Programme 5: 24th August 2007

Artists

Mary Corcoran
Mary Corcoran is a Dublin born traditional musician. She switched from classical piano to traditional fiddle in her teens. Her husband Gay McKeon and two sons Sean and Conor are well known pipers, and her two daughters also play traditional instruments. The McKeons are one of the best known families in traditional music circles in Dublin.

Gay McKeon
Gay Mc Keon has been on the Board of Na Píobairí Uilleann since 1987, when he became Secretary. He subsequently served for five years as Treasurer and has been the Chairman since 2002. He comes from a Dublin family noted for their involvement in Irish music - his father Tom was one of the activists who kept the Dublin Pipers Club running in the mid years of the last century.

He is surrounded by piping; his brother Tomás and his two sons Conor and Sean also play. Along with his sons Gay has made two CDs, Irish Piping Tradition and The Dusty Miller.

Conor McKeon
A member of the famous McKeon family of pipers, Conor is a master of the uileann pipes and was rewarded with the Young Musician of the Year price at the TG4 Gradam Ceoil in 2000.

Frankie Gavin
Frankie Gavin was born in 1956 in Corrandulla, Co. Galway. He comes from a musical family: his father played fiddle, and, his mother and all of her family played also. He started playing the tin whistle at age four, making his first T.V. appearance three years later. At the age of ten years old Frankie began to play fiddle and at the age of seventeen he placed first in the All Ireland Fiddle Competition and in the All Ireland Flute Competition, both on the same day.

He is a founder member of 1970s Irish traditional group De Dannan. By the age of 15 he had won the All Ireland Fiddle and All Ireland tin whistle championship . He is known for playing in a very fast and virtuosic Galway style. Gavin has recorded and played with many of the best traditional musicians of his generation.

His boundless energy has also driven him to record many side-projects, including work with Elvis Costello, The Rolling Stones, Keith Richards, Yehudi Menuhin, Stéphane Grappelli and Earl Scruggs. He is working on an orchestral work "The Choctaw Symphony" using Irish and Choctaw themes. Together with accordionist Paul Brock, Frankie recorded "Omos Do Joe Cooley" a tribute to the renowned Irish-American accordion player.

In recent years, Frankie has released records with the likes of Joe Derrane, Michael McGoldrick and Sharon Shannon. He currently tours with the self titled "Frankie Gavin Band".

Brian McGrath
Fermanagh born Brain McGrath is a banjo and piano much influenced by the Irish American style of dance hall traditional music played and recorded in the 20's 30's and 40's. He is a frequent playing partner of Frankie Gavin who shares this affinity for Irish American traditional music. Brian is a member of the band 'At the Racket' whose members include banjo and fiddle player John Carty.

Caoimhin Ó Raghallaigh
Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh is one of the younger generation of traditional musicians. He is a fiddle player and piper, very much influenced by the master players in Irish traditional music particularly Willie Clancy , Padraig Ó Keeffe , Mrs Galvin and Patrick Kelly . He has developed a personal and very distinctive style of playing based on the repertoire and style of older players.

Aoife Granville
Aoife Granville is from Dingle and has been playing both classical and traditional music since the age of 7. While in her teens she performed and toured with Kerry Chamber Orchestra, Dublin Youth Orchestra and Ceol Chiarraí amongst others. She went on to study Music in UCC where she was a member of the group Fiddlesticks. Aoife was awarded a Bene Merenti from UCC for her contribution to traditional music and has won numerous prizes at Oireachtas and Fleadhanna Cheoil, including the prestigious Senior Flute title in 2003. She is currently the traditional flute tutor in UCC's Music Department and is undertaking a PhD in Music and Folklore. Aoife released her debut album, Sráid Eoin Shuffle, in 2006.

Chris Droney
There is no doubt but that the Droney name has been firmly carved into the annals of traditional Irish music by this humble and gifted exponent. The toast of local house dances during his teenage years, he later became All-Ireland Senior Concertina Champion nine times, and played with several well-known céilí bands during a prolific career that has spanned several generations. He has performed on stages from Canada to Camden Town, while music lovers from Japan to North America have been warmly welcomed into the Droney home after seeking out the concertina maestro. Chris still plays regularly with The Four Courts céilí band, throughout Ireland and abroad.

In 1962 the world was treated to its first solo recording by Droney, The Flowing Tide. This was followed in 1995 by the long awaited and much acclaimed The Fertile Rock. Now, ten years on, this veteran musician has produced a third solo album - arguably his greatest. A feast of rich and pure traditional music, it will coax listeners into a world of yesteryears, while its rhythmic pulse is sure to inspire dancers everywhere.

Isao & Masako Moriyasu
The Moriyasu's are a married couple from Tokyo. Isao is a player of classical flute and traditional Japanese bamboo flute. He and Masako who plays harp and concertina heard a recording of the Clare concertina player Chris Droney and traditional music then became a major obsession. They play at sessions in Tokyo and are regular vistors to west Clare.

Eoin Duignan
Eoin Duignan is a soulful, powerhouse performer and gifted composer, steeped in the Irish Tradition. He is a renowned uilleann piper and low whistle player influenced at an early age by the master pipers Seamus Ennis and Leo Rowsome.

Eoin has developed his own distinctive musical style, that is original in a traditional mode. It ranges from the haunting slow airs to the lively percussive reels and jigs which have enchanted audiences worldwide and set them dancing wherever he has played.

His childhood summers were spent in the west Cork gaeltacht of Cúil Aodha where his passion for the language, singing and dancing traditions flourished. In the late nineteeen seventies he toured extensively throughout Europe as part of the legendary folk-group The Wild Geese.
He has been based in Dingle for the last twenty years with his partner Ilonka and their family, and continues to work and tour his music both at home and abroad.

Eoin has released three very highly critically acclaimed CDs of his own compositions: Coumíneol, Ancient Rite and Lumina. He is accompanied on all three CDs by many of Irelands leading musicians including Steve Cooney, Robbie Overson, Robbie Harris, Liam Bradley, Liam Ó Maonlaí, Máire Breathnach, Keith Donald and Trevor Hutchinson.

His latest work is Lumina, a six part suite for low whistles, tracing the journey of the spirit from birth to death to rebirth. It received a 10 ot of 10 rating in Hot Press music magazine. The music, inspired by the Harry Clarke stained glass windows in Dingle was produced by world- renowned guitarist /producer Gerry O'Beirne.

Music from these CDs has featured in television programmes and documentaries for RTÉ, TG4, BBC, and on American and Australian TV.

Peter Browne
Peter Browne was born in Dublin in 1953 and commenced playing traditional music at the age of 6. He received tuition in the playing of the uilleann pipes from three of the great players of modern times; Séamus Ennis, Leo Rowsome and Willie Clancy and on reaching his 'teens was already acknowledged as a leading player of that instrument.

In the early 1970's he played with the group 1691 which was a forerunner of The Bothy Band and later spent two periods playing on both pipes and flute with The Bothy Band who were much celebrated for their skilled and energetic approach to the playing of traditional Irish music.
He has played music in many countries in Europe and in North America at concerts, lectures and recitals and made two groundbreaking albums of music and song in the 1980's together with Philip King on the Gael-Linn label - Rince Gréagach and Seacht Nóiméad Déag chun a Seacht. These discs were combined and reissued in 2001 as Seacht Nóiméad Déag chun a Seacht on Gael-Linn

He has played as a session musician on recordings by such people as Paul Brady, Maura O' Connell, Mary Black, Mick Hanley, The Dubliners, Scullion and Cór Chúil Aodha and has also been part of various ventures in modern experimental music and has played the works of Bill Whelan, Shaun Davey, Michael Holahan, Roger Doyle and Paddy Meegan. In May 2003, he was a guest musician with the Chieftains in two memorial concerts for harper Derek Bell, held in Dublin and Belfast.

He has twice been the winner of the Oireachtas uilleann-piping competition (The Breandán Breathnach Trophy in 1994 and 1998) and has also won the prize for slow-air playing in both those years. He currently works as Commissioning Editor, Music Programmes in RTÉ Radio One with a special interest in traditional music. His most recent projects have included researching, presenting and producing series of documentary programmes on the lives and music of famous traditional players such as Séamus Ennis, Willie Clancy, Pádraig O' Keeffe, Denis Murphy, Elizabeth Crotty and the 19th century traditional music collector Canon James Goodman.

He has also produced a series of commercial CD's for RTÉ which feature rare recordings of traditional music from the RTÉ Sound Archives, the latest of which are The Return from Fingal which features old recordings of the piper Séamus Ennis made over a 40 year period along with extensive biographical and musical notes, Elizabeth Crotty - Concertina Music from West Clare, a compilation of rare recordings by a famous musician from the West of Ireland and Labhrás Ó Cadhla, Amhráin ó Shliabh gCua, a collection of songs by a famous Waterford sean-nós singer.

He currently teaches music part-time at the Dublin Institute of Technology and is much in demand as musician, teacher and lecturer at musical gatherings and festivals at home and abroad.

Johnny Connelly
An acclaimed accordion player, Connemara based Johnny Connelly is an accomplished musician known as well for his accompaniment of dancers as he is as a solo musician. With both his children now joining him in sessions on fiddle and accordion nothing exemplifies the Connemara style of sean nós music and dance as much as Johnny Connelly's accordion playing.

Mick Kinsella
Mick Kinsella, originally from Tullow, Co Carlow and now living in West Clare, plays harmonica and English concertina. He is a highly respected musician both in the traditional music world and also the other musical genres of jazz, blue grass, rock and blue grass.

In 1995 he travelled to Australia with his group at the time 'The Slightly Bewildered String Band' and performed at many of the folk festivals such as Canberra and Port Fairy as well as some performance in Tasmania. He is often asked to give workshops and perform abroad and often teams up with fellow harmonica players, Rick Epping and Brendan Power. As well as his own records, Mick has recorded on over 50 albums to date including Altan's 'Another Sky', Billy Connolly's'World Tour of England, Ireland and Wales', Micheal O Suilleabhain's 'River of Sound', Mick Hanly's 'Wooden Horses', John Spillane's 'Lapadain, Lupadain' (Between the jigs and the reels), Emer Mayock's 'Merry Bits of Timber' & 'Playground', Cormac Breathneach's 'Musical Journey', Phil Callery's 'From the edge of memory', Brendan Power's 'New Irish Harmonica' and Michael Flatley's 'Celtic Tiger'.

Mick has worked on many film and television scores including "The General", "River of Sound" and "Ballad of the Sade Café"

His television and radio appearances have included The Late Late Show, The Pat Kenny Show, Geantraí, Ardán, Rattlebag, Gerry Ryan Show and performances for Australian television and radio.

Mick Kinsella