Members of Celtic Woman are, from left, Lisa Kelly, Lynn Hilary, Chloë Agnew, Alex Sharpe and (on floor) Máiréad Nesbitt.
At the intersection of pop and classical is a commercial sweet spot.
It’s a type of music that combines the accessibility of popular music with the highbrow feel of classical and a quiet, refined style of singing. It’s also been quite successful commercially.
The sound is exemplified by acts such as Il Divo, Andrea Bocelli and Josh Groban, and can be heard locally Oct. 8 when the group Celtic Woman performs at Sangamon Auditorium.
Comprising four singers and a violinist, Celtic Woman has been a mainstay of public television programming since 2005 — broadcast more than 13,658 times, according to the group’s publicist. The group has sold millions of albums and videos.
The group’s set includes a mixture of traditional favorites such as “Danny Boy” and “Spanish Lady” and renditions of pop songs such as “Fields of Gold” and “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You.”
One of the Celtic women, Lynn Hilary, recently spoke with The State Journal-Register by telephone from the beach in her hometown of Dublin, Ireland.
Well, sort of.
“It’s not really a beach — there’s not really any beaches in Dublin — it’s really more like a big long bay, where the sand goes out for about a mile,” Hilary said.
It’s called Sandymount Strand, in the heart of Dublin Bay, and the sand extends the farthest at low tide.
When she was younger, Hilary said, she would walk that mile to practice her singing with no one around.
She said she was “grudgingly” trained in a classical style.
“Where I trained, everybody else was a classical singer, and I wasn’t. I was always made to feel like I wasn’t singing properly or I wasn’t singing well enough,” Hilary said.
“That’s why, when I got the jobs with ‘Riverdance’ and Celtic Woman, finally there was somewhere where I could sing in my own voice and be made to feel like it was good.”
Hilary said it was as though she had found her purpose, though she disdained the sentimentality of that statement.
“Classical singing is unbelievable, and I love it — but I just can’t do that,” she said.
Nevertheless, the youthful practice and classical training seems to have paid off. Hilary’s first job out of college was with “Riverdance,” also in Dublin, which is where she met David Downes, who would become the musical director of Celtic Woman.
While Hilary went on to tour with “Riverdance” in the United States, Downes began working on the first Celtic Woman television special.
Some time later — about a year after Hilary left “Riverdance” — Downes called to ask her to be a part of Celtic Woman. She began performing with the group in August 2007.
“He knew I had the kind of voice he was looking for — he knew me quite well; he knew I wasn’t a total diva or anything,” Hilary said. “I was delighted; I was just so happy to take the job.”
By that time, Celtic Woman had been a going concern since 2004. As with any new member of any group, fitting in can be a challenge.
“The girls, they were like celebrities to me when I joined. And the way people reacted to them and the things I read online — it was as if they were famous or something,” Hilary said.
“I’m quite shy, so first of all I have to get comfortable with the girls, get to know them, and then get comfortable with all the new material and being on the stage and having such a big role all of a sudden.”
Now they’re all great friends, Hilary says of the Celtic women, and she keeps pinching herself as a reminder not to take her job for granted.
In addition to several songs in which all members of the group perform, each of the women sings solos. Hilary said her solos include “The Last Rose of Summer,” “Carolina Rua” (which translates to “Caroline With the Red Hair”) and “Dulaman.”
That last song is in the Irish language — Hilary said she’s the only current member of the group who speaks it fluently.
According to a report on the Web site of the Irish Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, 42 percent of the population of Ireland claims an ability to speak Irish, but only 3 percent uses it as their primary language. (Americans often refer the language to as “Gaelic,” but the official designation is “Irish.”)
Being one of four singers in Celtic Woman is quite different from a singing role with “Riverdance,” where the dancers are the main attraction and a singer can work in the shadows. And neither years of touring nor millions of albums and videos sold is a hedge against stage fright.
“Every once in a while, one of the girls would say, ‘Oh my God, for some reason I’m just so nervous,’” Hilary said. “It might be that they have a friend in the audience, or a family member, or … just out of nowhere sometimes stage fright can get you.
“I remember I was doing a gig in Radio City Music Hall and I swear I just felt like I was going to die with nerves — I thought, ‘I can’t, I cannot go out there.’”
That time, she prayed — “I’m not even a big praying person,” Hilary said — and felt a calm come over her as soon as she walked on stage.
Despite that, Hilary said stage fright is natural and healthy. “If you don’t get stage fright, you’re probably not doing it properly.”
The women keep a busy touring schedule — Springfield is the second of 35 stops in 46 days — though Hilary said they try to make time for sightseeing if there’s something particularly compelling.
She also keeps an eye out for vegetarian food.
“I find it quite hard to find food in the States because it’s quite, very much meat-based food,” Hilary said. “I usually look up and see if I can find some kind of hippie place, a vegetarian place, and eat there.”
By BRIAN MACKEY
THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER
Posted Oct 01, 2009 @ 12:00 AM
Springfield,IL
