sceilg, Co Chíarraí
Musician, Singer, Teacher.
Clare has a natural affinity with music and is a keeper of her native culture
Liam Ó Maonlaí, Hot House Flowers
Clare Horgan is a singer who seamlessly moves between Traditional Irish sean-nós songs in both Irish and English, Blues and Country, Jazz and the American Songbook. Her childhood was steeped in traditional Irish songs and tunes, Clare was lucky enough to be the daughter of an accomplished pianist and singer embracing Classical, Music Theatre but most of all she was determined to share the traditional Music of Ireland, believing the urgency of preserving the songs, stories and melodies.
Clare studied Music Theatre as part of her acting course in Dublin before going on to complete a Post Graduate Diploma in Jazz and Popular Music at Leeds College of Music.
Clare has received numerous awards for her Music from Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Eireann, Ealaín na Gaeltachta, Arts Council of Ireland and Kerry County Council.
Her television work includes a TG4/ BBC collaboration called ‘The Story of Ireland’, a 6-part History Documentary series, presented by Fergal Keane. Here her rendition of the song ‘Se Fáth mo Bhuartha’ is featured.
https://youtu.be/C0pENOttvqE
During the pandemic, Clare broadcast daily Facebook live videos of her stunning native Iveragh peninsula in South Kerry. Thousands of Facebook viewers followed her as she walked the hills and valleys, along the cliff edges, along the beaches and riverbanks, singing and telling stories about the songs, the poets who wrote the songs and the singers who had shared these songs with her as a child. As a result, Clare drew the attention of various media outlets. 2021 saw her being featured on the TG4 series ‘Guth an Phobail’ and again with Mike Gaston in the Northern Irish series ‘Lockdown Music’.
Clare was invited last year to be interviewed on the long running TG4 programme ‘Comhrá’, presented by Máirtin Tom Sheáinín, which will be aired this Summer.
Clare has lived and performed in Ireland North and South, England North and South, France, in Brittany, Paris and in Languedoc as well as in Lebanon. She toured three states of the US in 2019/2020 with the support of Culture Ireland, having to postpone the Alaska leg of the tour when the Pandemic was announced.
She has been a member of Dámh Acadamh Fodhla, a research group, exploring and preserving sean-nós songs and has also been an alto in Cór Ban Chúil Aodha (the All-Female Traditional Irish Choir). Both the choir and the research group are based in Cúl Aodh, in the West Cork Gaeltacht, under the direction of Peadar Ó Riada. With the choir, Clare has performed at various venues, including the INEC, the National Concert Hall in Dublin and for the Irish President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina at Aras an Uachtaráin.
Clare has released two albums, the first of which is ‘The Stolen Child’ which features leading Jazz musicians from Ireland and the UK. Six of the tracks are Jazz or Blues and two of the tracks are unaccompanied sean-nós songs while the title track is a Jazz arrangement, by the renowned Don Patterson, of a sean-nós song called ‘The Stolen Child’ or ‘An Leanbh Sídhe’. This track received quite a lot of airplay when it was first released, from Andy Kershaw and the late John Peel of BBC Radio.
Clare’s second album, ‘Away O’er the Water’, is a quirky mix of American Country songs, accompanied brilliantly by Singer-songwriter and poet as well as multi-instrumentalist Mo O’Connor from Cork. Also featured on the CD are two South Kerry old-time waltzes. While the airs of these songs are simple and well known, the stories and references in the lyrics are very close to the hearts of the local audience in her native Iveragh. These waltzes feature Clare herself on guitar and the late great Paddy Casey on Button accordion.
Clare has recorded a 4 track EP of sean-nós songs from Kerry two in English and two as Gaeilge, accompanied by the very talented Singer-Songwriter and Guitarist Gerry O’Beirne. This has yet to be released.
A previously unreleased recording of a sean-nós song called
‘Mo Shlán Beo Soir’, recorded by Clare a number of years ago, is being featured as part of a one man play called ‘The Cable’. This play, written and performed by UK based Film and Theatre actor Mike Kelly, is based on the pioneering story of the Transatlantic Cable, which was laid from Canada to South Kerry for the first time in 1858, connecting the Americas with Europe. ‘The Cable’ is currently touring the UK, Ireland and Europe, with a run of a week at Síamsa Tíre in Tralee, Co Kerry in July 2025.
Clare is currently working on an album of unaccompanied sean-nós songs from South Kerry.
Prior to pursuing a Music career, Clare qualified and worked for many years as a teacher of Physical Education and English. This, combined with her skill as a singer and her passion for traditional Irish songs, stories and the language, makes her an ideal mentor for singers hungry to embrace Traditional Irish Culture and Song.
Clare Horgan
www.clarehorgan.com
+353879574855
clarniargain@icloud.com
My Showcase
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