Gaelynn Lea won NPR Music's Tiny Desk Contest in 2016. Since then, she has captivated audiences around the world with her haunting original songs and traditional fiddle tunes. Gaelynn Lea has opened for Wilco, The Decemberists, LOW, and the industrial rock supergroup Pigface. She composed the music for Macbeth on Broadway in 2022, directed by Sam Gold & starring Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga.

Gaelynn Lea is a sought-after public speaker about accessibility in the arts. She has been featured on PBS NewsHour, On Being with Krista Tippett, The Moth Radio Hour, The Science of Happiness Podcast, and via two widely-viewed TEDx Talks.

One of Gaelynn Lea's biggest passions is promoting Disability Culture. She co-founded RAMPD [Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities] with NYC-based recording artist Lachi in early 2022.The mission of this fast-growing global network of disabled music professionals is to amplify Disability Culture, promote equitable inclusion & advocate for accessibility in the music industry. Gaelynn is also a member of the Recording Academy & enjoys serving on the Advocacy Committee.

Most recently, Gaelynn Lea co-wrote, acted, and sang in a new musical fable for the stage called Invisible Fences with disabled storyteller Kevin Kling, which premiered at Open Eye Theater in 2023. This fantastical, music-filled production touches on disability, identity, and the stories we tell ourselves. Invisible Fences is set to be revived in November 2024 at Zeitgeist Arts Theater in Duluth, MN.

Currently, Gaelynn Lea is writing a book about her touring adventures & disability advocacy that will be released by Algonquin Books in 2025. LINGER IN THE SUN is a love-letter to every body; a warm, funny and deeply-felt memoir about disability, music, and the messy creativity of an artist's life.

PROJECT: Album production.

Gaelynn Lea will be using the funds from her Whippoorwill Arts Fellowship to mix, master, and produce her long-awaited album, Music from Macbeth, which includes the original music that she composed and recorded for the 2022 production of Macbeth on Broadway. This will be her "dream soundtrack" - the music will be presented as she originally envisioned it, unaltered by the necessities of staging. Once the soundtrack has been released, Gaelynn plans to schedule talks about the process of creating a soundtrack for this iconic play in schools around the US and the UK. As a second part of the Fellowship, Gaelynn intends to deepen her own relationship with the traditional Celtic music she loves to play and record by working with a few musical mentors in Ireland in the late Spring and early Summer of 2025. She is excited to learn traditional Celtic music firsthand from the folk masters of today. While she is in Ireland, she also intends to connect with other disabled artists to learn more about how Disability Culture is expressed in Ireland and to build bridges with disabled artists there. This cultural exchange will undoubtedly impact her future advocacy around accessibility and disability representation in the arts.