Author Biography
Photo of Gráinne Yeats GRÁINNE YEATS (d. April 18, 2013) was born in Dublin, Ireland, and raised bilingually in Irish and English. She always combined a deep interest in traditional music and songs with a corresponding interest in classical music. At the same time as she was studying piano, voice and harp at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin, she was learning traditional songs from the Irish-speaking (Gaeltacht) areas, and acquired what became a very large repertoire of traditional songs and music.

She had a particular interest in the wire-strung harp, and wrote extensively about its history and music. She was the first professional musician to revive and record this ancient traditional instrument. She did extensive research on the Irish harpers, and recorded some 40 of their songs and harp solos on a double CD (Gael Linn, CEF CD 156), using both wire and gut harps. Among her other publications she wrote entries on Carolan and other Irish harpers in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, and her book The Harp of Ireland contains much material about them. Gráinne Yeats retired from her international concert career, but still taught in workshops, master classes, courses and festivals. She was married to Michael Yeats and they lived mainly in Dublin. 



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