Cora Smyth:Releasing her first solo album and going on tour
After rushing around the world as a violinist in Michael Flatley's Feet of Flames and Lord of the Dance shows, a tour of five Irish towns this week will seem like a breeze to Cora Smyth. "I'm very used to an intensive touring schedule," says the young Mayo-born violinist, whose first solo album, Are We There Yet?, has just been released. "The touring we did was pretty intense towards the end of Lord of the Dance," says Smyth, who spent more than 10 years visiting cities and towns throughout Australia, the US, Asia, South Africa and Europe with Flatley.
"The first couple of years it was easier. We'd be in a place for a few weeks, but in the last few years, because of the show's momentum, we were hitting towns for a night."
Opening in Galway Town Hall tonight, followed by shows in Ennis on Tuesday, in Tralee on Wednesday, in Longford on Friday and in Portlaoise next Saturday should be a piece of cake to the traditionally-trained fiddle player.
Smyth, who grew up in Straide, Co Mayo, drew full houses and standing ovations when she played original work with her band, which includes her husband, Sean Horsman, at the Druid Theatre as part of last year's Galway Arts Festival. She says the material for that show and the resulting album grew from ideas she and Horsman had when they were touring with Flatley. "We were always jotting down and sketching ideas," she says.
Smyth started to perform as a musician some years ago in Galway, where she was studying medicine. She qualified and worked briefly as a doctor, but she gave up her career in medicine when she played in the award- winning production of At the Black Pig's Dyke. Then she played with the group that won the Eurovision Song Contest with the song The Voice, written by Brendan Graham. After that she was chosen to be one of the violinists in Lord of the Dance.
The reactions to their show last year were so positive that they decided to record the long-overdue and often-talked-about album, she says. It features mostly original tunes by Smyth, which are all inspired by those years of travelling. Although originally a traditional musician, Smyth says her music on the album is influenced by funk, Dixieland, gypsy jazz and Latin. "It's a completely different flavour from what I've been doing," she says.
Catherine Foley
See www.corasmyth.com or www.myspace.com/corasmyth