Biography
Mary Mc Laughlin is a singer / songwriter who is steeped in the Ulster Gaelic song tradition of her native Ireland where she was born and raised.
Mary records, performs and teaches workshops in singing skills, performance technique and Gaelic song and culture. She now lives in California but has toured extensively throughout the USA teaching and performing at Celtic / Irish camps.
Having lived for many years in England Mary has also performed in the English Folk Scene, singing and playing guitar and keyboards with various groups including the Folk Rock group Traitor’s Gait, Anonyma (a duo with singer-songwriter Anne Lister), multi- instrumentalist Steafán Hannigan and the Martin Simpson Band Flash Company which included the late great John Spencer.
Her solo recording career got launched in 1991 with The Daughter of Lir, produced by international producer Jon Jacobs who has worked on many of the Beatles’ projects.
The lead track Sealwoman also headed off Narada’s 1995 Celtic Voices which reached #3 in the Billboard charts and introduced Mary to an international audience.
In 1997 Mary moved to California. Over the last decade and a half she has toured extensively throughout the USA with various bands and has taught at most of the major Irish / Celtic festivals. She has released four solo albums and a teaching book/CD set; sang the theme song for the PBS special Lost Liners, contributed to 13 compilation albums and founded a sacred Gaelic Choir in California (Cór AInglí – Mary Mc Laughlin’s Angelic Choir)
Having trained in vocal technique with the acclaimed vocal teacher Frankie Armstrong, Mary formalized her training in 1995 by acquiring a Certificate of Vocal Music Education from Trinity College London. She went back to do an MA in Ritual Chant and Song in 2010 at Limerick University Ireland where she specialized in the fairy songs of Ireland as well as Latin plainchant and the Irish Keen.
Mary is known for her ability to arrange traditional Irish material chorally as well as her singing, writing and teaching abilities. She currently lives in Northern California where she teaches singing skills and Irish traditional singing, as well as directing her Cór Ainglí. She regularly works with harper Steve Coulter in the Bay area. Through 2011 she has been performing in a theatrical/dance production about the Selkie legends called Selkie Tides, conceived and directed by Sharon Took-Zozaya.
The summer of 2011 will see her on the road again – this time in Canada at CeltFest on Vancouver Island and on a tour with Anne Lister in England and Wales.