Mary Ann Kennedy (Scottish singer)
| Mary Ann Kennedy | |
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Kennedy in 2007
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| Born | Glasgow, Scotland |
| Citizenship | Scottish |
| Education | Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Royal Northern College of Music |
| Occupation | singer, musician, composer, broadcaster |
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| Musical career | |
| Genres | Gaelic song and music |
| Instruments | Vocals, harp, piano |
| Website | http://www.maryannkennedy.co.uk/ |
Mary Ann Kennedy (Màiri Anna NicUalraig), is a Scottish musician, singer, choral director, composer, radio and television presenter, and music producer.
Mary Ann Kennedy was born and brought up in Glasgow in a Gaelic-speaking household. Her mother, Dr Kenna Campbell MBE, is a prominent Gaelic tradition-bearer and teacher, and is one of the Campbell musical dynasty from Greepe on the Isle of Skye, a renowned family of singers and pipers. Her father, Alasdair Kennedy (d. 2004) was from the Isle of Tiree.
She trained as a classical musician from the age of six, starting out on piano and later taking up the clàrsach (small Scottish harp) and concert harp. She spent all her early years with the Russian-trained Australian pianist, Elisabeth Jacobs, and with the Irish concert harpist Sanchia Pielou, founding member of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra She went on to study as a pianist at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, and undertook postgraduate research and training at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester with Welsh concert harpist Eira Lynn Jones. She completed her Master's degree there in 1995, and was the first harpist in the College's history to be awarded its highest performance diploma. Her thesis was a study of Gaelic puirt a beul, or 'mouth music', a speciality of her mother's family.
From 1993 she lived and worked in Inverness as a news presenter and musician, latterly running the national Gaelic news service. She presented the long-running series Mary Ann Kennedy's Global Gathering (previously Celtic Connections) for BBC Radio Scotland until 2012, and currently presents World on 3 on BBC Radio 3. Since 1994, she has co-presented Sruth na Maoile, a bilingual Irish-Scottish Gaelic music series with Seán Ó hÉanaigh for BBC Radio nan Gàidheal and RTÉ Ráidió na Gaeltachta - the only radio co-production between the two stations in those 23 years.
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