{"id":442825,"date":"2026-01-28T11:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T11:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/442825\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T11:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T11:33:09","slug":"nobody-goes-into-a-career-like-mine-thinking-theyre-going-to-get-a-grammy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/442825\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Nobody goes into a career like mine thinking they\u2019re going to get a Grammy’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cork opera conductor Elaine Kelly will be accompanied by her mother and sister when she attends the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles this Sunday.<\/p>\n

Elaine, from the Mallow area, has been nominated for an award in the Best Opera Recording category for Emma O\u2019Halloran\u2019s opera double bill, Trade\/Mary Motorhead.<\/p>\n

Awards in this category are bestowed on the conductor, album producer(s) and principal soloists, and to the composer and librettist (if applicable) of a world premiere opera recording.<\/p>\n

In all, there are six people nominated for Trade\/Mary Motorhead, which was produced, recorded and primarily led by the Irish National Opera.<\/p>\n

Elaine holds the honour of being the first Irish conductor to be nominated for a Grammy, an honour that was bestowed on her last year when she was nominated in the Best Choral Performance category for Akathist.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Oliver Callan\u2019s radio show last week, Elaine said that the Grammys is the \u201cmost surreal, ridiculous, champagne-filled blur.\u201d<\/p>\n

The awards recognise outstanding achievement in the music industry.<\/p>\n

There will be two ceremonies on Sunday, in the afternoon and in the evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur category is at the afternoon ceremony, where 90% of the awards are given out. It\u2019s for every music genre and takes place in the Peacock Theatre in LA. For the evening awards that are telecast, we\u2019ll go to the nearby Crypto Arena.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nominees for those awards include Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Chappell Roan and Justin Bieber.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI was there last year, so I know the ropes. The day before the awards is nearly the best fun. It\u2019s called the Nominee Celebration, and it\u2019s where you get your Tiffany medal. There are no winners or losers that night. It\u2019s a party celebrating each other.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cSo by Sunday, when you go into the awards, you\u2019ll know people a bit better. I remember being so excited to be at the Grammys last year. It\u2019s the same this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elaine is proud that the two contemporary librettos up for awards (based on plays by Emma O\u2019Halloran\u2019s uncle Mark O\u2019Halloran) are sung in Irish accents with real place names referenced.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never hear place names and country accents in opera. Singers are taught to sing in a kind of neutral accent. But we have powered a midlands accent in Mary Motorhead (which sees a woman in prison after stabbing her husband, reflecting on the cataclysmic event) and a north inner city Dublin accent for Trade (which is about a confused young rent boy who sits with a middle-aged, blood- spattered client).\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NobodyNobody goes into a career like mine thinking they\u2019re going to get a Grammy, says Elaine.<\/p>\n

The red carpet Grammys are a glamorous affair, and Elaine will be wearing a striking outfit given to her by Phoenix V on Cork\u2019s Maylor Street.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a conductor, I\u2019m very picky about what I wear publicly. Phoenix V has given me a gorgeous outfit; It\u2019s half suit and half gown. It\u2019s silver-grey. There\u2019s trousers and a very structured bodice with a massive train at the back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elaine says that the Grammy award ceremonies are different to the Oscars.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople push boundaries at the Grammys. You have every kind of music involved so you see the most outlandish and incredible outfits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elaine is thrilled at the prospect of sitting alongside classical composers whose recordings she is \u201cobsessed with. When it comes to the telecast award ceremony, you get a ringside seat. Last year, we got photos taken with Taylor Swift, Beyonc\u00e9 and Chappell Roan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being nominated for a Grammy Award is good for Elaine\u2019s career, particularly in the classical musical world.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cNobody goes into a career like mine thinking they\u2019re going to get a Grammy. Being nominated has certainly put me on the map more. It has given me more international recognition and more opportunities.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

Constantly travelling to wherever the work is, Elaine says her suitcase is always packed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I have any time off, I like to get back to Mallow where my mam and my dog are. Otherwise, I don\u2019t have a base. I love that I can be here, there and anywhere. For the next few months, I\u2019m going to be all around the world, from LA to Australia to Dublin and Dubai. I enjoy travelling. I feel very privileged to be able to do this. Now, I\u2019m sure there\u2019ll come a time when I get older and will want to be more settled, but for now, I\u2019m so happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

At just two-and-a-half, Elaine started to learn the violin. \u201cMy mother was pregnant with my sister Grace. She knew I needed something of my own, something to keep my attention. There was nobody in the family in the music business. But my mam is incredibly interested in music. From a very early age, we were taken to every kind of music; opera, ballet, pop and rock concerts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cIf\u201cIf I have any time off, I like to get back to Mallow where my mam and my dog are,” says Elaine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Elaine became a member of youth orchestras and choirs. She studied violin at MTU Cork School of Music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was introduced to conducting by my incredible teacher, Alan Cutts, who has passed away. I always preferred playing in orchestras than playing on my own. When Alan saw me conducting, which is terrifying, he could see how much I was completely affected by it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a big difference between playing for people and standing up, shaping how people are playing. It\u2019s the most extraordinarily intoxicating feeling in the world. I immediately loved it. But there aren\u2019t many female conductors in Ireland. I didn\u2019t actually see it as a career possibility until I went to San Francisco on my J1. There, I saw a female conductor and rushed away when the concert was over to ring Alan Cutts. It was just a month before we were starting our final year of the undergraduate degree.<\/p>\n

\"ElaineElaine says that the Grammy award ceremonies are different to the Oscars.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hadn\u2019t put myself down for conducting as I thought it was something I\u2019d do on the side. I told Alan I had changed my mind and wanted to do conducting. He said \u2018yes\u2019 and let me into the conducting class which I\u2019m so thankful for. I went on to do a Masters in conducting at the Cork School of Music.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rest is history and who knows, having already made history by being the first Irish conductor nominated for a Grammy, Elaine might make more history by winning on February 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cork opera conductor Elaine Kelly will be accompanied by her mother and sister when she attends the Grammy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136,44997],"class_list":{"0":"post-442825","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-wow"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}