Love and legacy: Celtic Fiddlers founder Korona Brophy releases 1st solo album

Playing every instrument, including violin, cello, bass and piano on her first album was not a challenge for Korona Brophy.

The 66-year-old Mount Pearl woman taught music in Newfoundland and Labrador's school system for 30 years and at Memorial University for more than a decade. 

Brophy is also a member of the ensemble group the Celtic Fiddlers, which she founded in 1993. But it took a global pandemic for Brophy to take the time to rummage through her old sheet music and decide to make a solo album with producer Vaughn Sutton.

"I'm going to do it before I get too old, you know, " she told CBC's Weekend AM. "So I did it, and I'm really pleased with it." 

Dedicated to her grandchildren

The album, Heart to Heart, is dedicated to Brophy's four grandchildren and was supported by a grant from ArtsNL. The 13 tracks on the mostly instrumental album include tunes she learned from her parents and some that she taught, including Let Me Fish off Cape St. Mary's by Otto Kelland and Let it Be by the Beatles. Her grandkids also helped out, singing on Twinke Twinkle Little Star. 

Brophy started out playing the cello as a student at Mount Allison University and then picked up the violin and bass. "Then I taught all the instruments, and I wrote the music," she said. "Back in the '80s you couldn't just buy scores, you know, you had to arrange them yourself."

From Corona to Korona 

She says she gets asked all the time about how she got the name "Korona," especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Brophy said she was named after an aunt, Sister Corona Reardon, who was a member of the Sisters of Mercy. "Corona" means "crown," as in the crown of the blessed virgin Mary, she explains.

Brophy said she changed her name to Korona while she was in high school to differentiate it from the Corona brand of typewriter and the Corona brand of cigar (this was before Corona beer came to Newfoundland and Labrador).

"I had one lady ask me if I took up the name since the virus started. 'Oh yes, of course I did,'" she joked.

Keep the music going

Brophy said a lot of Celtic Fiddlers performances have been cancelled due to the pandemic.

"Trying to keep your music going is difficult," she said, but going into the studio to record the album was joyful for her.

"I loved going to the studio. I loved just taking the time," she said. "It was such a work of love. I truly wanted to put this down on a CD so everybody could enjoy it."

Do you have a new album of music that Weekend AM should know about for First Listen? Email us, wam@cbc.ca, and tell us about it. 

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