PRESS QUOTES

THE RED BOOK OF OSSORY PRESS

“Absolutely extraordinary… One of the best abums I’ve heard this year”
Bernard Clarke, RTÉ Lyric fm

“A work of singular genius”
ArtMuseLondon.com

“Surely, national treasure status cannot be far away… Soprano Caitriona O’Leary, an enigmatic performer with otherworldly qualities that thrives in areas of the unusual and unreal”
Dick O’Riordan, Sunday Business Post

“Caitriona O’Leary’s wonderfully eclectic career is an ode to her talent for resurrecting timeless verse, rescuing it from obscurity, infusing it with innovative music and giving it contemporary context.”
Lori Lander Murphy and Owen Murphy, Irish Philadelphia.com

“The bell-like voice of early music chanteuse Caitriona O’Leary charms her way through between keyboards, a clarinet, the saxophone, and the Irish bodhrán like a cat between the legs of the assembled party guests.”
Winifried Dulisch – Audio Magazine (Germany)

“Much of Caitriona O’Leary’s work is rooted in scholarship as well as performance.… O’Leary has seamlessly set words – echoing de Ledrede’s challenge to his priests to find suitable tunes for his verses… Already a remarkable achievement in itself…But that extra step – forming Anakronos and re-arranging the songs accordingly makes ‘The Red Book of Ossory’ a work of singular genius.”
ArtMuseLondon.com

“…Caitriona O’Leary’s voice is flexible, versatile and very wide-ranging in its expressive quality. She clearly shows a real understanding of the needs of this music. Let’s face it, it’s taken a couple of generations for performers to get a handle on the Ars Subtilior composers’ but it’s finally happening. And to think she’s taken from that to bring it into this world is absolutely extraordinary.”
Bernard Clarke, RTÉ Lyric fm ‘In the Blue of the Night”

OTHER PRESS

“The lovely Irish singer Caitriona O’Leary’s calming voice overwhelms from the first track onward”
Michael Johnson, Facts & Arts

“O’Leary’s voice falls soft as snow on “Tell Shepherds” and Tom Jones brings flinty dignity to “Jerusalem”
The Independent (London)

“The captivating voice of Caitríona O’Leary enchants the listener. In Sleepsongs, she performs a selection of lullabies and other songs on the theme of sleep with Dúlra, her excellent early music ensemble.”
Séverine Garnier, TGV Magazine (France)

“Her charismatic voice always inspires a sense of devotion in the listener. with Sleepsongs Dúlra has found a sound that will win over world music lovers and surely every fan of Irish folk.”
Winifried Dulisch, Audio Magazine (Germany)

“This music is a special genre of vocal art, called sean-nós…in this type of singing O’Leary is a master”
GeneralAnzeiger (Bonn, Germany)

“As we listen we become possessed by the fascinating charismatic singer Caitríona O’Leary with her angelic and ethereal voice”
Crescendo Magazine (Germany)

“As always, it is the voice of Caitríona O’Leary that captivates and captures the listener immediately…. the instrumentalists are at their best and the result is truly overwhelming.”
Toccata Alte Musik Aktuell

“Her voice exudes beauty … The songs were frenetically celebrated by a carefree and cheerful audience. The élan of O’Leary’s impressive presence simply cannot be escaped.”
Mittelbayerische Zeitung

“Do not hesitate for a second! Caitríona O’Leary has one of those incredibly crystalline voices that roots you to the spot”
La Vie

“downright angelic”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Wonderful interpretation by Caitríona O’Leary and her band”
Femme Actuelle

“It was in [Caitriona O’Leary’s] performance of Carolan’s lamentation for his dear friend MacCabe that O’Leary revealed a mastery of Irish singing, achieving Andrew Lawrence King’s ambition for the ensemble of taking the audience ‘on a journey- not just to a place, but also to a time. “
The Canberra Times

“Singer Caitriona O’Leary has a voice free of modern operatic vibrato … [she] created intense and pure sweet notes in Carolan’s Lamentation for his friend MacCabe. “
Sydney Morning Herald

“Caitriona O’Leary sang beautifully with lovely folk-like, Gaelic nuances… “
The Australian

“Her singing style, clear articulation, and beautiful soprano voice – with or without accompaniment – are brought to great effect in these and all the songs in Dúil”
Irish Music Magazine

“seamless, ethereal sean nós voice”
The Irish Echo

“It is singing a cappella that Caitríona O’Leary is at her most moving and where she best presents a very rare and very lovely repertoire.”
Le Monde de la Musique

“[O’Leary’s] caressing tones … fit seamlessly into a consistent fabric of sound and expression”
The Wall Street Journal

“The gentle tones of Caitríona O’Leary were lovely”
The Boston Globe

“I relished the flavors of the individual voices and characters … the focused calm of Caitríona O’Leary”
Boston Bay Windows

“Spreading a poignant pall over the proceedings, O’Leary’s lamenting voice rose and fell flawlessly, entrancing the audience with heart-wrenching songs.”
The Irish Echo

“Vocal grace, majestic formal fluidity, from traditional Irish ballads to early music: a disc (Dúil, Irish Songs of Love and Nature), which unites tradition and sensuality”
Geo

“Here is a disc (Dúil, Irish Songs of Love and Nature) that revels in the joy of singing and of making music and the joy of being alive”
La Marseillaise

This CD (I am Stretched on your Grave) instantly had me enchanted. These songs go straight to the heart – and do so compellingly. Wow! It simply cries out for more!”
Alte Musik Aktuell

“She deliberates with great magnitude and with repose. Spellbindingly she sings like a spiritual medium of Irish mourning songs and traditional dirges. Heart-rending cries of simple beauty – but pleasant, autumnal cries that appeal to melancholy and reflection, rather than to misery and lamentation. Besides, all 19 songs are outstandingly presented.”
Music: excellent
Sound: very good
Scala

“The intense lamentation is accomplished through a purity of sound and sincerity of emotion – With each additional overtone one hopes to discover a glimmer of hope. O’Leary is a thoroughly unsentimental singer. She thus succeeds in depicting the true magnitude and power of death, while conjuring up those forces of Eros and Thanatos that can be traced farther back than Christian tradition to the pagan roots of Celtic culture.”
Deutschlandfunk – Die Neue Platte

“Sung by Catriona O’Leary, tremendous. You simply have to like it.”
Rondo

“[I am Stretched on Your Grave:] a walk through the valley of tears could scarcely be more poetic.”
Musik & Theater

“The clear voice, like a flowing river, and gracious silhouette, of Caitríona O’Leary has also accompanied the ensemble Sequentia and the Harp Consort”
Valeurs Actuelles