THEY say your school days are the happiest days of your life and that would certainly be true in the case of fiddler/violinist Zoë Conway. St Louis Secondary Scool in Dundlak not only provided Zoë with a musical education that has seen her rise to becoming one of the most respected musicians around in both traditional and classical circles but it also united her with husband and guitar player, John McIntyre. But more of that later.
I ask Zoë, what was the music scene like when you were growing up?
"I went to a school that really promoted music, St Louis school in Dundalk,” Zoë tells me. “They had a school orchestra there which I was part of and there was lots of playing every week, a lot of practice and work with conductors and sheet music and all of that. They also had practice rooms in the school, so if you had a free class you could go to the practice rooms and actually practice your instruments, so they were really pro-music which made a big difference in my life, as you can imagine.
"Had I gone to a school that wasn't like that, I probably wouldn't have been in the position I'm in of being a very good player. Also, my first violin teacher, my first classical teacher, just lived at the bottom of my father's field. And she was a really talented, talented teacher. Her name was Sheila Thompson and she took me every day for a lesson – for free. That's the reason I'm such a good player now – all of those formative years that I've had here in Dundalk. That's what made me who I am today."
But St Louis provided Zoë with more than music. A young man called John McIntyre was in the boys' school next door, where music wasn't offered, so he had to go to Zoë’s school to take his exam.
“He came in to do his practical and was put into the practice rooms where I was. That's how we met first. He was an incredible guitar player and I was playing fiddle and we were showing off to each other and we didn't meet for a few years. He went off with The Revs for a few years and I went off with lots of different people and with Rodrigo y Gabriela.
"We met again at a John Spillane gig in the Spirit Store in Dundalk. That's kind of where we really started going out and hitting it off. Then we went out for years and got married. It wasn't until after we were married that we sat down and played together, which is quite incredible, but that's what we mainly do now. So yeah, that's how it all happened.”
As a teenager, Zoë would have had to travel to Killiney in Co Dublin for her classical violin lessons – a three-hour round trip, which was something of a disadvantage. In terms of traditional music she went to Dublin for sessions but also to Armagh – places like Forkhill and Camlough, where there were great sessions.
Zoë at that stage was becoming a fine composer of traditional tunes and has since produced two solo albums: Zoë Conway and The Horse's Tail. In 2012 she got the chance to commission 12 Irish folk/trad composers to write tunes for fiddle and guitar, from Andy Irivne to Peadar Ó Riada. The result was the album Go Mairir i bhFad wich Zoë saw as “a representation of what people were writing in Ireland at that moment”.
Among the artists who contributed to Go Mairir i bhFad were Máirtín O'Connor and Dónal Lunny.
“I would have played with Máirtín for years at different concerts, standing in for Cathal Hayden if he wasn't available," Zoë says. “I also was lucky enough to play with Dónal on my very first album because he was friends with Bill Whelan who produced the album. That's how I met Dónal and we kept in touch over the years and have done a couple of things together.
"Dónal got a call to do a tour for [Ireland’s national music touring and development agency] Music Network and he thought of Máirtín, so they met up and they were wondering who the third person would be. Máirtín suggested me and they both said yes – I was really lucky to be playing with them on that tour."
"We kind of thought that it would just be a tour, but we enjoyed it so much that we ended up being asked to do more concerts and we've been going for two years now, believe it or not."
Next up, Zoe and John have a project with another married couple, Julie Fowlis and Eamonn Doorley.
“We’re putting new music to old Irish and Scots Gaelic poems and trying to make songs from them,” explains Zoë.
“That project is lined up for the beginning of next year, so we're going to have to put the composition hats on and try and create some beautiful music. That'll definitely be happening in the next few months.”
:: An Droichead are bringing Zoë Conway, Donal Lunny and Máirtín O’Connor to the The Black Box on October 14. For details and tickets see http://www.androichead.com/whats-on/zoedonalmairtin
