dawn kenny

“In addition to all the intellectual and emotional qualities Dawn brings to her music, she has that other, moderately useful advantage – she has a quite wonderful voice, which is both versatile and strong”

- Kevin Myers, The Irish Times.

“Well crafted songs, they also underline Kenny's penchant for unexpected melodic twists and turns…This is a fine debut, which should make waves for a promising new talent.”

- Colm O’Hare, Hotpress

“Dawn really does deserve to step into the limelight on her own and this album should really get her great attention”

- Irish Music Press

Dawn Kenny, piano / vocal, is a multi-talented artist who hails from Ardnacrusha Co. Clare. She has performed a huge variety of different tasks during her career as a singer/songwriter/composer/arranger/musician. Having been a prodigious classical pianist in her youth and the winner of numerous awards, her first notable achievement was to obtain the first music scholarship awarded by The Conservatory of Music for her Masters degree in composition following a music degree in Trinity College. Dawn became the youngest ever lecturer in music in Trinity College and The D.I.T. conservatory of Music while working as a session piano-player/singer with acts such as Cathal Coughlan and Nine Wassies from Bainne. At this time Dawn was busily writing her own music and had a number of classical works published. She also wrote the title track of a guitar album called E-motion, featuring legendary Irish guitarist John Feeley.

Dawn soon released her debut solo album, which she recorded herself, to great public acclaim and featured prominently in the Hotpress Readers Poll as one of the most promising new acts in the country. She then released a second album entitled ‘Sound’ last year and received rave reviews for the quality of the songs and her beautiful voice. ‘Sound’ is distributed by Sony Music Ireland and Proper Music UK. More opportunities followed and she has found herself playing guest artist to some of her own heroes; people such as Bob Geldof, Ron Sexsmith, Joan Armatrading, Al Stewart and Glenn Tilbrook as well as up-and-coming acts like Juliet Turner and KT Tunstall.

She plans to release the hauntingly beautiful ballad “Cruel World” in the autumn and will mark this by embarking on a fifteen-date tour of Ireland in October beginning in Ryans, Kilkenny on the 5th and ending with a Dublin date in Crawdaddys on the 28th October. Having worked as a session musician everywhere from Connemara to New York, Dawn still finds herself being called on to play with other people. She has shared the stage with legendary blues man Eric Bibb, who declared publically that ‘seeing Dawn play live was like seeing Joni Mitchell all over again’.

The renowned film production company Strianna heard Dawn on the radio while filming in Ireland last September and immediately contacted her to co-write and sing the title track of a French film called “Sur la Piste des Aigles”, which was released in Europe earlier this year. The film/doc is about the retirement of Dalakhani, one of the Aga Kahn’s great thoroughbred horses and will be shown in Ireland later this year. Dawn will be featured in a video release with the song also this year in France and the UK. Watch this space!

Dawn’s commanding live performances have also led to numerous television appearances and radio interviews.

Ireland has produced few female singer/songwriting talents of such a high standard and almost none of them perform on piano in the way that Dawn does, her influences coming mainly from America in the form of Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Randy Newmann and Laura Nyro.

[ Home ] [ Reviews ] [ Gigs ] [ Sounds ] [ Guestbook ] [ Links ] [ Contact ]

Female Singer-Songwriter Webring

Female Singer-Songwriter Webring
made possible by CrickRock Webrings.

Site Design & Maintenance by Milford Arts

dawnkenny.com Visitors: