About Olivia Chaney
Olivia Chaney is an English folk singer, pianist, guitarist, harmonium player and songwriter. Her debut solo album, The Longest River, was released on Nonesuch Records in 2015. Her follow-up solo album, Shelter, was released on Nonesuch on 15 June 2018.
Olivia Chaney was born in Florence, Italy, and grew up in Oxford, England, studying composition, piano and voice. Early influences include her father's record collections and his own renditions of early blues and '60s folk songwriters such as Bob Dylan, Fairport Convention and Bert Jansch.
At 14, Chaney won a joint-first piano and voice scholarship to Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, which was focused on the classical repertoire. She then went on to attend the Royal Academy of Music in London, also on scholarship, where, as an improviser and songwriter, she studied in the jazz course. While at the Academy, Chaney spent much of her time experimenting and collaborating outside the traditional jazz course.
On graduating from the Academy, Chaney taught herself guitar and Indian harmonium, and began performing regularly as a soloist. She has also worked as an actress and singer/multi-instrumentalist at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in Matthew Dunster's acclaimed production of Troilus and Cressida, and Lucy Bailey and Django Bates' production of Timon of Athens. Chaney has collaborated and shared stages all over the world with artists, composers, producers and bands including Robert Plant, The Decemberists, Kronos Quartet, Zero 7, Alasdair Roberts, Concerto Caledonia and The Labèque Sisters.
In 2010, Chaney recorded a self-released EP. In 2011, she contributed to two compilations for grassroots label Folk Police. She also performed on the live release Revenge of the Folksingers with Scottish artist Alasdair Roberts and period performance group Concerto Caledonia on the Delphian label. Chaney has performed with the Balearic Folk Orchestra, for whom she sang, arranged and played harmonium and piano on the group's Amy Winehouse cover, "He Can Only Hold Her", for a Q Magazine tribute. She featured in Alasdair Roberts's 2013 album A Working Wonder Stone.
In November 2013, Olivia Chaney was nominated for two BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards: the Horizon Award and Best Original Song, for "Swimming in the Longest River", which is featured on her self-released eponymous EP. At the same time, it was announced that Chaney had signed a record deal with Nonesuch Records.
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