Playing all the instruments including violin, cello, double bass and piano on her debut album was no challenge for Korona Brophy.

The 66-year-old woman from Mount Pearl has taught music in the Newfoundland and Labrador 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 dig into her old sheet music and decide to do a solo album with the producer. Vaughn Sutton.

“I’m going to do it before I get too old, you know,” she told CBC. AM weekend. “So I did, and I’m really happy about it.”

Dedicated to his grandchildren

The scrapbook, 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 she taught, including Let me fish off Cape St. Mary’s by Otto Kelland and So be it by the Beatles. His grandchildren also helped, singing on Twinke Twinkle Little Star.

Brophy began playing the cello while a student at Mount Allison University, later learning violin and bass. “Then I taught all the instruments and wrote the music,” she said. “In the 80s you couldn’t just buy sheet music, you know, you had to arrange it yourself.”

From Corona to Korona

She says she’s been asked all the time how she got the name “Korona,” especially since the COVID-19 pandemic began. 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 in high school to differentiate it from the Corona typewriter brand and the Corona cigar brand (this was before Corona beer came to Newfoundland and Labrador).

“A lady asked me if I had taken that name since the virus started. ‘Oh yes, of course I did,'” she joked.

keep the music going

Brophy said many Celtic Fiddlers performances have been canceled due to the pandemic.

“Trying to push your music forward is hard,” she said, but going into the studio to record the album was a joy for her.

“I loved going to the studio. I loved taking the time,” she said. “It was such a labor of love. I really wanted to put this on a CD for everyone to enjoy.”

Do you have a new music album that AM weekend should you know for the first listen? Email us at [email protected] and tell us about it.

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