Swinford’s Alannah Thornburgh has just released a collaborative single with trad group Varo. This comes as the young harpist has been nominated for two awards at the 2025 RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards.
Alannah is an award-winning multi-instrumentalist and composer with a focus on Irish harp. Her music explores her family’s musical heritage, reimagining ancient airs and tunes from the Irish harping and American folk and jazz traditions. She is a founding member of Alfi, a trio which combines traditional Irish and Appalachian music and song. The Mayo musician is resident harp tutor in Maynooth University.
Alannah’s American-born dad Rob is a well-known local musician.
Alannah has been nominated in the categories Best Original Folk Song (for Chasing the Hare) and Best Folk Instrumentalist. She will release her own album Shapeshifter later this year.
Of her collaborative single with trad duo Varo, Alannah said “It was a pleasure working on the arrangement of Red Robin with Varo and bringing it to life in many performances and recordings since. ”
Lucie Azconaga and Consuelo Nerea Breschi (aka Varo ) say of their new single: “We learned this song from a 1977 recording of Mikey Kelleher (1907-1987), found in an online collection of songs from County Clare. We immediately fell in love with the melody and lyrics, which describes a state of mind rather than a real story. ”
“Working with Alannah has been an absolute pleasure,” the pair continue. “She’s insanely talented and the loveliest woman. The harp perfectly creates this soft melancholic and emotional sound we were looking for.” Red Robin is the first single to come from Varo’s upcoming new album.
Alannah Thornburgh and another of the album’s collaborators, Branwen, will join Varo at their headline show at the Pepper Cannister Church, Dublin tomorrow night, Saturday 25th January, as part of TradFest 2025.
