Seán Dagher

Ahoy, matey, and raise your voice! Seán Dagher blows new life into ages-old sea shanties, and he needs a vast crew to help him. The immensely talented singer and musician shares his love of the evocative sea shanty, and he invites the audience to sing along. No previous shanty singing experience is necessary. Bad singers are welcome, even necessary!

You might know Seán’s voice from his recordings for the Assassin’s Creed video game series, including Black Flag. His renditions of sea shanties and other songs from the games have been streamed some 70 million times. His own Shanty of the Week video series receives thousands of views a week and has a loyal following the world over.

Seán performs, arranges and composes music from many folk and classical music traditions, including Celtic, baroque, medieval, Arabic, French-Canadian and Maritime. He is a member of Skye Consort and is the co-artistic director of La Nef. In addition to singing, he plays Irish bouzouki, mandolin, oud and banjo.

Seán has also provided arrangements for other ensembles and artists, including Camerata Nova, Chor Leoni, Arion, Palade Musica, Les Voix Humaines, La Mandragore, Pierre Lapointe, Shannon Mercer, I Furiosi, Les Voix Baroques, Choeur Louisbourg, Cantatica and the Nashville Baroque Orchestra.

Other groups he has played with include the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Caprices, Les Boréades and Le Petit Rien.

Seán’s compositions and arrangements have been performed across Canada, the United States and Europe. He has worked with the Festival du Monde Arabe, creating shows of Middle Eastern and North African music. He has also arranged and composed music for audiobooks with storyteller and musician Suzanne De Serres and for American author Sandra Gulland.

Seán has been nominated for numerous OPUS and ADISQ awards and participated in the ADISQ-winning CD, La Traverse Miraculeuse with La Nef and Les Charbonniers de l’enfer. He has won OPUS awards for Creation of the Year (Leave Her, Johnny), Album of the Year (Skye Consort and Emma Björling) and Youth Production of the Year (Le chat et le gondolier, La Nef).
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