Alan Stivell

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His father, Georges Cochevelou, was a civil servant in the French Ministry of Finance who achieved his dream of recreating a or Breton people harp in the small town of Gourin, BrittanyJT Koch (ed). Celtic Culture. A Historical Encyclopaedia ABC-CLIO 2006 pp. 1627–1628 and his mother Fanny-Julienne Dobroushkess was of Lithuanian-Jewish descent. In 1953, Alan began playing the instrument at the age of nine under the tutelage of his father and Denise Megevand, a concert harpist. Alan also learned Celtic mythology, art, and history, as well as the Breton language, traditional Breton dance, and the Scottish bagpipes and the bombarde, a traditional Breton instrument, from the oboe family. Alan began playing concerts at the age of eleven and studied traditional Breton, English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh folk music, also learning the drum, Irish flute, and tin whistle. He competed in, and won, several Breton traditional music competitions in the Bleimor Pipe band.RFI Music. Alan Stivell. Biography. RFI Music. (last accessed 15 July 2009) Alan spent his childhood in Paris, with its cosmopolitan influences. But he fell in love with Breton music and Celtic Europe, in general, and often went back in his teens to Brittany.

Stivell's first recording came in 1960 ("Musique gaelique"), a single that was followed by the LP Telenn Geltiek in 1964. He already recorded solo harp and harp backing singers in 1959 with Breiz ma bro ("Brittany my country") and a Mouez Breiz EP ("Voice of Brittany") with the female singer Andrea Ar Gouilh. His stage name, Stivell, means "fountain" or "spring" in Breton. The name refers both to the Breton renewal and to his surname Cochevelou (an evolution of kozh stivelloù, "the old fountains").

In 1968, after two years of touring and regular appearances at the American Students and Artists Center in Paris, Alan joined the Moody Blues onstage to perform in London's Queen Elizabeth Hall.JT Koch (ed). Celtic Culture. A Historical Encyclopaedia ABC-CLIO 2006 pp. 1627–1628.

In 1970, Stivell released his first hits, the single "Broceliande" and the album Reflets, both on the Philips Records. He became closely associated with the burgeoning Breton roots revival, especially after the release of the purely instrumental 1971 album Renaissance of the Celtic Harp, which won one of the most famous awards in France, the prize of the Académie Charles Cros.

The music critic Bruce Elder wrote of the album Renaissance of the Celtic Harp:

On 28 February 1972, Stivell performed a concert in the Paris Olympia theater, a famous music hall in Paris, where Alan and his band played music combining traditional Celtic music with modern sounds (electric guitar, drums, etc.). This concert made Stivell and his music well known throughout France. At this time, Stivell's eclectic approach to music was very new and was considered risky, but it soon became popular. Over 1,500,000 records of that concert ( À l'Olympia) were sold. Alan Stivell's newfound fame propelled him to tour across France, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. He continued recording, and published a collection of Breton poetry in 1976. With his 1980 Symphonie Celtique, he mixed for the first time elements of rock, a symphonic orchestra, Celtic instruments and such non-European ethnic elements as Berber languages vocalist Djourha and Narendra Bataju.

The folk music revival faded somewhat in the 1980s. Though Alan Stivell still maintained a popular following, he did not reach the heights of popularity that he had in the 1970s. He continued touring in many parts of the world and recording for a loyal fanbase. He also worked with the English musician Kate Bush.