Birth name Una Palliser Role Singer Name Una Palliser | Years active 2002–present Occupation(s) musician | |
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Genres Classical, Balkan, Rock, Pop, Irish Folk Similar People Terrafolk, Iarla O Lionaird, Orla Fallon, Stefan Milenkovic, Mary Black | ||
Una Palliser - Mo Ghile Mear
Una Palliser is an Irish born, London based violinist, violist, singer and multi-instrumentalist who as well as being classically trained, is recognised for her proficiency in many musical genres, including rock, balkan and Irish folk. She is best known for her role as the featured solo violinist on Shakira's The Sun Comes Out World Tour and as the singer of Irish folk song Mo Ghile Mear on the Specsavers 'Collie Wobble' advertisement.
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Una Palliser & The Balkan Bears: Black is the Colour @ Ronnie Scotts, London May 2010
Early life
Una was born in Cork, Ireland where she began learning the violin at 4 years old at the Cork School of Music. She also studied piano and viola and later was a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra. Palliser won a number of awards including Wolfson Trust Award, a Royal Philharmonia Martin Musical Scholarship Award, and was a string finalist in the RTÉ Millennium Musician of the Future Competition. She won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London where she studied with Garfield Jackson of the Endellion Quartet for 4 years before graduating with a 1st Class Hons Degree in performance.
Career
Una has recorded and performed as a session musician with many artists such as The Killers, P Diddy, Buena Vista Social Club, Maxim Vengerov, The Noisettes, and Elbow. Resultantly she has performed on a number of television programs including Later With Jools Holland, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Top of the Pops and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
She also appeared in Mark Ronson's video 'Valerie'.
She toured Europe as part of Gnarls Barkley's band in 2006, and as solo violinist/violist on Patrick Wolf's Magic Position tour of the US and Europe in 2007. Later that year she performed as featured violist on Take That's Beautiful World Tour 2007.
In 2008 Palliser was the featured lead singer and violinist/violist on the single 'Still Resist The Storm' on BBC World Music Award Winning band Terrafolk's record Full Circle, which topped the radioplay charts in Slovenia. This led to many international tours and performances as a featured guest artist with Terrafolk.
Palliser toured as violinist with Moby on his 2009 summer tour.
In August 2011 she joined Dresden Dolls' Amanda Palmer as guest violinist on her UK tour.
In October/November 2011 she performed at the Tribeca Film Festival in Qatar as the solo violinist with Leona Lewis. She rejoined Leona in Kuala Lumpur in March 2012 to perform to the King and Queen of Malaysia
In May 2012 Palliser joined Avalanche City playing violin, glockenspiel, accordion and backing vocals for their UK shows.
Palliser performed as guest violinist with Otis Taylor (musician) at the FMM Sines – Festival Músicas do Mundo in Lisbon and Le Duc des Lombards in Paris in July 2012. She rejoined Taylor at La Defence Jazz Festival in Paris in July 2013
Palliser has been described as an 'extraordinary violinist' by the UK's The Independent newspaper.
Shakira
In 2010, Shakira invited Palliser to feature as the solo violinist on her 2010 / 2011 The Sun Comes Out World Tour where she also sang back up vocals as well as played the accordion, whistles and strohviol. She had a 4-minute improvised solo intro to the last song of Shakira's main set, 'Ojos Asi'.
Vocals
Palliser's recording of the Irish folk song "Mo Ghile Mear" has been used on the Specsavers 'Sheep' advert since 2008.
She is the lead singer and violinist in the four-member band Una & the Balkan Bears which completed its first UK / Ireland tour in May 2010, ending with a performance at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London.
Personal life
Palliser currently lives in London. Her brother Conor Palliser is a conductor and pianist and brother Ronan Palliser is a photographer. Her father plays Irish folk music including harmonica and whistles.
Solo
Specsavers 'Collie Wobble' advertisement (solo vocals, arranger) – Soundtree Music – 2008
with Shakira
with Terrafolk
with Take That
with Smoke Fairies
Other recordings
with Carl Barat
with The Killers
with Russell Watson
with Katie Melua
with The Choirgirl Isabel
with Aled Jones
with Lisa Lois
with Paloma Faith
with Noisettes / Radio 1's Live Lounge CD
with Brian Eno
with Mark Ronson ft Amy Winehouse
with Tony Christie
with Peter Kay / Geraldine McQueen
with Gary Barlow / Elliot Kennedy
with Peter Raeburn
with Gnarls Barkley / Later with Jools Holland CD
with All Angels
with The Shapeshifters
with Hugh Cornwell
Trident 'splash' advertisement – Soundtree Music (composer, string arranger, violin, 2008)
Smirnoff ' Sea' advertisement – Soundtree Music (violin, viola)
Royal Mail 'Grow' advertisement – Soundtree Music (violin, viola)
Nokia 'Harmony' advertisement – Soundtree Music (vocals)
BBC One's 'Let's Dance' TV theme – BBC (violin, viola)
'Love on a Saturday Night' TV theme – London Weekend Television / ITV (vocals)
'Eva' Short Film Soundtrack – Jeva Films (solo vocals)
'By Hook' Short Film Soundtrack – Virgin Media Shorts / Laura Evers Johns (solo vocals)