The TG4 Gradam Ceoil awards for 2017 have just been announced, and the list of recipients include some very familiar names.
The Traditional Musician of the Year award goes to Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, who is a founding member of Altan and has recently released an album with her family called Na Mooneys. Mairéad was born and raised in the heartland of the Gaoth Dobhair Gaeltacht in Donegal and while known internationally for her work with Altan, she has also appeared on recording with Enya, The Chieftains, Dolly Parton, The String Sisters and many others.
Fellow Donegal singer Rita Gallagher is the recipient of the Traditional Singer of the Year award. “Although I always sang," she says, "I only came to traditional singing in my early twenties, and went on to compete in several Fleadhanna, with a certain degree of success. I became fascinated by the tunes of the songs initially, and the potential to interpret them, to ornament, emphasise, inflect, and generally mould the song to suit my voice and how it influenced me and appealed to me. Traditional music would lose most of its appeal if it were played without interpretation, and the stamp of the individual artist playing it.”
Acclaimed and prolific composer Michael Rooney is the recipient of the Composer of the Year award. Michael is widely regarded as one of the foremost players of the traditional Irish harp; in addition to this award he has just released The Macalla Suite, which is probably his finest work to date. It conveys the birth of a nation via music, song and story, and was commissioned as a central part of Ireland’s commemoration of the 1916 Rising Centenary. The Macalla Orchestra is made up of over 60 of our best traditional and classical musicians from Ireland, Scotland and England.
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Originally from Scotstown, Co. Monaghan and now resident in Sligo, Michael has composed nine suites of music in the past 20 years, including Boróimhe Suite (2014), The Second Coming (2014), De Cuellar Suite (2011) and Battle of the Books Suite (2007).
The remaining awards go to flautist Mick O’Connor who received this year’s Outstanding Contribution award, the legendary Dónal Lunny who picked up the Lifetime Achievement award and West Clare concertina player Liam O’Brien who received the Young Traditional Musician of the Year award.
Gradam Ceoil TG4 is the premier annual traditional music awards scheme. An independent panel of adjudicators selects recipients each year and they will be presented with a specially-commissioned piece by leading sculptor John Coll as well as a small stipend. This year’s awards will be presented at the Gradam Ceoil TG4 Concert in the Cork Opera House on Sunday 19th February, hosted by well-known musician/broadcasters Tristan Rosenstock and Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh.
The 2017 Gradam recipients will be joined in performance on stage by their own special musical guests in a unique, star-studded line-up of musicians and award-presenters to include Altan, Lunny, Brady & Irvine, The Castle Céilí Band, The Atlantic Arc Orchestra, Na Mooneys, The Macalla Orchestra and many more. More details here.
The full awards list:
Traditional Musician: Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh
Composer: Michael Rooney
Young Traditional Musician of the Year: Liam O’ Brien
Lifetime Achievement: Dónal Lunny
Outstanding Contribution: Mick O’Connor
Traditional Singer of the Year: Rita Gallagher
For more of the latest trad music news and tunes, go to TradConnect.
