TRIONA SINGS (Tríona Ní Dhuibhir) has launched her debut EP, produced by Rob Kilpatrick at Tinpot Productions. She is thrilled that her music is finally out there.
Tríona grew up in Corclough West, a small village on the Mullet Peninsula, North West Mayo. She cannot remember when she started singing but remembers the first song she ever learned – Jolene.
The young Tríona loved the stage and performed at every opportunity. By her teens shebuilt up a bunch of coversand sang at the drop of a hat. By the time she was in college she was busking on Grafton Street and paying her way. She studied medicine first – briefly. Three months later she walked out of medicine and into an audition. She started writing songs, then completed an MA at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, UL. She was gigging in cover and trad bandsin Limerick at the time and loving it.
Returning to Dublin, Tríona joined Cantóirí, a choir which specialised in choral arrangements of world music. The experience of singing extraordinary music within a group, in harmony was divine. She performed both choral and solo numbers with Cantóirí at The Village, Whelans, The Helix and at Dublin Fringe Festival’s Spiegeltent. The bug got stronger and stronger.
She worked in theatre and was drawn to the great cabaret numbers. Inspired by Jack L, Ute Lemper, Camille O’Sullivan and Karen Egan, Tríona put a one woman show together and made her debut as a cabaret artist. Twelve Songs at Dublin Fringe Festival developed into Tríona Ní Díva at Bewley’s Café Theatre – featuring among others the great songs of Kurt Weill and Jacques Brel.
She got the opportunity to create a show for The Performance Corporation’s Big House Festival. This show, Jezebel, became a mini musical of country songs, her first love. The experience of writing Jezebel unlocked the key to song-writing once more.
That was 2013. For years she wrote and sang. She performed her songs at Young Heart’s Run Free in a line-up with Donal Lunny, at the Workman’s Club, the Back Page and with Mothers Artists Makers (MAM) at Árus an Phiarsaigh for Nollag na mBan, The MAM Behind the Mic at Smock Alley Theatre and at Project Arts Centre for International Women’s Day. Most recently she performed at First Fortnight’s Cistin2021.
She left her full-time job as General Manager of Dublin Theatre Festival and set about the task of finding people to record her music. She finally found a wonderful collaborator. Rob Kilpatrick at Tinpot Productions listened to Tríona sing. He liked her songs and she liked him. They set about recording and completed the EP, Tríona Sings.
Next Tríona sets her gaze towards her upcoming album The Díva and the Doormat. The songs are written and ready to go and she is dying to get back into studio. She also looks forward to live performance opening up and to presenting at festivals around Ireland in Autumn.
