It's quite a journey to go from not finishing primary school to becoming a nuclear physicist, a highly respected composer and a very influential musician - but that is Charlie Lennon’s amazing life story.
Last December, The Rolling Wave dedicated two programmes to the music of Charlie Lennon, with Charlie in conversation with presenter Aoife Nic Cormaic - listen above.
For over fifty years, Charlie has been a central and inspirational figure in Irish traditional music. As a composer, he has written many fine tunes which are firmly embedded in the repertoires of musicians all over the country. He has also written large scale work for orchestras and soloists, and as a piano accompanist he has been an influential figure and a much sought-after musical partner to many.
All of this before you even mention his fiddle playing, which you can hear on his many recordings with Matt Molloy, Johnny Connolly, Mick O’Connor and of course his solo recordings as well.
Given this impressive body of work, you might be forgiven for thinking that music has been a full-time job for Charlie, but alongside this work he also pursued an early career in what was then the pioneering field of nuclear energy!
Charlie Lennon's music was recently celebrated at a special concert hosted by Trad Éireann as part of the Trad Talk seminar in Stiúideó Cuan in An Spidéal, Co. na Gaillimhe.
Members of the Lennon family along with Steve Cooney, Laoise Kelly, Mick O’Brien, Oisín Mac Diarmada and Jim Higgins, Seosamh Ó Neachtain and Charlie himself took part in that concert - listen below.
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