New violinist???

I was looking at New Era ads and I noticed new pics here.

That doesn't look like Ciara. Am I wrong?

https://www.ppacri.org/events/detail/celtic-woman-a-new-era

The violinist in that ad is Kate Heneghan I believe!

WHAT??!?!?!?!?! 

I guess Ciara is currently doing a lot with BIIRD…but does that mean Tara’s not coming back?  I looked up Kate and it says she plays harp as well…so that sounds like a replacement…but Tara’s been so active with Celtic Woman for almost ten years, and it’s sad to think she could be leaving…

A bit off topic, but does anyone else feel that the promo pictures look a bit off? The dresses appear to be the Symphony tour dresses photoshopped blue, except for Muirgen, who for some reason is the only one wearing a different dress, and even that looks strangely fake. The poses for that picture are also almost the same as the Symphony tour promo. Even this new violinist’s dress is the same as what Ciara had in the previous promo.

Attached is the Symphony promo for reference. Caitríona and Mairéad’s dresses are the exact same apart from colour.

A new member just got announced, for at least the spring tour.

https://www.facebook.com/celticwoman/posts/pfbid0vXg6zdKzTwP4feSkBEGvbD3NWzLGPG121g4r97x4Q5QJcV8kaKZeExrWRm6rkfn6l

Exciting announcement
We’re delighted to welcome Kate Heneghan, award-winning Irish fiddle player and multi-instrumentalist, to the Celtic Woman family.
Kate joins the Celtic Woman lineup for the upcoming Spring Tour, kicking off 4 March in Providence, MA.
We send our warmest wishes to Ciara as she tours the globe with Biird, another female Irish music sensation!
Tickets for the Spring Tour are available at https://www.celticwoman.com/tour-dates

A bit off topic, but does anyone else feel that the promo pictures look a bit off? The dresses appear to be the Symphony tour dresses photoshopped blue, except for Muirgen, who for some reason is the only one wearing a different dress, and even that looks strangely fake. The poses for that picture are also almost the same as the Symphony tour promo. Even this new violinist’s dress is the same as what Ciara had in the previous promo.

Attached is the Symphony promo for reference. Caitríona and Mairéad’s dresses are the exact same apart from colour.

Here’s the general A New Era image used for reference. All except Muirgen are in the exact same positions with identical dresses except that they’re coloured blue. Muirgen might actually be photoshopped in. Another way to tell is Mairéad’s hair. Her hair was quite a bit longer during the Symphony tour (when A New Era was announced) than when that photo was taken, going past her shoulders (although she recently cut it into a bob). It’s in the exact same style in both pictures.

I did notice only one image result for that other violinist, and it seems to be just for that specific show. Maybe Ciara has a schedule conflict and Tara didn’t want to come back just yet so they had this woman be a temporary stand-in?

A new member just got announced, for at least the spring tour.

https://www.facebook.com/celticwoman/posts/pfbid0vXg6zdKzTwP4feSkBEGvbD3NWzLGPG121g4r97x4Q5QJcV8kaKZeExrWRm6rkfn6l

Exciting announcement
We’re delighted to welcome Kate Heneghan, award-winning Irish fiddle player and multi-instrumentalist, to the Celtic Woman family.
Kate joins the Celtic Woman lineup for the upcoming Spring Tour, kicking off 4 March in Providence, MA.
We send our warmest wishes to Ciara as she tours the globe with Biird, another female Irish music sensation!
Tickets for the Spring Tour are available at https://www.celticwoman.com/tour-dates

OH MY GOODNESS 

SO DOES THAT MEAN TARA’S NOT COMING BACK? I guess it makes sense that Ciara’s leaving, but it’s wild that it happened so soon. But it seems that Tara isn’t coming back if they got another replacement…😔

Hopefully Kate is a good fit. I don’t know that much about her but she was chosen by Celtic Woman, so she must be good!

A new member just got announced, for at least the spring tour.

https://www.facebook.com/celticwoman/posts/pfbid0vXg6zdKzTwP4feSkBEGvbD3NWzLGPG121g4r97x4Q5QJcV8kaKZeExrWRm6rkfn6l

Exciting announcement
We’re delighted to welcome Kate Heneghan, award-winning Irish fiddle player and multi-instrumentalist, to the Celtic Woman family.
Kate joins the Celtic Woman lineup for the upcoming Spring Tour, kicking off 4 March in Providence, MA.
We send our warmest wishes to Ciara as she tours the globe with Biird, another female Irish music sensation!
Tickets for the Spring Tour are available at https://www.celticwoman.com/tour-dates

OH MY GOODNESS 

SO DOES THAT MEAN TARA’S NOT COMING BACK? I guess it makes sense that Ciara’s leaving, but it’s wild that it happened so soon. But it seems that Tara isn’t coming back if they got another replacement…😔

Hopefully Kate is a good fit. I don’t know that much about her but she was chosen by Celtic Woman, so she must be good!

Comments on Instagram are saying Tara’s probably not coming back…😢…I don’t want to sound derogatory towards Kate or anything, but this is kind of heartbreaking for me…hopefully Tara can have a prosperous solo career or something…I guess she has been there nearly ten years…

A new member just got announced, for at least the spring tour.

https://www.facebook.com/celticwoman/posts/pfbid0vXg6zdKzTwP4feSkBEGvbD3NWzLGPG121g4r97x4Q5QJcV8kaKZeExrWRm6rkfn6l

Exciting announcement
We’re delighted to welcome Kate Heneghan, award-winning Irish fiddle player and multi-instrumentalist, to the Celtic Woman family.
Kate joins the Celtic Woman lineup for the upcoming Spring Tour, kicking off 4 March in Providence, MA.
We send our warmest wishes to Ciara as she tours the globe with Biird, another female Irish music sensation!
Tickets for the Spring Tour are available at https://www.celticwoman.com/tour-dates

OH MY GOODNESS 

SO DOES THAT MEAN TARA’S NOT COMING BACK? I guess it makes sense that Ciara’s leaving, but it’s wild that it happened so soon. But it seems that Tara isn’t coming back if they got another replacement…😔

Hopefully Kate is a good fit. I don’t know that much about her but she was chosen by Celtic Woman, so she must be good!

Comments on Instagram are saying Tara’s probably not coming back…😢…I don’t want to sound derogatory towards Kate or anything, but this is kind of heartbreaking for me…hopefully Tara can have a prosperous solo career or something…I guess she has been there nearly ten years…

It is weird that they haven’t mentioned Tara or Emma leaving, though…they even said in the Kate announcement that they wished Ciara well on her BIIRD journey…but they never said when announcing Caitríona or Ciara that they bade farewell to Tara or Emma, and Emma is almost certainly gone, and apparently Tara as well…

The “About” page on the Celtic Woman website still has the pictures of Tara and Emma, but it doesn’t show anything with Caitríona or Ciara, so it probably just needs updating…

The violinist in that ad is Kate Heneghan I believe!

First of all, nice call by AeFondAshley before the official announcement was made! How did you know that?

Also I agree with stars_at_dawn that it is weird there has been no announcement about Tara. For that reason, I think whether she comes back or not is still TBD. Like she is gonna see how it goes. I'm hoping she will come back when the baby is older, e.g. when having a nanny is more practical. IDK. Wishful thinking.

My theory is maybe Ciara would have wanted to be a permanent member, but juggling BIIRD and CW would have been a much

The violinist in that ad is Kate Heneghan I believe!

First of all, nice call by AeFondAshley before the official announcement was made! How did you know that?

Also I agree with stars_at_dawn that it is weird there has been no announcement about Tara. For that reason, I think whether she comes back or not is still TBD. Like she is gonna see how it goes. I'm hoping she will come back when the baby is older, e.g. when having a nanny is more practical. IDK. Wishful thinking.

Hey, you should never doubt a fangirl, right? Haha 😂

A bit off topic, but does anyone else feel that the promo pictures look a bit off? The dresses appear to be the Symphony tour dresses photoshopped blue, except for Muirgen, who for some reason is the only one wearing a different dress, and even that looks strangely fake. The poses for that picture are also almost the same as the Symphony tour promo. Even this new violinist’s dress is the same as what Ciara had in the previous promo.

Attached is the Symphony promo for reference. Caitríona and Mairéad’s dresses are the exact same apart from colour.

Here’s the general A New Era image used for reference. All except Muirgen are in the exact same positions with identical dresses except that they’re coloured blue. Muirgen might actually be photoshopped in. Another way to tell is Mairéad’s hair. Her hair was quite a bit longer during the Symphony tour (when A New Era was announced) than when that photo was taken, going past her shoulders (although she recently cut it into a bob). It’s in the exact same style in both pictures.

I did notice only one image result for that other violinist, and it seems to be just for that specific show. Maybe Ciara has a schedule conflict and Tara didn’t want to come back just yet so they had this woman be a temporary stand-in?

Well they are all photoshopped in, at least most promo pics since around Ancient Land have been. In that original photo, Muirgen is in her pink dress from 20 photoshopped blue, Mairéad is in her dress from Cinema Paradiso on 20 also edited to be a darker blue, Caitriona appears to be in Megan’s dress from the symphony tour in 2022, and Ciara seems to be in Megan’s red dress from the Postcards tour 2022, also edited blue. Caitriona was the only one who posted getting new photos for this tour in late December, then she was actually wearing that blue dress.

A bit off topic, but does anyone else feel that the promo pictures look a bit off? The dresses appear to be the Symphony tour dresses photoshopped blue, except for Muirgen, who for some reason is the only one wearing a different dress, and even that looks strangely fake. The poses for that picture are also almost the same as the Symphony tour promo. Even this new violinist’s dress is the same as what Ciara had in the previous promo.

Attached is the Symphony promo for reference. Caitríona and Mairéad’s dresses are the exact same apart from colour.

Here’s the general A New Era image used for reference. All except Muirgen are in the exact same positions with identical dresses except that they’re coloured blue. Muirgen might actually be photoshopped in. Another way to tell is Mairéad’s hair. Her hair was quite a bit longer during the Symphony tour (when A New Era was announced) than when that photo was taken, going past her shoulders (although she recently cut it into a bob). It’s in the exact same style in both pictures.

I did notice only one image result for that other violinist, and it seems to be just for that specific show. Maybe Ciara has a schedule conflict and Tara didn’t want to come back just yet so they had this woman be a temporary stand-in?

Well they are all photoshopped in, at least most promo pics since around Ancient Land have been. In that original photo, Muirgen is in her pink dress from 20 photoshopped blue, Mairéad is in her dress from Cinema Paradiso on 20 also edited to be a darker blue, Caitriona appears to be in Megan’s dress from the symphony tour in 2022, and Ciara seems to be in Megan’s red dress from the Postcards tour 2022, also edited blue. Caitriona was the only one who posted getting new photos for this tour in late December, then she was actually wearing that blue dress.

Huh. That’s odd. Does that mean that Caitríona and Ciara were wearing Megan’s actual dresses or did they just get others of the same model? Although, if Caitríona is wearing a re-used dress, it might actually be Chloë’s teal Postcards From Ireland dress, or at least the same model.

I didn’t even realise that Mairéad’s promo dresses were the Cinema Paradiso dress! Thank you for pointing that out! Although Mairéad’s dress does appear to be lacking the layers of tule that she had in that number.

You know, although I will miss Tara most of all, I am sad that we didn’t get to see more of Ciara’s playing style. I was curious to see how she plays compared to Tara and Máiréad N.

Edit: Can someone please make an edit of Ciara with the “goodbye Lucy Gray, we hardly knew you” monologue at the end of The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes audiobook?