2027 Instructors

eimear Arkins – Song

Eimear Arkins is an award winning musician and singer from County Clare. She has toured
throughout the US, Ireland and beyond with acclaimed bands like Cherish The Ladies, Téada, and Tomáseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas. She is regularly seen performing with harp player and St Louis native, Eileen Gannon and guitar/bouzouki player and singer David McKindley-Ward. Eimear has also toured extensively with the international music organization Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann on concert tours throughout Ireland, Britain, North America and Canada and with the internationally renowned show Brú Ború. Eimear is a qualified Irish music and dance instructor and has performed and given workshops at festivals all over the world including Féile Séamus Creagh, Newfoundland; Catskills Irish Arts Week; Viljandi Pärimusmuusika Festival, Estonia; St Louis Tionól; Canadian Celtic Celebration, and Festival Interceltique de Lorient, France.
In June 2018 she released her debut album, What’s Next? and was awarded “Best Newcomer” from LiveIreland in 2019. Eimear released her second album, Here & There, in 2024 featuring collaborations with David McKindley Ward, Eileen Gannon, Alan Murray and Kevin Buckley. She was named one of The Irish Echo’s top 40 under 40 honorees in 2025 and was awarded ‘Female Vocalist of the Year’ from Ireland Tonight. Eimear and Eileen Gannon recently released their duet album The Belles of St. Louis.
www.eimeararkins.com
www.facebook.com/eimeararkinsmusic

Craig Baxter – Bodhran Int/Adv

Coming soon

Mary Bergin – Whistle

Coming soon

Dylan Carlos – fiddle int/adv

Coming soon

Gary Curley – B/C Button Accordian Int/Adv

Coming soon

Eileen Gannon – harp

One of the world’s leading Irish harp players, Eileen has enjoyed an outstanding international career. A native of St. Louis, she won the Senior Harp title at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann and has performed across Europe, North America and Asia, representing Ireland at the World Expos in Shanghai and Milan. An experienced and dedicated tutor, Eileen holds a masters degree in Ethnomusicology, and the TTCT Teaching Certificate awarded by Comhaltas. She has also guided many students to achieve All-Ireland success. Eileen will be among the many outstanding tutors sharing their knowledge and experience at this year’s Gulf Coast Crinniu.

Katie Geringer – fiddle Fundamentals

Katie Geringer is a classical violinist turned Irish fiddler based in Houston, TX. An initial departure from her classical training led Katie down a path of performing bluegrass and old-time music in north Florida and around the southeast where she grew up. Once acclimated to the folk music world, she quickly gravitated towards Irish music and began listening, learning, and imitating as much as she could from recordings of notable players in the genre. 

Katie attended Florida State University, receiving a bachelor’s degree in Music Education and a Certificate of Violin Performance. After teaching public school orchestra for several years, Katie’s love of Irish music led her to Ireland where she attended the University of Limerick and completed a master’s degree in Traditional Irish Music Performance. While in Ireland, Katie competed in the Limerick County Fleadh and was awarded first place in the senior division. Most recently, Katie has toured the northeast and midwest US as the fiddle player for a dance production by Dublin Irish Dance. 

A passionate, thoughtful, and in-demand teacher, Katie has enjoyed teaching in a variety of settings like summer camps, in-school Irish music workshops, a collegiate Irish Ensemble at Florida State University, the Houston School of Irish Music, the Gulf Coast Cruinniú, and the O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat. She has also presented at the American String Teacher’s Association national conference on teaching Irish music authentically in the classroom. Katie is certified to teach the Rolland Method (Level 1), a teaching method that uses healthy, relaxed movement to promote ease and fluidity in string playing, and maintains an active private studio of both classical and Irish fiddle students. 

John Liestman – Uilleann Pipes Fund/Int

John Liestman has been playing Irish traditional music on the tenor banjo, mandolin, and uilleann pipes since the late 1970’s. His piping has been greatly influenced by Brian McNamara, Benedict Koehler, Mickey Dunne, and Kieran O’Hare, none of whom should be blamed.
John has taught the Fundamentals Mandolin / Tenor banjo at the O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat five times, and has taught at the St Louis Tionól and other such events. He regularly contributes to the thriving Houston session scene and is a proud member of the Irish trad performance group, The Slip Jigolos.

Most recently, John has founded the Round Mandolins company and is producing extremely loud yet toneful mandolins specifically geared toward Irish session players who do not want to be Mr. Irrelevant. Before having children, he wrote a best-selling tutor book and made Northumbrian smallpipes, becoming the first non-UK winner of the Northumbrian Pipers’ Society pipe making competition in 1997. He later saw the light and shifted his focus to uilleann pipes.

Cein Sweeney– flute int/adv

Coming soon

John McCartin – Guiitar/Accompanyment int/adv

Coming soon

Stephen McKee – Banjo Int/Adv

Coming soon

Brian Shaw – Banjo/Mandolin Fundamentals

Brian Shaw has been involved with acoustic music for 40 years, having played stringed instruments since the early 1980s. He was raised in an extended musical family of bluegrassers, where music was a regular part of all family gatherings. His extensive musical history includes decades of playing rock and blues guitar and genres such as Old Time, Contra Dance, Bluegrass, Jazz and Blues. He can also share stories about his early experiences playing punk rock in the 80s and 90s.

In recent years, he has focused significantly on Irish music. Brian started playing Irish music around 2010 and reportedly has “not looked back” since. He is a regular participant in the Irish session scenes in both Houston and College Station. He is an instructor with the Houston School of Irish Music where he teaches Mandolin and Banjo and leads the weekly slow session.

In his spare time, Brian serves as a professor of Plant Pathology and Microbiology at Texas A&M University. Dr. Shaw is a professional educator who has spent more than 25 years teaching graduate and undergraduate courses focused on fungal biology. Additionally, his professional efforts include conducting research on fungi.