Eileen Estes

Eileen Estes has thrilled audiences for years with her extraordinary voice, effortlessly combining vocal power with subtle emotional expressiveness. In anddition to performing, Eileen is a studio musician and vocal coach. She is a faculty member of the Washington Conservatory of Music, is the vocal instructor for the Irish Music School of Chicago, and runs an online vocal studio for folk singers around the globe at Lark Song Studios. Additionally, the singer serves as one of the Directors of Irish Music Arts and Dance Week in Bethesda MD, is a former faculty member at Blue Ridge Irish Music School, where she is still a visiting instructor, and she travels to collect songs and teach Master Classes in the United States and abroad. 

Eileen specializes in Celtic, Folk, and other contemporary genres and believes singers improve the most when they consider the whole body as and instrument; learning to trust their coordination and muscle memory. Eileen is happiest when she gets to explore topics such as resonance, repertoire, context, phrasing, ornamentation, and vocal health with singers of all ages and skill levels.

Daughter of Nita Conley (Korn), Celtic Thunder’s original lead singer, Eileen grew up immersed in the traditional music of Ireland and Scotland. She is a traditional singer as well as an arranger, songwriter and song collector who has collaborated with many bands over the years. Current Projects include Celtic Corridor (Billy McComiskey, Laura Burn, Donna Long, Joanna Clare) and The Good Folk (Agi Kovacs, Sophie Chang, Meghan Mette, Joanna Clare, and Patrick Winch). In 2015, Nita and Eileen released an album of Irish and Scottish songs called The Apple Tree.