Laoise Leahy: from Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa to working with Damon Albarn

The singer speaks on her lifelong love of music, and curating new monthly jazz gigs at Cork Opera House

Laoise Leahy: singer and songwriter curates the new jazz night at the Opera House

As a music student in London, Laoise Leahy was surprised to one day receive an invitation to record with Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz.

“One of my lecturers brought me in to do a session with Damon Albarn. He was writing a Chinese opera at the time (Monkey: Journey to the West). There were six singers brought in. He was writing ideas and recording vocalists singing them in real time. He had a four-string Chinese instrument and an engineer. He was singing these ideas and they were popping it on to a laptop, printing it out, and bringing it in to us. We were singing it for him. He was getting an idea of what his ideas sounded like with real singers.