SUMMER SCHOOL OF EARLY IRISH HARP
VIRGINIA BLANKENHORN
Vocal tutor, Scoil na gCláirseach
Virginia Blankenhorn is a specialist in accentual Irish and Scottish Gaelic verse, poetry and song. She combines performance skills as a singer, with academic study of verse metrics and language, to try and understand the technicalities of historical Irish song-poetry performance practice.
Virginia’s interest in Irish poetry and song built on her training in music and Celtic Studies, developing through research at NUI Galway and the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. She received her PhD from the University of Edinburgh, and lectured in Irish Studies for seven years at the University of Ulster in Coleraine. After spending 20 years in the USA, she returned to Ireland, becoming a post-doctoral researcher at NUI Galway in 2009. She is presently a Post-doctoral Fellow in Celtic and Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh.
Virginia has written a book on the performance of Irish verse, Irish Song-Craft and Metrical Practice Since 1600, as well as articles, and has edited collections of archive recordings and of essays.