Pat Broaders

Elieen O' Brian

Pat Cannady

Mairtin de Cogain

Michael Cooney

Kathleen Conneely

Pauline Conneely

Brendan Collins

Brian Kelso Crow

Pat Egan

Florence Fahy

Ged Foley

Len Graham

Kathleen Guilday

Brian Hart

Dave Hegarty

Joanie Madden

Jimmy Morrison

Mirella Murray

Keith Reins

John Skelton

Paul Smyth

Chris Weddle

Pat Broaders was born in Dublin, Ireland.  He began playing traditional  Irish music when he was 12 years old.  In Dublin he attended the Chatham  Street School of Music under the instruction of Leon Rowsome. 
He has  performed in Ireland, England, Finland, and other European countries as well  as across the United States. Pat has also recorded with several groups, both in  the United States and abroad.  Pat moved to the U.S. in 1990. His first year in the States he was living and performing in Boston where he was heavily involved in the traditional  Irish music scene, playing with many of the local musicians. In 1991 Pat  moved to Chicago, where he has been an active member of the traditional Irish  music community ever since. 
Since his move to Chicago, he has played and recorded with a variety of  musicians and groups, including Liz Carroll, Larry Nugent, Jimmy Keane,  Martin Hayes, Paddy O’Brien, and the Trinity Irish Dance Company and the  Norweigen/celtic group Secret Garden.

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Eileen O'Brian

Eileen comes from a family background that is steeped in the Irish tradition. Her father Paddy was instrumental in establishing the B/C style of button accordion playing as we know it today. Paddy was also one of the most prolific composers of traditional music. Dinny O'Brien, (Eileen's grandfather) was also a fiddle player and highly influential figure in Irish traditional music. He was the leader of the "Bridge Ceili Band" in the 1950's and 60's.Eileen's late mother was a member of the Seery family from Dublin. Eileen's uncle, Sean Seery(piper) and grandfather Jim Seery(fiddle player) were both founder members of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann.

Eileen is an All-Ireland champion in both senior fiddle and senior fiddle slow airs. She is also a composer and some of her compositions have been recorded by the artists John Carty and Josephine Marsh. Eileen received a classical musical education at the Limerick municipal School of Music and worked as a music teacher at St. Mary's Secondary School, Nenagh for over 20years. She also graduated from the University of Limerick with a Master of Arts in Irish traditional music performance. At present Eileen is a tutor at the I.W.A.M.D at the University of Limerick where she teaches in both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

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Pat Cannady

Patrick began his piping career under the instruction of the late and much missed Al Purcell of Drumcondra, Dublin. Al was a generous and skillful teacher who took great joy in seeing his students succeed at piping. Since that time, Pat has acquired a large repertoire and a nuanced style.

Patrick and his wife, Karen, have been playing together as a duet for most of the last 10 years. They have drawn inspiration from classic pipe and fiddle duet recordings and from the older players still active in Chicago, in particular Kevin Henry and his friends.  Patrick and Karen are working on their first recording which will be released in 2012.

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Máirtín de Cógáin from County Cork has been playing the bodhrán for a long many moons, learning first from Eric Cunningham (The New De Danann) and later from Colm Murphy ( The Old De Danann).  Máirtín has taught Bodhrán technique at the Catskills Irish Arts Week, as well as giving workshops at major US festivals including the Kansas City Irish Fest, CelticFest Mississippi, Minnesota Irish Fair and La Crosse IrishFest.  He also gives private tutorials along the road while touring.  Máirtín's bodhrán classes begin with posture and basic striking technique and with each students' ability assessed, the intricacies of rhythm are then introduced as progression allows.  

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Michael Cooney from County Tipperary, Ireland, grew up learning the whistle and pipes in a family of pipers. As a youngster he won first place for his age group three times in the All Ireland Championships on the tin whistle. Under his fathers direction, he took up the uilleann pipes and went on to win the All Ireland's twice in pipes. He toured Europe extensively with Comhaltas before emigrating to the America where he settled in St.Louis for a number of years. He recently returned to Ireland where he continues his career.

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Kathleen was born in Bedford, England to parents from Galway and Longford.  She took lessons as a child, along with her siblings, from Brendan Mulkere, a well known teacher from Co.Clare, living in London.  She was heavily influenced by her father, Michael, a well known fiddle, accordion and tin whistle player.  The Conneely home itself was often filled with music from records, tapes and live tunes with such visitors as her uncle, Willie Vernon, accordion player from Longford, and Eddie Corcoran, a tin whistle player from Gurteen, Co.Sligo.  She grew up playing music with her brother and sisters.  In the mid 80’s they visited Birmingham on a regular basis to play in the thriving sessions scene there, along with Kevin Crawford and Joe Molloy to name a few.  Kathleen spent her years from 1986 – 1993 living both in Dublin and London and was heavily involved in the very lively music scene in both cities.  In 1991, she appeared with her father and brother (Mick Sr and Jr – fiddlers), John Carty (banjo) and Roger Sherlock (flutist) on RTE’s “The Pure Drop”.  She moved to Chicago in 1993 and enjoyed sessions with Windy City musicians living there at the time, such as Liz Carroll, Martin Hayes, and Jon Williams.  She moved to Boston in 1997 and now lives in Rhode Island.  She has taught at Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann in both Dublin and Boston, at the Boston College Irish Studies Program, The Catskills Irish Arts Week in E. Durham,NY, and at the Swananoa Gathering near Asheville, NC.

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Pauline Conneely was born in Bedford England of Irish parents.  She was immersed in Irish music from an early age.  Her father Mick who comes from Errislannon, Co Galway is a fine fiddle player and the Conneely's home in Bedford was always filled with the sound of great music, singing and dancing.  She and her siblings took lessons from  well known  Clare musician Brendan Mulkere and learned tunes from their father, from records and tapes and many musicians who regularly visited the house.
Pauline came to America for the first time in 1988 as a step dancer with the annual comhaltas tour.  She returned the following year to live in Chicago  where she still teaches.  She has also taught in Elkins W Virginia and has toured and appeared in concert with Cherish The Ladies, Liz Carroll, Matt Molloy, Tommy Keane and Jackie Mccarthy to name a few.

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Brendan Collins

Traditional music has always played a big part in my family. With both my parents coming from a musical background, I was encouraged to play and picked up the tin whistle at the age of 8.  As I grew a bit, I advanced to the concert flute and began to get into the music in a more serious way.   It was during this time that I became active in the local session scene, playing music with other young people in North Tipperary, including Michael Cooney and Eileen O’Brien,  who I played with frequently at sessions, fleadhanna, and other events..  
From meeting new musicians along the way and with the influence of my uncles, I decided to try the uilleann pipes. My uncle Jim Brophy gave me a practice set and a few years later I ordered a full set from Tom White in 1987. I still play the same set today.
My good friend and fellow piper Joe Barry and I started the Tinóil in Templemore in 1987 and it is still going strong today with many pipers attending from far and near. I have made many friends down through the years due through traditional music and I look forward to our 25th Tinóil in October 2012.

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Bryan Kelso Crow (whistle instructor) is an Associate Professor of Speech Communication at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.  He spent a year in Belfast on a teaching exchange at the University of Ulster, 1985-86. As a member of Carbondale's Celtic band The Dorians, he plays concert flute, whistle, and keyboard, and also sings.  He is the host of the nationally syndicated public radio program, Celtic Connections, which he started as a local program in 1991 (http://www.celticconnectionsradio.org).  He is also affiliated with the university's Irish & Irish Immigration Studies program, and is an organizer of the Southern Illinois Irish Festival, held each year on the first weekend of October (silirishfest.org).  He has taught tin whistle classes over a number of years in Carbondale, and has taught for the St.Louis TIONÓL since 2000.  Whistle students please note: come with a whistle in the key of D.

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Pat Egan is becoming a recognized force on the contemporary folk scene. A native of Tipperary, Pat grew up singing and playing, and has been a professional musician since 1985. He served his apprenticeship with the Dublin groups Old Bawn and De Min, and has since been a member of the Idle Wall, and the Mayo-based traditional group Sheeaun.
More recently, his performance on the internationally acclaimed recording Music at Matt Molloyís brought his talent to much wider attention, and in 1994 he produced a highly regarded solo tape, Songs for Candle. Now splitting his time between Westport, Co.Mayo and St.Louis, Missouri, Pat has toured extensively in the United States and Europe, and has appeared on numerous television and radio programs in the U.S., Ireland, and abroad. Pat has joined forces with Paddy OíBrien and Tim Britton to form CHULRUA and they have produced their first album, ìBarefoot at the Altarî.

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With his powerful tune accompaniments and delicate melody playing, it is easy to see why reviewers and audiences agree that “Foley’s guitar playing is nothing short of extraordinary” (Tulsa World).

Growing up in County Durham in the northeast of England, Ged (Gerard) absorbed the area’s rich tradition of folk song and dance music. It was there that he learned to play mandolin and Northumbrian Smallpipes (the bellows-blown bagpipe native to that part of England) and began to develop his extraordinary guitar style. At first he teamed up with singer-songwriter Jez Lowe and toured the British Folk scene. Then came several years with Scotland’s Battlefield Band. He toured with them throughout Europe and North America before returning home to co-found The House Band with Chris Parkinson. This saw the start of a long period of recording and touring which has taken him all over the globe. Alongside his House Band duties, in 1994, Ged was asked to take over the guitarist’s role in Irish “supergroup” Patrick Street with Kevin Burke, Andy Irvine and Jackie Daly. He still plays and records with both bands. In 1999 he formed the duo Foley & Jones with fiddle player Sandy Jones.
Apart from his guitar playing, Ged is also a “strong unaffected singer” with “strong social consciousness and impressive” (The Washington Post). His choice of songs is often unorthodox but always successful. His repertoire includes, for example, traditional songs from his native northeast, distinctive versions of songs by modern writers (such as Elvis Costello and Richard Thompson) and re-worked Irish classics (such as The Rocky Road to Dublin and The Wild Rover). “Foley’s vocal gets it just right”(Folk Roots

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Florence is a native of north Co. Clare's Newquay, just up the road from Bellharbour, home to famed concertina player Chris Droney and the center of an unusually rich tradition of concertina playing in Ireland.  One of Florence's biggest influences would be her father Martin Fahy, a concertina player also, who passed on the tradition and the rhythmic Clare style of playing.  Florence has a strong commitment to playing with a traditional style.  As musician and author Fintan Vallely points out, Florence is among those gifted young players who are helping to sustain the older dialects of Clare music. She's has taught concertina extensively at home in Ireland and in the U.S.

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Len was born in County Antrim to a family steeped in traditional music, song and dance. He has been cultivating the song tradition of his native Ulster throughout his life.

He became a professional singer in 1982. For ten years he was a member of the traditional group 'Skylark'. As a collector, some of his large collection of field recordings has been published by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland in 1993 entitled It's off my Rambles. Len has recorded over 12 albums. Ye Lovers All and Do Me Justice have recently been re-released on the Claddagh label.

He has been the recipient of numerous awards in Ireland and abroad including the 'Seán O'Boyle Cultural Traditions Award' in 1993 and recently the TG4 national music award for 'Traditional Singer of the Year' 2002.

He has been the main source of songs for many of Irelands leading traditional groups and singers including Altan, The Chieftains, De Danann, Dolores Keane, Karen Casey and many others.

He lives in Mullaghbawn with traditional singer Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin.

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An All-Ireland harp champion, Kathleen Guilday studied traditional style and repertoire in Ireland with Noreen O'Donoghue and Máire Ní Chathasaigh. Kathleen has performed at Boston's Symphony Hall with The Chieftains and entertained President and Mrs. Clinton and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern at the White House on St. Patrick's Day 2000. Currently a member of the group Childsplay, Kathleen often appears with fiddle player Laurel Martin. For many years Kathleen taught harp at the Comhaltas Ceoltóiri Éireann music school in Boston and has adjudicated harp competitions at the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest Regional Fleadhanna Ceoil. Kathleen can be heard on fiddler Séamus Connolly's recordings Notes From My Mind and Here and There, with accordion player Joe Burke on The Tailor's Choice, on Laurel Martin’s 2006 CD The Groves, on the Childsplay recordings Heaven and Earth and Waiting for the Dawn, and on the DVD Fiddles, Fiddlers and a Fiddlemaker: Childsplay live at the Somerville Theatre.

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His interest in pipemaking and especially reedmaking was fostered by Matt Kiernan, Dan Dowd as well as  Eugene Lambe, Cillian OBriain and Tom Meehan,with further help from from Daniel Hervé and many many others over the years.  He has a great interest in narrow bore D chanters and hope to do more with these chanter designs in the future.

He has been involved with the reedmaking workshop at the Willie Clancy Summer School since about 1982 and was privileged to get the task of looking after it when NPU Patron Dan O Dowd retired about 1984.  Since then he has fitted and adjusted many reeds both in Miltown Malbay and at various other piping events and been privileged to learn from from so many great reedmakers. He Has also been lucky enough to have helped a number of great pipers along the way, including Louise Mulcahy and Leonard Barry.

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BrÌan ” hAirtís (Brian Hart) anomalous voice stands as a testament to the power of tradition. His ability to share the mindís eye of an older generation of singers has afforded him great acclaim at his young age. He became the youngest and first ever American to win the coveted Sgiath UÌ Dh·laigh shield at the Fleadh Cheoil na h…ireann in Listowel, Co. Kerry in 2002óadding his name to the shieldís long list of noted singers including Joe Heaney, Frank Harte and Paddy Berry.
His dedication to traditional song and more specifically to the sean-nÛs style of singing encouraged him to learn the Irish language to an uncanny fluency and along the way introduced him to the close-knit singing community of the Conamara Gaeltacht where Irish is still the commonly spoken language.
BrÌan has performed extensively in the United States at the Milwaukee Irish Festival, Chicago Celtic Festival, Sean-nÛs Milwaukee and the Traditional Singers Club of the Twin Cities and in Ireland at L· na nAmhr·n, Cruinniu na mB·d, the Ennis Trad Festival and Cuairt na mB‡rd. He has also had the distinction of being a singer to the President of Ireland, Dr. Mary McAleese. His recordings have been featured on many radio programsí in Ireland including CÈilÌ House on RT… and L·n aí Mh·la on RnG as well as on various NPR programsí in the States.
He is likewise a noted instrumentalist of accordion, concertina and whistle and plays with Milwaukee-based group CÈ, and more recently with Chicago-based Gan Bua, both of which Irish Music Magazine has lauded for their distinct talent and innovation in the vein of traditional music.

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Joanie Madden

JOANIE MADDEN is the Grammy Award winning whistle and flute player who has been the leader of Cherish the Ladies since its inception. Born in New York of Irish parents, she is the second oldest of seven children raised in a musical household; her mother Helen, a dancer of traditional sets hails from Miltown Malbay, County Clare and her father Joe, an All-Ireland Champion on the accordion, comes from Portumna in East Galway. Joanie received her musical training early in life listening to her father and his friends play music at family gatherings and social events. She began taking lessons from Jack Coen, and within a few short years she had won both the world Championship on the concert flute and whistle. During that time, Joanie also became the first American to win the coveted Senior All-Ireland Championship on the whistle. She has many awards and citations to her credit including; the youngest member inducted into the Irish-American Musicians Hall of Fame, recipient of the Wild Geese Award, voted one of the Top 100 Irish-Americans in the country and Traditional Musician of the Year, all for her contributions to promoting and preserving Irish culture in America. She is in constant demand as a studio musician and has performed on over a hundred albums running the gamut from Pete Seeger to Sinead O'Connor. Joanie has played on three Grammy award-winning albums and her involvement on the Hearts of Space labelsí ìCeltic Twilightî CD led to a platinum album with over 1,000,000 sales. In the past year she has toured with the Eaglesí Don Henley and was also a featured soloist on the final Lord of the Rings soundtrack. She has recorded three highly successful solo albums; "A Whistle on the Wind", "Song of the Irish Whistle" (named the most successful whistle album in history selling over 280,000 copies) and "Song of the Irish Whistle 2".

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The son of a former big band saxophonist, Keith began his musical life at the age of five with piano lessons.  In junior high and high school, he played clarinet and saxophone in concert and jazz band.  At fourteen, he started playing professionally at country clubs and dance halls with his father and older brother.
After a brief flirtation with rock'n'roll piano in high school, Keith started hugging guitars and quickly became obsessed with traditional music.  At various times throughout the past three decades or so he has played bluegrass, old time, classic country, country blues, all manner of American folk songs, and most recently, traditional Irish music.
The eclectic, improvisational nature of Irish guitar accompaniment allows Keith to synthesize all of his diverse musical influences.  Though he flatpicks and fingerpicks Irish tunes on guitar, his true love is exploring the harmonic and rhythmic complexity—and simplicity—of the tunes as an accompanist.
Learning to play Irish guitar in rural Iowa, Keith had to figure it all out on his own.  He remembers his first steps making the transition from American to Irish style accompaniment (It was while playing “The Star of Munster,” in fact.) As a teacher he will answer such vexing questions as: “What makes Irish guitar playing so much different from American folk styles, both rhythmically and harmonically?” “How do you do those cool moving chords up and down the guitar’s neck?” “Why don’t some tunes seem to be in either major or minor keys, and what are modes all about?” “What are passing chords?”  And, he will teach a collection of techniques your can begin using at your next session.
Keith will teach in standard tuning and also provide an introduction to Dropped D tuning, the most simple and accessible alternate tuning commonly used in Irish music by such greats as Arty McGlynn and John Doyle.
Keith performs in Iowa and Illinois with The Beggarmen (www.beggarmen.com) and Blackthorn Stick.

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John Skelton is one of the leading Irish flute players in North America. He is probably best known to American audiences from his work with The House Band  with whomhe has recorded  7 albums on the Green Linnet label. He has also released a solo album One at a  time.  He was born in London and learned his Irish music in that city before coming to live in the US several years ago
John has performed at all of the major folk festivals in Europe, North America and Australia and has give concerts in over 25 countries.  He is on experienced and highly respected teacher, and has taught at summer schools in North America, Europe, and Africa.
In addition to his background in Irish music, John is also well schooled in the music of Brittany He spends much time here and is a highly regarded player of the Bombarde (the Oboe like instrument of Brittany)- he was recently described as the best bombarde player outside of Brittany' by NPR's "Thistle and Shamrock".  In 1988 he was the guest soloist, playing Bombarde, with the Chicago Metropolitan Orchestra in the North American premiere of Shaun Davey's "Pilgrim Suite'
As well as flute, tin whistle and bombarde, John also plays the ‘Piston’ (Low Bombarde) and the 'Veuze' (Breton Bagpipes).

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Jimmy Morrison is a traditional Irish Uilleann piper from North Co. Cork, recognised for his abilities as a performer, tunesmith and educator. He performs on C? and concert pitch pipes and has been involved with the teaching of the Uilleann pipes and traditional music for over twenty years. Jimmy is in much demand as an educator and frequently attends summer schools as a tutor and performer. His work within his local community has produced a dramatic uptake in the traditional arts and he continually influences younger generations of musicians. He is also a prolific composer, and a number of Jimmy’s tunes have been absorbed in to the mainstream of the tradition. As a performing artist, has toured Ireland & Great Britain with Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann and has also travelled Europe, Hong Kong and the United States as a performing artist. Following his debut release ‘The Piper’s Rest’ in 2002, Jimmy is set to launch his new solo recording ‘All to One Side’ in the spring of 2012. This new album features some of Jimmy’s more recent compositions along with guest appearances from pupils past and present.

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MIRELLA MURRAY grew up in Claddaghduff, near Clifden, on the north west coast of Connemara. Her father John Joe, a notable sean nós dancer, comes from Inishark Island and has a deep understanding of, and love for, traditional music. Mirella learned the piano accordion from Mary Finn, herself a great player from the musical Finn family of Ballymote, Co. Sligo. She met up with fiddler Liz Kane from Letterfrack, and they played and learned a lot of their music together going through the Fleadh Cheoil competitions. They won the All-Ireland duet in 1995, while Mirella gained the title on the piano accordion that same year. The pair performed together for years and toured in France and in North America with Comhaltas. They formed the Hydledoodles, a short-lived band which featured at the Fiddle and Accordion festival in Shetland and returned to the Folk Festival there the following year.
Later Mirella teamed up with the great fiddle player Tola Custy from Co. Clare, since the pair have played all over Ireland and Europe on various tours and festivals. After many year of being coaxed by people they went on to make an album "Three Sunsets" which has received many rave review and was voted top five albums of 2002 by The Irish Times, they were one of the nominee's as 'Best Newcomers' by the Irish Music Magazine in 2003.
Mirella has also toured Austria with the Bumblebees; performed with harper Laoise Kelly at the International Women's Day Festival in Moscow; featured in the Galway Arts Festival 2001,2002 and 2003 with Laoise and young fiddler Michelle O'Brien; toured with various line-ups in Scandinavia, Switzerland, Spain and France; and also recorded with Laoise on the Geantraí Christmas Special 2001, TG4. From September to November 2002 Mirella joined up with the late Johnny Cunningham to perform in the theatrical production, "Peter & Wendy", winner of two OBIE Awards which Johnny composed the music and lyrics for this adaptation of J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan".
Mirella also has a flair for teaching, and it is a credit to her musicianship that twenty of her pupils have gained All-Ireland titles. She has accumulated a vast store of tunes from her travels, and musicians such as Sharon Shannon, Lunasa and the Bumblebees credit her as a source for many uncommon melodies.

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aul Smyth was born and raised in Kilmovee, Co. Mayo, and was involved in many Ceoltóiri Moibhi groups in his younger days. 
He won numerous All-Ireland medals including 3 Fleadh Cheoil in Buncrana in 1974.  Musical influences at that time included Peter Horan, Dermont Grogan and his uncle, Mack Smyth (uncle of fiddler Sean).  More recently, Paul has lived in Killaloe and has played and toured with Michael “Piper” Cooney and Ged Foley.  He has a solo recording – “Up and Away” – from 2003 and is a regular teacher and performer at summer schools and festivals around Ireland.   He is a founding member of Foley’s Woodshed.

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Chris Weddle, Bodhran Instructor/Performer, has been a member of St. Louis Irish Arts for the past 15 years. He now earns the reputation of being the youngest, most experienced, productive Bodhran teacher in the United States. Besides weekly group and private students in St. Louis, he has taught workshops in Arkansas, the Dublin Irish Festival, SE Missouri State University, and Westminster College. He has donated his time as a teacher for Springboard to Learning in St. Louis Public Schools and is returning as an instructor at the Tionol for his third consecutive year. Chris has represented the United States in the Fleadh Cheoil na Eireann eight times, winning Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals in the All Ireland. He has performed in Canada, Ireland, throughout the United States, with the Chieftains, and before the U.S. Congress. He has recorded several CD’s.

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