Emilie Conway Quartet
Jazz singer Emilie Conway launches her debut album “The Secret of a Rose” with an evening of music to celebrate spring as a season of hope, change and new love with jazz standards You Must Believe in Spring, Joy Spring, Aguas de Marco, It Might As Well Be Spring,, But Beautiful, So In Love and many more..
Emilie:“The repertoire for this concert and album developed out of my personal response to the climate of negativity in our country over the past few years. Life has taught me that there is always hope and there is beauty, that this is a beautiful life we have here – where there are dark shadows, there is also light.For me, these songs are about affirmation and acceptance.Well just as it says in You Must Believe in Spring
“Beneath the deepest snows, the secret of a rose,Is merely that it knows, you must believe in spring!”
The evening features the talents of Emilie’s in-demand support musicians: Cian Boylan (piano), Dave Fleming (double bass) and Dominic Mullan (drums) who are among Ireland’s leading musicians, sought after north and south. The Emilie Conway Quartet has been working together for the past six years so that there is a very close musical understanding.
Born in Dublin, Emilie has won scholarships to Berklee College of Music, Boston, The Vermont Jazz Centre, and Souza Lima, Brazil, She has studied with Sheila Jordan, Jay Clayton in the US, Fionna Duncan UK and Dorothy Murphy here in Dublin.Her influences are Billie Holiday, Elis Regina, Edith Piaf, Abbey Lincoln, Kurt Elling and Joni Mitchell but also include Prokofiev, Satie, Chopin, Ravel, and Mahler.As a singer, Emilie’s strength and uniqueness lie in her simple and sensitive interpretation of the music.
Strong ties with jazz musicians and audiences outside of Ireland see Emilie a welcome guest vocalist in Vermont, Boston, Chicago and throughout Europe.In 2010 she was invited to perform at The Copenhagen Jazz Festival and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.At home “Emilie Sings Billie”, a Tribute to Billie Holiday, won an Arts Council award and was presented at the Linenhall Arts Centre, the Galway Jazz Club and Bewley’s Café Theatre. Not afraid to take risks, Emilie has made interesting choices in interpreting and bringing the music of less obvious artists, Elis Regina and Abbey Lincoln to Irish audiences with “Emilie Sings Abbey” and “Emilie Sings Elis” which won festival invitations to The Ranelagh Arts Festival, and The Flatlake’s Festival. ”Emilie Sings Elis” has been particularly well received by Ireland’s Brazilian community. .She has made several radio appearances on the Arena Arts show on RTE 1 radio, last October as part of RTE’s Big Music week.The Emilie Conway Quartet perform regularly at their musical home: Bewley’s Café Theatre, Grafton St, Dublin.
