Past Instructors

Eimear Arkins – 2021 (violin to fiddle)

Eimear Arkins comes from a small village on the west coast of Ireland called Ruan, in County Clare but she has been living in St. Louis, Missouri for the last number of years. She is an award winning musician, singer and dancer with eleven Irish music world championship titles to her credit. Eimear has toured extensively with the international music organization Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann on concert tours throughout Ireland, Britain, North America and Canada. She has also performed with the internationally renowned show Brú Ború and was part of the troupe that represented Ireland at World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. In August 2015, she traveled to World Expo in Milan with St. Louis Irish Arts where she promoted not only Irish culture but the expression of Irish culture worldwide. Eimear has toured throughout the US and Ireland with The Paul Brock Band, Cherish the Ladies, Tomaseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas and is regularly seen performing with harp player and St Louis native, Eileen Gannon. Eimear is a qualified Irish music and dance instructor and has been teaching at St. Louis Irish Arts for many years. She 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. In January 2020, Eimear was awarded an Artist Fellowship from the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis.
www.eimeararkins.com
www.facebook.com/eimeararkinsmusic

Randal Bays – 2021 (fiddle)

Randal Bays is a US-born musician who’s been playing Irish fiddle for more than forty years; “stone mad” for fiddling, as the saying goes. He’s now widely recognized as a master, with a special love of the traditional styles of Co. Clare and Co. Galway. He’s “among the best Irish style fiddlers of his generation”, according to Fiddler Magazine. Randal has toured and recorded with many of the great Irish musicians of the day, including James Keane and Daithi Sproule (in the band Fingal), James Kelly, Martin Hayes, Michéal O’Domhnaill and many more. He also has a string of great independent recordings to his credit, including his recent release “Up The West”. Randal is also a well regarded fingerstyle guitarist.

Randal has taught Irish fiddle for many years, and recently published his book of original Irish tunes, “The Humours of Cascadia”. He co-founded and served for ten years as Artistic Director of the Friday Harbor Irish Music Week, and is now Artistic Director of the Cascadia Irish Music Week, bringing together students and teachers of traditional Irish music every summer in the Pacific Northwest. Randal lives in Olympia, Washington.
www.randalbays.com

Liz Carroll – 2020 (fiddle), 2024 (song writing)

Liz Carroll is an Irish fiddler, composer, and recording artist. She is the first Irish-American musician to be nominated for a Grammy and the first American-born composer honored with the Cumadóir TG4, Ireland’s most significant traditional music prize.

Liz has toured as a solo artist and with Greenfields of America, Trian, and String Sisters, and as a duo with John Doyle and most recently with guitarist-pianist Jake Charron. Liz is featured on fourteen albums and has appeared on many more. Her duet album with Jake Charron, Half Day Road, was released in early 2019. Liz was born in Chicago of Irish parents, and still lives just outside her hometown.
www.lizcarroll.com

Máirtín de Cógáin – 2023 (storytelling)

Máirtín de Cógáin is a singing, dancing, tale-spinning bodhrán player, playwright and actor descended from a long line of storytellers with two All-Ireland titles for Storytelling under his belt. Máirtín grew up in Carrigaline, Co. Cork, where house parties were frequent, and everyone had to have their “party piece” to perform. His father Barry taught him nearly all he knows, along with great yarnspinners like Éamon Kelly, Pat ‘the Hat’ Speith, Bob Jennings, Éamonn de Barra and many more.

Máirtín is also a true promoter of the Ballad and learned from many famous Irish singers such as Danni Maichi Ua Súilleabháin, Séamus Mac Mathúna, and Ciarán Dwyer. A fluent speaker of Irish (Gaelic), he grew up in a bilingual home and later earned a degree in the Irish language from University College Cork. Máirtín has taught the art of storytelling at many festivals and camps, including the Catskills Irish Arts Week, The Swannanoa Gathering, Augusta Irish Week, Spanish Peaks International Celtic Music Festival as well as major US festivals including the Kansas City Irish Fest, Milwaukee Irish Fest, CelticFest Mississippi, Minnesota Irish Fair, and La Crosse IrishFest. Máirtín is delighted to be back at the Gathering and looking forward to exploring deeper into the tradition www.mairtinmusic.com

Anna Colliton – 2021, 2024 (bodhrán)

Anna Colliton’s distinctively buoyant and imaginative playing has made her one of the leading exponents of the bodhrán, the traditional Irish frame drum. Anna has appeared with Eileen Ivers, Cherish the Ladies, Comas and the Paul McKenna Band among others, worked as a dedicated sub for the Broadway hit musical, Come From Away, and completed a three-year residency at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. She has performed and taught at dozens of festivals across the country, including Catskills Irish Arts Week, The Swannanoa Gathering Celtic Week, Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, The O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat, The St. Louis Tionol, CCE MAD Week, The Gulf Coast Cruinniú, Tune Junkie Weekend, and Augusta Celtic Week. As a teacher dedicated to advancing the tradition of bodhrán playing, Anna inspires students of all levels to incorporate both ‘the old’ and ‘the new’ into their playing, emphasizing the importance of personal style in traditional music. Anna is also the author of “Hide and Seek: An ears-first approach to interpreting rhythm and variation in Irish traditional melody for the bodhrán,” which is a funny little bodhrán book for intermediate and advanced players. These days, Anna performs regularly with Eileen Ivers’ project The Brigideens, and with Boston-based traditional music quartet Ship in the Clouds. 
annacollitonmusic.com

Kevin Crawford – 2020, 2024 (whistle), 2021 & 2022 (flute)

Born in Birmingham, England, Kevin Crawford’s early life was one long journey into Irish music and Co. Clare, where he eventually moved while in his 20’s. He was a founding member of Moving Cloud, the Clare-based band who recorded such critically-acclaimed albums as Moving Cloud and Foxglove, and he has also recorded with Grianin, Raise the Rafters, Joe Derrane, Natalie Merchant, Susan McKeown and Sean Tyrrell. Kevin appears on the 1992 recording, The Maiden Voyage, recorded live at Peppers Bar, Feakle, Co. Clare, and appears on the 1994 recording, The Sanctuary Sessions, recorded live in Cruise’s Bar, Ennis, Co. Clare. He now tours the world with Ireland’s cutting-edge traditional band, Lúnasa, called by some the “Bothy Band of the 21st Century,”with nine ground-breaking albums to their credit: Lúnasa, Otherworld, The Merry Sisters of Fate, Redwood, The Kinnity Sessions, Sé, The Story So Far, La Nua and CAS. A recent project is the Teetotallers, a supergroup trio that also features Martin Hayes and John Doyle. A virtuoso flute player, Kevin has also recorded several solo albums including The ‘D’ Flute Album, In Good Company, On Common Ground, Carrying the Tune, a duo recording with Lúnasa’s piper, Cillian Vallely, a trio project with Dylan Foley & Patrick Doocey, The Drunken Gaugers and a new recording with Lúnasa band mates Colin Farrell and Patrick Doocey entitled ‘Music and Mischief’
https://www.lunasamusic.co

Frances Cunningham- 2021 (bouzouki)

Frances Cunningham is a Southeast Texas native and was exposed to Irish music from an early age through her Father’s love of it. She learned the Bouzouki and became a founding member of the Celtic Rock band SixMileBridge which recorded and toured heavily from the late 90s into the 2000s.

She moved to Nashville where she picked up the Tenor Banjo and since then has gone on to be an in demand accompanist and session musician in the Nashville recording scene.

Frances spent 5 years playing the Bouzouki weekly on the Grand Ole Opry in the Mike Snider String Band playing Old Time music and exposing thousands of country music fans to the instrument for the first time.

However Irish music is her true love and she is a winner on both the tenor banjo and bouzouki at the Midwest Fleadh. She currently tours with EJ Jones in the Piper Jones Band playing festivals nationwide; singing, playing, composing and Scottish Step Dancing. Her solo album has been featured on Fiona Ritchie’s ‘Thistle and Shamrock’ and Celtic music radio shows around the country.
www.bouzoukipower.com

John Doyle – 2020, 2021, 2023 (guitar/accompaniment)

From a musical family in Dublin, John’s influences include well known English folk singers Nic Jones, Martin Carthy, Richard Thompson, and The Watersons; Scottish singers Dick Gaughan and John Martin; and fellow Irishmen Paul Brady and Al O’Donnell as well as his father, Sean Doyle – probably the biggest influence of all. John went on the road as a pro at 16 with the group Chanting House which he formed with Susan McKeown and which eventually included such great players as Seamus Egan, Eileen Ivers, & Donogh Hennessy. John went on to form the highly acclaimed super group, Solas, with Seamus Egan, John Williams, Karan Casey and Winifred Horan which took the folk and Celtic music worlds by storm, in no small part due to John’s powerhouse rhythmic guitar style and innovative arrangements. As a member of Solas, John performed to sold out audiences nationally and internationally as well as appearing on many national TV and radio programs: NBC’s The Today Show, various programs for National Public Radio and Public Radio International, A Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage, E-Town and World Cafe as part of that critically acclaimed group, he also received three NAIRD awards and a Grammy nomination for the band’s self-titled first recording.

After leaving Solas, John has gone on to perform and tour with other greats in the Folk, Celtic and Bluegrass worlds – as music director for folk icon Joan Baez, guitarist for Mary Chapin Carpenter, Eileen Ivers, Tim O’Brien (John was included on Tim’s 2006 Grammy-award winning CD, Fiddler’s Green), Linda Thompson, Kate Rusby, Cathie Ryan, Cherish the Ladies, and many others. He has appeared on soundtracks for the feature film, The Brothers McMullan, Soldier, PBS’s Out of Ireland and also composed the music for the film Uncle Robert’s Footsteps and the play Down the Flats as well as performing on countless recordings as guitarist and/or singer for other notable artists such as Kate Rusby, Linda Thompson, Tim O’Brien, Alison Brown, Seamus Egan, Eileen Ivers, Mick Moloney, Cathal McConnell, Karan Casey and so many others (check out the discography page for a full list). John is a featured regular for many years in the hugely popular BBC Scotland “Transatlantic Sessions” regularly broadcast in Ireland and at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow having performed there with Americana greats Jerry Douglas, Tim O’Brien, Rodney Crowell, Sara Watkins, Kathy Mattea, and many others.

Seamus Egan – 2024 (tenor banjo/mandolin)

It’s hard to think of an artist in traditional Irish music more influential than Seamus Egan. From his beginnings as a teen prodigy, to his founding of Irish-American powerhouse band Solas, to his current work as one of the leading composers and interpreters of the tradition, Egan has inspired multiple generations of musicians and helped define the sound of Irish music today.

As a multi-instrumentalist, he’s put his mark on the sound of the Irish flute, tenor banjo, guitar, mandolin, tin whistle, and low whistle, among others. As a composer, he was behind the soundtrack for the award-winning film The Brothers McMullen, co-wrote Sarah McLachlan’s breakout hit, “Weep Not for the Memories,” and has scored numerous documentaries and indie films since. As a bandleader, Solas has been the pre-eminent Irish-American band of their generation for the past 20 years, continuously renewing Irish music with fresh ideas, including a collaboration with Rhiannon Giddens on their 2015 album. As a performer, few others can make so many instruments or such wickedly complex ornaments seem so effortless. Music comes as naturally to Seamus Egan as breath, but his mastery of the tradition is only one facet of his plans to move the music forward.

In 2018, Seamus Egan began touring as a solo performer, bringing along friends and musical guests, and making music as Seamus Egan Project that points towards the origins of Solas in the 1990s. Originally a band of friends who gathered to enjoy the late night craic of the Irish sessions in Philadelphia and New York, Solas was able to meld the breakneck speed and fun of these late night jams with a more sensitive feel for complex arrangements and composition that came from Egan’s love of other music genres like jazz, classical, bluegrass or rock. Revisiting this period in his music, focusing on the three solo albums he cut before Solas, Egan’s looking back to that initial burst of creativity that followed the breathtaking four All-Ireland Championships he won on four different instruments by the young age of 14 and his turns as a star soloist in his later teens with Mick Moloney’s The Green Fields of America.

Growing up under the wing of powerful elder musicians, Egan’s always paid homage to his roots, but he’s thought of these roots less as a heritage and more as a universal language to be shared.

Angelika Eleni – 2023 (sean-nós dance)

From art history to theatre and musical performance, I integrate the arts in how I interact and contribute to my community. I am a champion Irish dancer from Dallas, Texas with over two decades of experience in competition and performance, along with other folk dance traditions. I began my musical training classically, but that evolved into a love for trad as I started Irish dance at a young age and I was able to temporarily study at Ballyfermot College for Irish Traditional Music in Dublin, Ireland. As an artist resident at the McAllen Creative Incubator in McAllen, Texas, I established McAllen Irish Arts to develop an Irish traditional arts community in the Rio Grande Valley (South Texas) through regular free community events like ceili workshops, music sessions, and organizing the first South Texas Irish Festival.

In wake of the current situation, I have happily delved into the virtual world by organizing live stream events, including the McAllen Virtual Art Walk, a monthly YouTube Live series to celebrate local and regional contributions to art, poetry, literature, music, and dance, along with developing online courses.

Danielle Enblom – 2021 (sean-nós dance)

Dancer, musician, and enthochoreologist, Danielle grew up steeped in Irish music and dance, and brings other dance practices and physical modalities to her teaching, performance, and research. Danielle’s work digs deep into the intersections of traditions, and is informed by years of informal and formal education which include a Diploma in Traditional Irish Music from University College Cork, and an MA in Ethnochoreology (dance research) from the Munster Technological University in Tralee.

Danielle was among the first dancers from the USA to study and teach sean-nós dance and old style Irish step dance forms. She has lived in Cork, Kerry, and Belfast, having learned from dancers with direct ties to two of the last itinerant dancing masters in Ireland, Jeremiah Molyneaux and Comack O’Keefe. Also a fiddler, musicality and rhythm are central to Danielle’s work as a dancer. She brings a deep understanding of the nuance and form of Irish dance tunes to her performing and teacher. Danielle’s own Québécois and Métis heritage is also represented in her recent work.Danielle’s current projects and partnerships reimagines step dance, digging into historical contexts, and forging new paths. These include a nearly two decade long partnership with sean-nós dancer Anna Lethert, The Bad Neighbors Rhythm Project with bodhrán player Anna Colliton, Step Tune with fiddler Oona Grady, and multi-instrumentalist James Gascoyne, and her own project The Step Collective.
www.danielleenblom.com

Marla Fibish – 2020, 2021, 2022 (mandolin)

One of the prominent voices of the mandolin in Irish music, Marla Fibish brings a deep and distinctive sensibility to the music on one of its lesser-heard instruments. In addition to her work with Three Mile Stone, her playing is featured on the 2017 Noctambule release A Sweetish Tune, and The Morning Star, a duo CD with legendary Irish singer and bouzouki player Jimmy Crowley. She has performed and taught nationally and in Ireland, and was a featured performer at the 2018 Masters of Tradition festival in Bantry, Co. Cork.

Marla also plays mandola, tenor guitar and button accordion, and is a singer and a composer. She is known for her musical settings of works from a variety of poets, as well as original tunes written in traditional forms. This work is featured in the duo Noctambule, her longtime collaboration with guitarist and husband Bruce Victor. Their earlier releases include Travel in the Shadows in 2013 and The Waking in 2015.

An experienced and sought-after teacher, Marla teaches private students and classes, online at Peghead Nation, and has been on the faculty of many music camps including The Swannanoa Gathering, The Mandolin Symposium, O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat, Portal Irish Music Week, Lark Camp and others. Her instructional DVD has been a popular self-learning tool, focused on acquiring the foundational technique for playing Irish music on the mandolin.
www.marlafibish.com www.noctambulemusic.com

“Some of the best mandolin playing in Irish music.” —Dennis Cahill, Guitarist

“Marla is a wonder on the mandolin; rhythmic beyond imagination, clear as a bell tone, great invention, lovely ornaments at just the right times and places, and a sureness and ease that allows the listener to relax and be carried away.” —Kevin Carr, Folkworks

Eileen Gannon – 2024 (harp)

Eileen Gannon has been lighting up the St. Louis music scene for many years. Eileen, a St. Louis native, is one of the top Irish harp players in the world. She has won numerous accolades including the highly coveted Senior Harp title at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann (World Irish Music Championships). She has a bachelor’s degree in Music Performance from St. Louis University, a master’s degree in Ethnomusicology from University of Limerick, and the TTCT Teaching Certificate awarded by Comhalthas. Eileen has toured and performed all over the world and is a regular tutor at international festivals like the Catskills Irish Arts Week, and Scoil Eigse. Eileen also represented Ireland at World Expos in 2010 in Shanghai, China and in 2015, in Milan, Italy. Eileen launched her debut solo CD, The Glory Days Are Over in 2017, and has appeared on albums with Tommy Martin, Bernadette NicGabhann, Eimear Arkins , Kevin Buckley, and Robert Ryan.

Sean Gavin – 2023 (flute, uilleann pipes)

Master uilleann piper and flute player, Seán Gavin, is one of the most highly regarded Irish musicians of his generation. He is the first and only musician born outside Ireland to win the prestigious Seán Ó Riada Gold Medal.  His most recent recording, Music from the Lost Continent, with fiddler Jesse Smith, accompanist John Blake, and bodhran player Johnny “Ringo” McDonagh, was hailed by The Irish Echo as “traditional music at its best!” 

Seán tours regularly with the groups Bua and Téada, both of which have gleaned top praise from Irish music critics.  Seán was Musical Director for the PBS program “I Am Ireland”, and for the long running Atlantic Steps. He has lectured on traditional music at the University of Chicago, St. Andrew’s in Scotland, Western Michigan University, and others.

With recordings, lectures, and performances around the globe to his credit, Seán is back in his native Detroit, playing, teaching, and promoting traditional Irish music. In the Spring of 2022 he will begin an exciting new project. Join Seán as he takes the long and winding road across America, shore to shore, sharing the old musical traditions and discovering the new. More on this journey at www.SeanGavinMusic.com.

Katie Geringer – 2022, 2023, 2024 (violin to fiddle/intro Irish fiddle)

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.

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, and the Houston School of Irish Music. 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.

Gráinne Hambly – 2020, 2021 (harp)

Gráinne Hambly from County Mayo in the west of Ireland is an internationally recognised exponent of the Irish harp, and is in great demand as a performer and teacher, both at home and abroad. Gráinne started to play Irish music on the tin whistle at an early age, before moving on to the concertina and later the harp. She lived in Belfast for six years, where she completed a Masters Degree in Musicology, awarded by Queen’s University (in 1999). Her main research topic was folk music collections and the harp in 18th-century Ireland. She also completed the Graduate Diploma in Education (Music) at the University of Limerick.

Gráinne has been playing professionally as a solo musician for the past 13 years, and has performed on various occasions in Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Brazil, Colombia, Israel, and Japan, as well as touring extensively in the United States, giving concerts, workshops and masterclasses.

She has attracted glowing praise for her live performances and recorded material, which brilliantly showcase what has been described as her ‘absolute mastery of the Irish harp’. Known for the sensitivity and expressive quality of her air-playing, as well as her dynamic performance of dance tunes, Gráinne’s playing illustrates the full range and scope of this ancient instrument. She has featured on a number of recordings and has released three critically acclaimed solo CDs plus a collaborative recording with Scottish harper William Jackson. www.grainnehambly.com

Therese Honey – 2022 (harp)

Childhood fascination with the harp blossomed into an exciting and successful career as a professional harpist and recording artist for this Houston native. As a self-proclaimed “crusader for music of great heritage”, Honey draws on her vast knowledge of early music history and her stunning virtuosity to bring alive for her audiences the incredibly beautiful music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque eras.

Honey’s unique specialization keeps her in demand for lectures, concerts and festival engagements across the United States. With a vast and varied repertoire that includes familiar classical and popular favorites, she is a first choice for performances at social occasions as a soloist or with chamber groups.

Therese Honey delights and entertains her listeners when she performs on any one of her collection of harps, which range in size from the modern gold Concert Grand harp to the ancient Celtic harp.

Therese Honey is a specialist in Celtic and Early harps, with a background in classical pedal harp. Therese tours throughout the United States and in 1997 she performed at the 20th Annual Carolan Festival in Keadue, Co. Roscommon, Ireland.Therese performs early music in the Houston area as well as with the Texas Early Music Project (TEMP). She presents concerts of Medieval and Renaissance music on copies of historical harps and wire-strung and other folk harps of ancient design.

She performs traditional music solo and as a member of Wyndnwyre, with an emphasis on the traditional music of Ireland, Scotland and Wales and 13th-century Medieval music. Therese occasionally joins forces with Istanpitta for performances of Medieval music.

She has an active teaching studio in the Houston area and tours throughout the US as a clinician and adjudicator.

In addition to her private studio, Therese teaches workshops on Medieval, Renaissance and Celtic repertoire, arranging and style, and Harp Ensemble. She is a dynamic teacher who inspires and motivates her students to learn more about the harp: its technique, repertoire and history.

Nuala Kennedy – 2020, 2024 (flute), 2021 (song)

Co. Louth native Nuala Kennedy is a musical adventurer who is known world wide as a singular performer of Irish traditional music. She plays flute and sings in ‘The Alt’ alongside John Doyle and Eamon O’ Leary and in ‘Oirialla’ with Gerry O’ Connor, Martin Quinn and Gilles Le Bigot.

Nuala has graced the cover of Irish Music Magazine, Sing Out! and regularly appears on the mainstage at international festivals around the world such as Rudolstadt (GER) Celtic Connections (UK) Milwaukee (USA) Telemark (NOR) Eurofonik (FRA) National Folk Festival (AU) and Celtic Colours (CAN).

She has toured and recorded with American indie songwriter Will Oldham (an album that received 5 stars from MOJO magazine) as well as cutting-edge Canadian composer Oliver Schroer (nominated for two Canadian Folk Awards 2012). ‘Sundogs’ her latest release (2019) is a collaboration with two Norwegian musicians as SnowflakeTrio and is available on ta:lik records.

Nuala has a unique voice within traditional music:

“Outstanding.” Huffington Post

“Cheeky, dynamic and full of ideas.” Scotland on Sunday

“A flute player and composer of remarkable finesse, fearless of the unknown.” The Irish Times

Liz Knowles – 2021, 2024 (fiddle)

Liz Knowles’ fascination with music has always been rooted in how one can arrive, land, and leave a note. Her early foundations were in classical music but her discovery of Irish music connected the dots between memories of her grandfather’s singing, a lifelong exploration of modal melodies in Early music, and the “In-Between”, a life theme for Liz that illuminates the challenge and vitality of the liminal places in life and music. 

Liz has established herself as a dynamic performer and recording artist as soloist on the soundtrack for “Michael Collins”, fiddler with “Riverdance”, Broadway’s “The Pirate Queen” and “The Green Bird”, soloist with the New York Pops and featured artist for the Ireland 100 Festival at the Kennedy Center. She was music director and producer for several stage show and recording projects that toured Europe, Asia and South America. Her compositions and arrangements of tunes and songs have been recorded by John Whelan, Flook, Chicago’s Metropolis Symphony Orchestra, Liz Carroll, Beolach, Bachue, J.P. Cormier, Michael Black, John Doyle, and Ensemble Galilei. Liz is known as an active and engaging teacher at camps around the world as well as conducting her own online masterclasses, courses, and lessons and is currently an adjunct professor at New England Conservatory in Boston. Liz has composed and produced music for two exhibits featuring Irish art first at the Art Institute in Chicago and most recently at Notre Dame’s Snite Museum. This last year, she has produced a podcast with Liz Carroll called “The Lizzes Podcast” and is currently touring with Open the Door for Three, The String Sisters, The Martin Hayes Quartet, and a new trio with Niall Vallely and Niwel Tsumbu. www.lizknowles.com

Joanie Madden – 2021 (whistle)

JOANIE MADDEN was born in the Bronx, New York to Irish parents; her mother Helen hails from Miltown Malbay, County Clare and her father Joe Madden, was a well-known accordion player and band leader from Portumna in County Galway.  Joanie grew up in a musical house listening to her father and friends play at family gatherings.  She began to taking whistle lessons with National Heritage award winner, Jack Coen and within a few years she won All-Ireland championship titles on the flute and became the first American to win the All-Ireland Championship on the whistle.

She is the top selling whistle player in history with 500,000 solo album sales through the success of her “Song of the Irish Whistle” series. Joanie has performed on over 200 CD’S including three Grammy Award winning albums and has recorded with such luminaries as Pete Seeger, Sinead O’Connor, Vince Gill, The Clancy Brothers and the Boston Pops.  She has worked on the award-winning soundtracks for PBS with Rick and Ken Burns, “New York, and “The Way West” and won a Peabody for an HBO project titled, “The Complete Angler”, she also produced an Emmy award winning PBS show for Cherish the Ladies, “An Irish Homecoming”.

Joanie has amassed a plethora of awards and citations to her credit including Irish America Magazine’s Top 100 Irish Americans, chosen Traditional Musician of the Year by the Irish Voice newspaper and immortalized on the streets of her native Bronx with a street named after her, “Joanie Madden and Cherish the Ladies”.  She was bestowed one of the nation’s highest awards as she was chosen for the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and also a recipient of the esteemed USA Artist Fellowship grant, singled out as one of the most innovative and influential artists in America, becoming the first Irish musician to win this prestigious grant. The Irish Music Awards presented her with a Lifetime Achievement and Irish America Magazine named her one of the Top 50 Most Powerful Irish Women in the world. The Irish Voice Newspaper named her one of the top most influential Irish Americans of the past quarter century and most recently, Irish American Writers and Artists chose Joanie for the Eugene O’Neill Lifetime Achievement Award.

For the past 35 years Joanie has performed thousands of concerts while touring the world as the leader and driving force behind the internationally renowned Irish traditional music and dance ensemble, Cherish the Ladies.  During that time, she has become one of the most visible and respected Irish musicians as a composer and arranger and invariably entertaining stage performer. She has performed over 300 nights as a soloist with symphony orchestras and her huge repertoire of music spans a wide range of expression, from exuberant dance tunes to slow, stately and evocative pieces. She runs annual sold-out Irish Musical bus tours to Ireland and legendary Irish music and dance cruises, “Joanie Madden’s Folk ‘N Irish Cruise” where 10,000 people have joined her on these cultural floating musical extravaganzas.   She is a consummate musician and one of the most mercurial and revered figures in Irish music today.
www.joaniemadden.com

Theresa O’Grady- 2021, 2023 (banjo)

Theresa O’Grady, was born and brought up in Luton, England and is part of a very musical family. With her Brothers, James and Ciaran, they became part of an exciting musical era in the UK in the 1980’s & 90’s. They had great grounding in the tradition from people like Anne Caulfield, Tommy Keane, Paddy Hayes and Brian Rooney. Theresa was taught by an exceptional banjo player and teacher, Annette Hannigan (Nee Caulfield)

Theresa moved to Ireland in 1997 where she met and married Sligo born Piano Accordion player, Declan Payne. They live outside the village of Aclare, Co Sligo, not far from the beautiful Wild Atlantic Way. The very infectious “Sligo Style” of music has made a huge impression on Theresa giving her a distinctive, rhythmic, ornamented style of banjo playing. She is considered to be one of the finest banjo players of her time and in 2018 she released her debut album “BANJO’ista”. This album was widely anticipated and warmly received by fellow Banjoista’s.   “The variety of melodies on this album thrive in her hands and her playing displays wonderful imagination and a great respect for the tradition”- Kieran Hanrahac

Theresa is a very experienced and sought after banjo teacher and with vast changes in online teaching in the last 12 months, she is in huge demand worldwide for workshops, seminars, 1-2-1 lessons and in general, “Anything Banjo”
www.facebook.com/theresaogradymusic

Kieran O’Hare – 2024 (uilleann pipes)

Kieran O’Hare is a highly respected and sought-after performer of traditional Irish music on the uilleann pipes, concert flute, and tinwhistle. He was educated at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, where he continued the process of learning the tradition of uilleann piping from master pipers.

In 1994, Kieran received the honor of being the first American-born player of Irish music invited to perform in the annual ‘Ace and Deuce of Piping’ concert, held in Ireland’s National Concert Hall. Since then, he has made countless appearances at festivals and concerts across Europe, North and South America, Japan, and China. Among the many artists with whom Kieran has performed, toured or recorded are Mick Moloney and The Greenfields of America; fiddlers Liz Carroll and Jerry Holland; baroque performers Ensemble Galilei; the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra; Irish choral group ANÚNA; the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra; the New York Pops Orchestra at Carnegie Hall; Bonnie Raitt; The Paul Winter Consort; Josh Groban; and Don Henley.

Kieran is a staunch advocate for and master teacher of Irish traditional music, including stints at the Willie Clancy Summer School, The Swannanoa Gathering, the Catskills Irish Arts Week, The Augusta Heritage Festival, and at various pipers’ tionols and musical gatherings around the country. Since 2007, he has collaborated with Liz Knowles on musical design and direction of large-scale European-based productions integrating traditional and contemporary Irish music with dance and song. Their most recent project has been the ‘grand spectacle’ Fête de la St. Patrick et de la Bretagne, a presentation of the music and dance of Ireland and Brittany.

For over ten tears, Kieran has performed with acclaimed trio Open the Door for Three, along with Liz Knowles and Dublin-born bouzouki player and singer Pat Broaders. Their fourth album together, A Prosperous Gale, will be available in 2024.

He has served on the Board of Directors of Ná Píobairí Uilleann in Dublin, an organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of uilleann piping worldwide, as well as the board of The Northeast Tionól, North America’s largest uilleann piping event. www.openthedoorforthree.com

Eamon O’Leary – 2022, 2024 (guitar/accompaniment)

Originally from Dublin, Eamon has moved between his hometown and New York City for the last twenty years. He has toured extensively throughout North America and Europe, performing and recording with many of Irish music’s great players. In addition to his performance schedule,

Eamon has taught at numerous music programs including the Augusta Heritage Center, the Catskills Irish Arts Week, the Alaska Irish Music Camp, and the Swannanoa Gathering. In 2004, he and Patrick Ourceau released a live recording, Live at Mona’s, documenting their many years hosting a session on New York’s Lower East Side, and in 2012, Eamon released a recording of traditional songs, The Murphy Beds, with Jefferson Hamer, described by the Huffington Post as “ten beautiful, crystalline songs.” He has recently teamed up with old friends John Doyle and Nuala Kennedy to form The Alt. Their self-titled debut album was released in November 2014.

Sue Richards – 2023 (harp)

Sue Richards is a traditional Celtic harper; she studied classical harp as a teen at Oberlin College and then Ohio State University.

When she discovered Celtic harps, she immediately abandoned the pedal harp and turned to the Irish and Scottish music of her heritage, winning the American National Scottish Harp Championship four times.

She currently teaches and directs the harp program at the Ohio Scottish Arts School.  She has performed for President Clinton and Queen Elizabeth, has sat in with the Chieftains Irish Band, played accompaniment for Jean Redpath on the Prairie Home Companion, and has toured with the Harpa Ensemble in Norway and Scotland. Currently Sue performs and composes with Ensemble Galilei in multi-media concerts sponsored by the National Geographic Society and the Metropolitan Museum of Art photography collection.

Robert Shaddox – 2024 (beginning bodhrán)

Robert traveled to Cork as a young man and fell in love with the traditional music that his host family played. He has been playing bodhrán for over 25 years and has studied with bodhrán stalwarts such as Mark Stone, Albert Alfonzo and Anna Colliton. 

Robert was the bodhránist with Houston’s premier traditional Irish band, The Jig Is Up!, for the ten years of its existence. He is now featured with Houston’s newest traditional Irish band, “Hup! and is the bodhran instructor for the Houston School of Irish Music.

Robert is an Occupational Therapist by profession and has worked extensively in the rehabilitation of physical disability, psychiatric illness and industrial injury. He is a Certified Ergonomic Assessment Specialist who has given multiple presentations to industry regarding the prevention of repetitive stress and ergonomic injuries. For four years Robert was an Adjunct Professor in the School Occupational Therapy at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston. He has also led classes at The O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat on how to prevent musician’s repetitive injuries. 

Michael Stribling – 2023 (uilleann pipes, flute)

Hailing from sunny Tallahassee, Florida, Michael Stribling is an award winning Uilleann Piper and Irish musician. In County Cavan, Ireland he competed and won the title of “All Ireland Champion” on the Uilleann Pipes at the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann. Michael has spent a significant part of his formative years in Ireland and England performing and studying traditional Irish music, he was mentored by the piping great, Jerry O’Sullivan.

His style exhibits technical punctuation with a rhythmical drive, and is heavily influenced by the music of Uilleann piping masters, Patsy Touhey and Leo Rowsome. In more recent years, the early Irish-American style of Uilleann Piping, exhibited by the likes of Touhey and Michael Gallagher, have become a passion of Michael’s, who strives to recreate their unique style and sound in his own playing today.

Michael regularly joins the Internationally touring Irish bands Fullset and Runa, as well as teaching at Tionóls, piping workshops, Traditional Irish Music camps and summer schools both in the United States, and abroad. In 2014, Michael added the traditional Irish element for renowned country music artist Trace Adkins’ Celtic Christmas tour, performing on Uilleann pipes, flute, and the tin whistle.  When he isn’t playing music, Michael competes in Ironman triathlons across the United States.

Cillian Vallely – 2022 (whistle)

Starting at age 7, Cillian Vallely learned the whistle and uilleann pipes from his parents Brian and Eithne at the Armagh Pipers Club, a group that for over 5 decades has fostered the revival of traditional music in the north of Ireland. Since 1999, he has been a member of Lúnasa, one of the most acclaimed and influential bands in the recent history of Irish music. He has perfomed at Carnegie Hall, The Hollywood Bowl, Glastonbury Festival, Womad Aledaide, Edmonton Folk Festival in addition to multiple tours of Asia, Australia, US and Europe. In recent years, Cillian has also played and recorded with Bruce Springsteen, Natalie Merchant, Mary Chapin-Carpenter, Tim O’Brien, and Riverdance in addition to recording as a guest on over 70 albums. His solo album “The Raven’s Rock” was released to great critical acclaim in 2016.

“Piper Cillian Vallely ticks all the boxes when it comes to the checklist of traits needed to be considered 21st century traditional musician A-lister. “ The Irish News, Belfast

“The Raven’s Rock finds the virtuoso uilleann piper in fine form, effortlessly elegant and exciting” Songlines Magazine, UK

“Many would view Cillian Vallely’s pipes as the linchpin of Lúnasa:his stoical, stalwart presence is at the heart of the band” Irish Times, Dublin

Caitlin Warbelow – 2022, 2023 (fiddle)

Caitlin Warbelow hails from a family of entrepreneurs and bush pilots in Alaska and currently serves as violinist/fiddler in the original Broadway cast of the Tony award winning and Grammy nominated musical “Come From Away.” She leads the new Trad ensemble “Warbelow Range.” Her live album of Irish Trad in Manhattan pubs Manhattan Island Sessions was nominated for an Independent Music Award in 2011.

An All-Ireland winner and New England Fiddle Champion who holds degrees from Columbia University (B.A Anthropology, and B. Music, Violin Performance) Caitlin’s versatility and expertise lies not only in music but also in business, scientific research, data analysis, writing, community organizing and activism.

Caitlin is on the faculty of the Manhattan Irish Arts Center Irish Arts Center , and is artistic coordinator for the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival Celtic Program. She is an instructor at the Swannanoa Gathering and Far North Fiddle Festival and maintains a large private teaching studio in Manhattan.Caitlin performs and tours as solo artist with numerous ensembles and as Symphony soloist.

Caitlin is co-founder of Tune Supply

Cara Wildman – 2022, 2023 (bodhrán)

Cara Wildman is a well-respected percussionist, pianist, dancer, and bodhrán player from Dorchester, TX. Cara’s talents have led her to perform in a variety of musical ensembles and genres around the world including in Puerto Rico, Argentina, Mexico, Ireland, Canada and across the United States. She has performed with Carolina Crown Drum & Bugle Corps, Celtic Thunder, The Irish Memory Orchestra, Joanie Madden, Irish Christmas in America and Donal Lunny. She earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music Education from Texas Christian University, and a second Master’s in Irish Traditional Music Performance from the University of Limerick in Ireland. Cara has studied with bodhrán greats Jim Higgins, Eamon Murray, Martin O’Neill, Cormac Byrne, Colm Murphy, Colm Phelan, and Junior Davey, among others

Cara’s playing has garnered international accolades including winning the 2016, 2018, and 2019 Senior Bodhrán Champion for the Limerick and Midwest Fleadhanna, and placing 1st at the 2021 All-Ireland Fleadh Fest—the first American ever to win this category. Donal Lunny described her playing as having “great taste…as an artist she can be immersed in her playing while retaining perspective on its contribution to the music. The development of the bodhrán is an exciting work in progress. I think Cara is at the front edge of this development…”