The music of Mairéid Sullivan and Ben Kettlewell is a hybrid of soaring traditional
Slow Airs, contemporary songs and mesmerizing dance rhythms – hypnotic soundtracks forming a cocoon of comforting and energizing emotions and imagery.

Recordings: 
- Time after Time (2005); film & soundtrack 
- Never Drift Apart (2003)
- For Love's Caress: a Celtic journey (1998)
- A Celtic Evening (1998); Duet with Chieftains' harper, Derek Bell (RIP)
- Dancer (1994)

Compilations:
- Celtic Voices: Women of Song (1995);
Billboard's World Music Top 10 over 9 months - Sept. 1995 to May 96
- Celtic Twilight (1995)

Publications:
- Various Published Articles
- Celtic Women in Music (1999), Quarry Music Press
- Letter from an Emigrant (2009), published by Kealkill National School, Co.Cork
- Water for Food: The Wicking Wormbed Revolution" (2009)

Contributions:
- Celtic Tides: Traditional Music in a New Age (1998), by Martin Melhuish
- My America: What My Country Means to Me, Scribner (2002, Hugh Downs Ed.)
- Celtic Café: Beyond the Craic (2015), by Martin Melhuish

Mairéid Sullivan is a singer, poet, songwriter, storyteller, recording artist, researcher, author, multimedia arts producer: A 'student of history' dedicated to learning and committed to cultural resilience through the arts, with primary focus on health and economic history, as curator for GlobalArtsCollective.org.

Mairéid grew up on a farm, on the crest of the hill at Lisheens, in the township of Bantry, West Cork, Ireland, the first of seven children, cared for by mother, grandmother (former nurses) and grand-aunt (retired dietitian), who encouraged 'good health' practice from early childhood. Father, an equestrian steeplechase trainer, was an 'Irish tenor' and dancer.

Mairéid has been singing and dancing since childhood.
Her mother taught her the traditional songs.
Her father encouraged her to sing and dance.
Her audiences encouraged her to believe that she should sing.
All of this led to a very early belief that she is a singer before anything else in life.

She attended Kealkill National School (see her 'Letter from an Emigrant' celebrating the school's 100th anniversary in 2009). At age twelve, her family moved to San Francisco, where she discovered creative dance and went on to become choir soloist and assistant choir director, and an avid reader. Following her second year as a student of History and Philosophy at San Francisco State University, at age twenty-one, Mairéid accompanied her father on a "27-day excursion" to Australia - and she stayed on, to be immersed in Melbourne's thriving music and theatre scene: "With 'robust healthy girl' stamped on my immigration medical report, immediately being called on to 'sing sing sing' opened many doors for me - as a traditional unaccompanied singer."

Citizen of Ireland, USA, and Australia:
Ancient traditions encourage exploration
Following seven years of 'concert touring' - exploring Australia, Asia, Europe, and Ireland, Mairéid returned to Melbourne - and innovative roles across Melbourne's 'arts' networks.
Her ongoing work is dedicated to researching the gifts of traditional cultures:
Blending evocative feelings and beauty of ancient melodies with contemporary expressions of poetry and music empowers longevity.

In late 1991, Mairéid returned full-time to her musical vocation.
First Press Release: 1992
Discovering the profound wisdom in ancient Australian and Celtic cultural heritage became a source of inspiration: European Common Laws handed down across pre-Roman Empire cultures shared a traditional approach to dealing with wrong-doing; when a member of a community or tribe hurt or offended a member of another family/tribe, the family must 'sing them out' publicly until they make reparations.
"As a traditional Irish singer, the fact that Australian Aboriginal people also 'Sing them out' captured my attention. Wisdom found in ancient traditions inspired songs that helped me to deal with personal and universal issues in a way that gives me the most freedom for experimentation, personal expression and relationship to my audience."

Catching the Celtic Music Wave


Mairéid's first album, Dancer, 1994, produced by legendary Irish musician Donal Lunny, received highly favourable reviews in Australia, Ireland, and the US.
It comprised fresh takes on traditional Irish songs as well as original compositions.

In February 1995, Mairéid travelled from Melbourne to Los Angeles to establish US distribution for her music, just as the World Music/Celtic music genre took off - catapulting her onto the stage across the USA and Canada.

Mairéid came to greater international prominence with the best-selling compilation album,
Celtic Voices: Women of Song (1995), which featured three tracks from her Dancer album, remaining on Billboard’s "World Music Top 10" for nine months across 1995-1996.
She also contributed numerous articles supporting the Celtic music revival for US newspapers, magazines and newsletters. A new musical collaboration began when Mairéid met Ben Kettlewell in May 1997.

From early 1999, Mairéid interviewed more than seventy women across the Celtic music genre. Thirty of those interviews were featured in her book Celtic Women in Music:
a Celebration of Beauty and Sovereignty (1999). It was very well received.

Selected Reviews:
e.g.
Professor Frank Mills, Marylhurst University, Oregon, USA, March 2000
Excerpt:
... It's not just a few speaking from the heart. It's every woman interviewed. Mairéid has a way about her that creates a deep intimacy with those whom she converses. Mairéid and I have discussed this. While she might disagree with me, I think it is her unique sense of her own spirituality that brings this about. Mairéid is on what she calls a "personal mission:" A mission that has no fixed boundaries, no preconceived expectations, just a deep desire to fulfill her life's purpose, however that unfolds. The book is but one example of this. Her music, too, is indicative of this spiritual mission. Australian historian Gary Lewis' interview of Mairéid at the beginning of Celtic Women in Music brings out Mairéid's sense of mission and sets the pace for Mairéid's interviews. ... >>>more

Mairéid and Ben fell in love with filmmaking when they began filming 'nature' during concert tours, always allowing time to travel off the 'beaten track'.

In 2000, Mairéid and Ben traveled to Ireland to film interviews with fourteen of Ireland’s leading women musicians, exploring sources of the wide variety of cultural styles in Irish music.
(Read her diary, Filming in Ireland, and view film clips on the YouTube Lyrebird Channel).

Riding the ‘Celtic wave’, Mairéid performed across the US and Canada for seven years, before returning to Australia, with Ben, in 2002, where they immediately established their multimedia studio: Lyrebird Media – situated on the edge of the “green belt” in North Eastern Melbourne, where they compose and record music, enjoy producing, directing, and editing films - and gardening!

Mairéid became involved, from January 2006, in the campaign to protect the Hill of Tara, Ireland’s national cultural treasure and extensive archaeological site, from inappropriate and unethical political strategies, which led her to found GlobalArtsCollective.org -
to encourage Irish people around the world to support the campaign to ‘Save Tara’.
The experience awakened Mairéid’s interest in economic history, with a special focus on Ireland’s late 1800s ‘reformative’ influence across Ireland, America, and Australia.

Mairéid continues her research on "Catastrophes as turning points in the arts”
and contributes to the Irish Diaspora as a singer, occasional speaker, writer, researcher, multimedia producer/filmmaker.

Throughout the 1980s, before returning full-time to her music career in 1990, Maireid supported her daughter, three step-children, and former husband, while undertaking his Ph.D. (all are graduates of Melbourne University), via her arts marketing consultancy,
Mairéid Sullivan Communications.

During the 1980s, Melbourne celebrated "multiculturalism" with the revival of Marvellous Melbourne, slipstreaming on Cultural Tourism, (Craik, 1997) aka "cultural-economic activity" designed to attract international investment and up-market tourism by focusing on celebrating the performing and visual arts. inspired by post-industrial Seattle and Pennsylvania - and Glasgow!

Before Ireland rose from historical poverty on the international "Celtic music wave", Glasgow rose from post-industrial poverty to become European Capital of Culture, 1990, their Director visited Melbourne City Council's Cultural Tourism Committee to show how focus on celebrating Glasgow's illustrious arts and crafts history enlivened their community.

As Mairéid Sullivan Communications, Mairéid undertook comprehensive research in her role as conduit to the Arts and Tourism Industries, supporting City of Melbourne and Victorian Tourism Commission Cultural Tourism initiatives:
Clients included individual artists, The Australian Ballet, Victoria State Opera, and many festivals, including five years with Spoleto Festival, as it evolved to become Melbourne International Festival of the Arts.

Mairéid expanded her initiatives across regional Victoria in 1986,
as Life Performance Tours Pty. Ltd.

The company was launched at the Victorian Art Centre
by the Minister for Arts and Tourism, The Honourable Race Mathews;
Mayor of Melbourne, Cr. Trevor Huggard;
Director, Melbourne Tourism Authority, Susan Caldwell;
Chairman, Victorian Tourism Commission, Bruce Hartnett;
and Director of the Melbourne Theatre Company, Roger Hodgman.

The launch was widely celebrated within the arts community and on the media, including coverage on Ch 9 television news, SBS News, the ABC 7:30 Report and headlining on page three of the AGE, followed by extensive ongoing media coverage in support of the initiatives of the enterprise.

The consultancy undertook market research and established a state-wide Data Base as a foundation for development of ongoing state-wide promotional strategies, which required regular media interviews and public speaking engagements across the state of Victoria.

For example, when the Victoria State Opera lost funding for regional tours, Maireid was asked to speak to community arts advocates across regional centers, providing Group Booking discounts to individuals across the state.

Mairéid published The Theatre City, a magazine format review of the Arts in Melbourne, with contributing editorial from leading figures in the Arts establishment.

Additional projects included:

• The City of Melbourne:  The brief of this consultancy included the design of submissions for promotional activities and management of ensuing promotional projects.
  
• Committee for Melbourne: As convenor of the Arts and Tourism Forum, Maireid facilitated a broader outlook on marketing the Arts to tourism, leading to guidelines for policies on Cultural Tourism.
• Cultural Tourism: Mairéid was the only non-government consultant on the City of Melbourne committee driving Cultural Tourism initiatives.

Principal clients:                                                    

• 1987-1991: Victoria State Opera
• 1988-1992: Spoleto = Melbourne International Festival of the Arts
• 1989: International Festival of Opera’s AIDA
• 1990: Australian Ballet: Design/manage Ballet Society/USA cultural itinerary.
• 1991: Melbourne Celtic Festival
• 1992: Port Fairy Folk Festival
  

Market Research & Development services:

• Special itinerary design and management of visiting international journalists, promoting Melbourne to International Tourism Markets on behalf of:
  • Melbourne Tourism Authority
  • Victorian Tourism Commission
• Co-ordination of regional bus routes linked to arts booking outlets       
• Co-ordination of regional Victoria Marketing Strategy
• Establishment of regional Victoria Marketing Data Base
  • Promotional Profile Development
  • Development of Promotional Material
  • Co-ordination of Publicity
  • Event and Project Management
  • Fundraising for special projects
    

Principal metropolitan Melbourne markets:

• Metropolitan Corporations, Social Clubs and Associations
• Tourism and Conference Markets - including:
  
  • Metropolitan & Regional Arts Councils
  • Regional Victorian cultural centres
  • Interstate and International Travel Agents,
  • Convention and Incentive Travel Organisers
  • Corporate social clubs

 Publicity and promotion networks: Regional Victoria

• 34 Regional Newspapers
• 17 Regional Radio Stations
• 4 Regional Television stations
• Regional cultural information and events coordinators; e.g.  
  • Arts Council Committees, Social Clubs, Education Centres
  • Direct contact with Arts Patrons through various local societies.