On 14th March, 2024 the Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) and National Concert Hall (NCH) will assemble some of the leading traditional musicians, singers and dancers across Ireland in honour of the legendary Dublin fiddle player Tommie Potts. Aoife Ní Bhriain plays a tune by Potts above.
Drawing from the Well: Tommie Potts is the fifth instalment in the acclaimed Drawing from the Well concert series devised by ITMA and presented in association with the NCH.
Featuring a lineup of 15 renowned artists, the March concert will celebrate the life and music of Tommie Potts, a fiddle player and composer notable for his distinctive, improvisatory style, which forever changed the course of Irish traditional music.
"Tommie understood the tradition, it inspired him", says ITMA Director and fiddle player Liam O'Connor. "Yet on top of that he added unique, expressive elements that marked him apart. He was a true traditional artist in that sense,"
Presented by acclaimed Dublin historian, broadcaster and author Donal Fallon, the night’s programme will feature music, song, dance and poetry from artists who have individually connected with Tommie Potts and his extraordinary musical legacy.
Watch: Drawing from the Well - Aoife Ní Bhriain celebrates Tommie Potts
The incredible line-up includes: Aoife Ní Bhriain, a Dublin fiddle player and winner of Best Folk Instrumentalist at the 2024 RTÉ Folk Awards; Noel Hill, a legendary concertina player and one of the country’s foremost musicians, originally from Caheera in West Clare; Paula Meehan, an award-winning poet and member of Aosdána from Dublin’s north inner city; Ryan Molloy, a renowned pianist, fiddle player and composer whose work engages with the boundary of contemporary music and traditional Irish music; Sorcha Costello, a traditional Irish fiddle player from Tulla Co. Clare, awarded the prestigious Gradam Ceoil TG4 Young Musician of the Year in 2021; Liam O’Connor, one of the country’s top fiddle players and Director of the Irish Traditional Music Archive; Sharon Carty, a mezzo-soprano singer who has firmly established a reputation as a respected interpreter of both early and contemporary works; Sibéal Davitt, a dancer, performer, and teacher from Dublin and one of five recipients of An Chomhairle Ealaíon’s inaugural Markievicz Award dancer award in 2019; Ronan Browne an uilleann piper involved in over 200 recordings since 1982, collaborating with many top traditional Irish music, classical, pop, jazz, and country artists; Seán Potts, uilleann piper and son of Seán Snr, a whistle player and founding member of The Chieftains, Seán Potts is currently completing a biography of Tommie Potts to be published by ITMA in 2024; Ellen Potts, a great grandniece of Tommie Potts who has received tuition on the fiddle from Kevin Glackin, Doireann Glackin, Liam O’Connor and Jesse Smith, and has appeared on a number of TG4 music programmes; Seán Ó Broin, a flute player born in the Navan Road area of Dublin who performs with other top artists like Michelle O’Brien and Paul O’Shaughnessy; Paul McGrattan, originally from the Navan Road area of Dublin and one of Ireland’s leading flute players for more than 30 years; Cuthbert Tura Arutura, a dancer, musician, choreographer, teacher, activist and Irish language campaigner, who was born in Zimbabwe before moving to Ireland 31 years ago; and Fiachna Ó Mongáin, one of the country’s leading accordion players from Dumha Thuama in the Erris Gaeltacht in North Mayo.
"Tommie did not live in an era where his music was fully appreciated, he was ahead of his time", says O’Connor. "We are only commencing a journey towards understanding and acknowledging his music. This concert is part of that process as is the ongoing work in ITMA to digitise and make accessible the great non-commercial recordings of Tommie’s playing."
Drawing from the Well: Tommie Potts is at the National Concert Hall, Dublin on Thursday, March 14th - find out more here, and find out more about The Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) here.
