39th Annual Philadelphia Ceili Group
Traditional Irish Music and Dance Festival
September 12th, 13th and 14th, 2013
THURSDAY, SEPTEMER 12TH 8:00 PM
Singer’s Night, hosted by Gerry Timlin celebrating the tradition of Irish Singers, come and hear the best Irish traditional singers in the Delaware Valley and beyond.
F R I D A Y, SEPTEMBER 13TH 8:00 pm
The Irish Center will have music and dancing rattling the rafters with a Ceili/Set Dance with Kevin McGillian and Friends, and a Rambling House in the Fireside Room hosted by Gabriel Donohue.
S A T U R D A Y, SEPTEMBER 14TH
All day music starting at 11:00 am in the Fireside room with live music kicking off a day full of a hands-on workshops (including various instruments at beginner and advanced levels, genealogy, Irish singing, and much more,) Evening concert at 7:00pm. There will be food, Irish product vendors, children’s activities, dance demonstrations and much more.
Enjoy hands-on workshops with some of the leading Irish Traditional Musicians of today listed below. The two hour, semi-private lessons provide an optimal way to learn from some of the best in Irish music in an intimate and comfortable environment. Students are encouraged to ask questions, bring tape recorders and be prepared to learn tunes and techniques to improve their individual skill level. Workshops are offered in guitar, accordion, fiddle, pipes, flute, banjo, bodhran, and Irish singing; taught by some of the performers of this year's Festival.Workshops are Free to current PCG members (membership available online and at the door) and students, with paid admission to the Festival on Saturday. Also available are free workshops and lectures in Irish language, children's storytelling, genealogy, all taught by local experts!
Download PCGFestWorkshopSchedule-2013.pdf (255.1K)
Scroll Down for Information on Performers and Workshop Presenters in Alpha order. (subject to change and additions)
Siobhan Butler (Atlantic Wave - Saturday night performer, Sean Nos dance workshop)
New York based Irish dancer Siobhán Butler is an acclaimed performer and teacher who has been featured on many platforms including the Nationally televised station TG4 in Ireland and the prestigious Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. Siobhán has performed and collaborated with many of the leading traditional artists including, but not limited to, Tony DeMarco, Cherish the Ladies, Nic Gareiss, Kevin Burke, Kieran Jordan, and Patrick Ourceau. With over 15 years of dance experience, Siobhán’s dance style is a well balanced mix of musicality, grace, and delight. Her approach to dance is to honor the traditional relationship between dance and music while adding her own modern flourishes. Read More
Click here to register for Siobhan's Sean nos dancing workshop:
https://secure.blueoctane.net/forms/GV1MZV0VQ6TI
Donie Carroll - Atlantic Wave (Saturday night performer - Irish Singing Workshop)
A musician, singer, actor, businessman, philanthropist and golfer,
Donie Carroll
is famous on both sides of the Atlantic. He began his musical career in Cork City, Ireland, during the great ballad boom of the 1960s. One of Donie's first regular gigs was playing for thirty bob a night in Bridgie Halloran’s pub in Ballygarvan in the company of Liam Beale and big bearded Tom Moore. The fee, of course, was for three musicians with a few pints thrown in. Bridgie’s was to become a great launching pad for young balladeers, and as the scene got stronger he found himself meeting and learning from other musicians.
Click here and scroll down to read moreClick here to register for Donie's Irish dancing workshop:
https://secure.blueoctane.net/forms/GV1MZV0VQ6TI
The Cummins School of Irish Dance (performing Saturday)
At the Cummins School, we are dedicated to continuing the wonderful tradition of dance in the Irish Culture. Our mission is to promote self confidence, poise, teamwork, dedication, and perseverance in our dancers, and encourage our dancers to reach their personal best. We pride ourselves in having a wonderful spirit within our school, and hope that this contagious spirit creates lasting friendships for our Cummins School families. We are proud to call the Commodore Barry club, also known as the Irish Center, our home, where our families are not just immersed in Irish Dancing, but all aspects of the Irish Culture.
Tony DeMarco - Atlantic Wave (Saturday night performer - Fiddle workshop)
Tony DeMarco was born on May 20, 1955, the second of three children raised in East Flatbush by Paul DeMarco and his wife, the former Patricia Dempsey. Paul, a grandson of Italian immigrants, was a teenage lightweight boxing star who turned down an offer to turn pro and work with lightweight champ Paddy “Billygoat” DeMarco in order to pursue a more conventional career on Wall Street. Tony’s maternal grandfather Jimmy Dempsey was a New York City cop and a son of Irish immigrants who married Philomena “Minnie” Fenimore, one of several Italian-American siblings who married into Brooklyn Irish families. Musical ability runs on both sides of Tony’s family. Read More
Click here to register for Tony's Fiddle workshop:
https://secure.blueoctane.net/forms/GV1MZV0VQ6TI
Gabriel Donohue (Host Friday night Rambling House)
Gabriel was born in Athenry, a walled medieval town in County Galway founded by Meyler De Bermingham in the 12th Century AD. Small wonder his music is filled with a strong sense of history. Add to this his love of storytelling through song which belongs to another time and place. By age fourteen he was a member of the Leitrim Ramblers Ceili Band. Many summers were spent in the Connemara Gaeltacht where he played with such local legends as Tomas Mc Keown and Tony Molloy. He then joined a showband called Magic which had numerous Top-Ten hits in Ireland. Here he got a taste of the entertainment side of music and appeared on Irish Television. America was calling and a kind Uncle and Aunt in Darien, Connecticut, made the young lad welcome. Thus began what was to be a great love affair with New York City. Here he sought out traditional music legends like Andy McGann and Johnny Cronin and saw the sun come up on Second Avenue most Sunday mornings as the reels and jigs, as well as the occasional song, flowed. In New York he studied fingerstyle guitar, musical theater and voice and honed his skills as a music producer, eventually opening his own studio called Cove Island Productions. Construction was completed by accordionist/carpenter John Whelan. He has embraced many of the new developments in non-linear digital recording and editing while also utilizing vintage tube gear. He was for a time a part of the ensemble of Riverdance star Michael Flatley, with whom he shared an love of Flamenco which became part of the stage show. He spent many Summers in Cape May, New Jersey, and performed regularly at the South Street Seaport in NYC and started a group called Jigsaw with musical friends Eileen Ivers and Joanie Madden. In 1995 Eileen and Gabe, along with Joe Derrane and Felix Dolan, performed at the White House to celebrate the historic Good Friday Accord. In the audience were Irish Prime Minister John Bruton, Gerry Adams and Nobel Peace Prize winner John Hume. In 1999 he began to tour with Irish music legends The Chieftains and added guitar piano and voice to their live performances in Spain, France, Norway, Denmark, Italy, UK and many tours of the USA. He has performed five times at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
To celebrate the new Millennium he boarded a ship in Terra del Fuego, Argentina, that would take an intrepid group of explorers to Antarctica. Inside a Volcano called Deception Island on New Years Eve he shared the ship’s stage with Art Garfunkel, Dan Akroyd, Diana Krall, Natalie McMaster, and The Chieftains as they became the House band for New Year’s revelries. In the audience was F.W. DeClerk, Robert Kennedy Jr. and a thousand of America’s top CEO’s. Now Gabriel is busy performing nationwide as well as producing, engineering and mastering cds at his studio in Hawthorne NJ.
Sean Earnest - Atlantic Wave (Saturday night performer - Guitar/Bouzouki Workshop)
Click here to register for Sean's Guitar/Bouzouki workshop:
Basha Gardner (workshop presenter - Irish Fairytales for Children)
Basha Gardner holds a Master’s Degree in Theatre
from Rowan University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Theatre from Temple University. She worked for eight years as an artist in residence for the Shoestring Players travelling throughout New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania working with children from preschool to high school on acting, improvisation,playwriting and public speaking. She worked for seven years as an Adjunct Professor at Rowan University teaching theatre and acting, and has worked as an actress in Philadelphia and New Jersey including Walnut Street Theatre, Society Hill Playhouse and Allens Lane Theatre. She also does voice-over work for local and national commercials. Basha has directed plays for children and adults at area theatres including her own works.
Click here to register for Basha's workshop:
https://secure.blueoctane.net/forms/GV1MZV0VQ6TI
Dave Hanson - (Saturday performer & Bodhran workshop presenter)
Dave studied the baroque recorder in the Netherlands for 5 years before stumbling across the world of Irish traditional music and the playing of such bodhran greats as Colm Murphy & Johnny McDonagh. While taking his kids to fiddle, accordion, and flute lessons in the 90's, he decided to get in on the fun and learn to play the bodhran he'd stowed away in his closet many years before. In the last 15 years he's played at sessions, festivals, gigs & fleadhs up & down the east coast and in Ireland. Dave teaches the recorder and the bodhran in the Philadelphia area.Click here to register for Dave's Bodhran workshop:
https://secure.blueoctane.net/forms/GV1MZV0VQ6TI
Terry Kane (Thursday night performer - singer)
Terry Kane grew up in a musical family with their roots in Co.Clare and Co. Kerry. She was singing before she could walk and began music lessons at a young age. She received many singing awards and continued to study music in college, culminating in a Master of Music degree from Crane School of Music in Potsdam, NY. Terry has taught music in public school and privately for 30 years. In 1983 she began performing traditional Irish music with her brother Patrick, singing and playing guitar and mandolin. Terry has been studying the Irish language and sean nós singing with native speakers both in the U.S. and in Ireland from singers like Áine Meenaghan and Seamas MacMathuna. She has won the Mid-Atlantic Fleadh Cheoil 4 times and has appeared on Irish Radio (Radio na Gaeltachta) and Irish Television (TG4). Recordings of traditional Irish songs and dance music include “Treasa Ní Chatháin-Some Sean Nós,” and “Trad Linn-Roads of Clare” Last year she released a new CD with harpist Ellen Tepper titled “The Jameson Sisters-Neat!” which has a mixture of songs in English and Irish Gaelic Visit her website at www.treasa.net to hear some of her music and to find translations for many Gaelic songs.
Pariac Keane (Saturday performer)
Nuala Kennedy (Saturday night performer)
Nuala Kennedy is an Irish singer and flute player with hauntingly beautiful vocals, adventurous instrumentation, and an imaginative mix of influences. Kennedy’s singing and flute playing springs from the traditional music of Ireland and Scotland, and from the fathomless realms of her own imagination. A consummate performer with a buoyant personality, her music has been described as unique, evocative, and soul-satisfying. Nuala grew up in Dundalk, Co. Louth, on the East coast of Ireland; a musical area which is steeped in mythology and has long historical links with Scotland. She started to play traditional music at the age of seven when her father introduced her to her first whistle teacher. Nuala instantly fell in love with the music and started learning traditional tunes as quickly as she could. By the age of twelve she graduated to wooden flute and became a member of a local ceilidh band ‘Ceoltoiri Oga Oghrialla’. At the age of eighteen, Nuala moved to Scotland to study at Edinburgh College Of Art. She was immediately captivated by the vital traditional music session scene, and there made many friends, including fellow Irish expatriate Cathal McConnell, whose music has had a huge influence on her, and who has become something of a mentor to her over the years. It was in Edinburgh that Nualas passion for traditional music was further strengthened and where she honed her instrumental skills. The result was a comprehensive repertoire of Scottish tunes, as well as Irish, and led to the formation of her first real band, the trio Fine Friday, alongside guitarist Kris Drever and fiddler Anna-Wendy Stevenson. The trio toured widely in Europe, Canada and Australia, before disbanding in 2006, and released two critically acclaimed albums; ˜Gone Dancing and ˜Mowing the Machair. At the same time Nuala’s on-going interest in Scottish Gaelic song was beginning to come to the fore, adding to her already large repertoire of Irish songs. In 2007 she decided to deepen her knowledge of Scots Gaelic and moved to Inverness in the Highlands to undertake a year of intensive study. The combination of the best influences of the two cultures, Scotland and Ireland, is what has made Nuala the artist she is today. In 2007 Nuala decided that her vision and interpretation of traditional music deserved her own band and she released a solo CD ˜The New Shoes. Again the reviewers were captivated: ‘The New Shoes’ was voted traditional album of the week by The Irish Times, featured in BBC Scotland’s top albums of 2008 and traditional highlight of the year by Hotpress Music Magazine. That began an intense cycle of touring, and Nuala began taking her music abroad to audiences all over Europe and the USA. It also stimulated her creative powers and a lot of her own compositional work began at this point. At this time she was invited to write a piece for Glasgow’s Celtic Connections International festival, a piece she will revisit in January 2012. She put together an hour long show featuring nine players from around the world. It received a rapturous response from the audience and press: Amongst others she has performed and recorded with American hipster and indie-poet Will Oldham, an album which received 5 stars from MOJO magazine, and cutting-edge Canadian composer Oliver Schroer, with whom she recorded ˜Enthralled a duo album of entirely original compositions to be released in January 2012 on Borealis Records. She occasionally performs with ECMA award winners Troy MacGillivray, Kimberley Fraser and Andrea Beaton. Nuala is also part of the traditional Irish group OIRIALLA: performing the music and song of her native South-East Ulster, which features Irish traditional music legends Gerry ˜fiddle OConnor, accordionist Martin Quinn and the acclaimed Breton guitarist Gilles le Bigot. Nuala decided to continue her interest in education and further her knowledge of the tradition by undertaking a Masters Degree in Music Performance and Composition, which she completed with distinction from Newcastle University in 2011. The result of this was an even deeper understanding of, and commitment to traditional music, which is evident in the powerful and passionate performances she currently gives, wherever she is on tour.McDermott's Handy - (Saturday Performers)
Kathy DeAngelo and Dennis Gormley are the husband-wife duo who have been performing traditional Irish music together in the Delaware Valley (South Jersey/Philadelphia region) as McDermott’s Handy since 1979. These talented multi-instrumentalists put on a super concert and combine their strong vocals and equally strong backing accompaniment with a commanding stage presence that comes from hundreds of performances in front of all kinds of audiences.
With a huge repertoire they’ve built over 35 years of playing traditional music, they sing in Irish and English. Kathy mainly plays harp and fiddle and occasionally adds 5-string banjo and bodhran. Dennis plays guitar, flute and tinwhistle and can be counted on to add in mandolin or bouzouki when the arrangement requires.
Click here to register for Dennis' tin whistle workshop:
https://secure.blueoctane.net/forms/GV1MZV0VQ6TI
Janet McShain (Irish Caligraphy Workshop)
Click here to register for Janet's Caligraphy workshop:
https://secure.blueoctane.net/forms/GV1MZV0VQ6TI
Kenneth Milano (Saturday Lecture on The Philadelphia Nativist Riots: Irish Kensington Erupts)
Kenneth W. Milano is a historical & genealogical researcher with over twenty years experience in the history of Philadelphia’s neighborhoods of Fishtown and Kensington, as well as the metropolitan area of Philadelphia. He was born and raised in Kensington and still lives in that section of Philadelphia, where his mother’s German ancestors first arrived from Unterleichtersbach, Bavaria, in the early 1840’s. His family has been in Kensington for over 165 years.
Ken is a graduate of Temple University, where he graduated from the History Department, having specialized in American History with a concentration in local Philadelphia history. Ken received a Bachelor’s Degree in 1995, graduating “cum laude.” He studied under the direction of Professors Howard Ohline (Revolutionary America and Early Republic), Professor Herbert J. Ershkowitz (Jacksonian America), and under the social historian Professor Allen F. Davis. Before attending Temple University, Ken served a four-year apprenticeship as a Marine Painter, at the old Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, where he worked on the Service Life Extension Program (S.L.E.P.), helping to restore aircraft carriers for the United States Navy.
In the mid 1990’s, Mr. Milano, along with Rich Remer and Torben Jenk, helped to found the Kensington History Project, a community based historical group that researches, lectures, and publishes on the history of Kensington and Fishtown. Ken has been an event speaker on numerous local historical topics for Kensington and Fishtown history. He has spoken at the University of Pennsylvania, Community College of Philadelphia, and for the Free Library of Philadelphia, as well as to local public schools and community organizations. In 2008, Ken was elected to the Board of Directors for the Pennsylvania Genealogical Society for the term of 2008-2010. Ken served as the chairman of the Volunteer Committee and the Nominating Committee. In 2003, Ken was inducted into the Philadelphia Archdiocese’s Northeast Catholic High School Alumni Hall of Fame, for the fields of Arts/Education/Entertainment. He was also made an honorary member of APT (Association of Philadelphia Tourguides).
The talk will be on the following book, which will be for sale at the Festival:
The Philadelphia Nativist Riots: Irish Kensington Erupts. Illustated with pictures & maps especially made for this publication (birds-eye views) by Torben Jenk.
From the cover of the book:
"By May 6th, 1844, the situation between the newly arrived Irish Catholics and members of the anti-immigrant Nativist Party took an explosive violent turn. When the Irish asked to have their children excused from reading the Protestant version of the Bible in local public schools, the Nativists held a protest. The Irish pushed back. For three days riots scorched the streets of Kensington. Though the immigrants first had the upper hand, the Nativists soon put the community to the torch. Those who fled were shot. Two Catholic churches were burnt to the ground, along with several blocks of houses, stores, a nunnery and a Catholic school. Local historian Kenneth W. Milano traces this tumultuous history from the preceding hostilities through the bloody skimishes and finally to the aftermath of arrests and trials. Discover a remarkably intimate and compelling view of the riots with stories of individuals on both sides of the conflict that rocked Kensington.
Click here to register for Ken's lecture:
https://secure.blueoctane.net/forms/GV1MZV0VQ6TI
Leo Mohan (Irish Language Workshop)
Click here to register for Leo's Irish Language workshop:
https://secure.blueoctane.net/forms/GV1MZV0VQ6TI
Lori Lander Murphy - Geneology Workshops
Lori Lander Murphy’s interest in her family history
began in childhood, when she would listen to her grandmother recount stories that had been passed down through the years...including tales of a great-great grandfather who had supposedly fought for both the North and the South during the Civil War, and a great-great-great uncle who had ridden with southern folk hero John Mosby and his Rangers. She became the family repository for old photos, letters and keepsakes. It wasn’t until 2000, after she’d received her masters degree in library science, with a specialization in archival studies, that she began the serious pursuit of researching her family’s legacy. Days spent poring over old record books in Virginia courthouses, as well as DNA tests donated by a male cousin, allowed her to trace her Riley family back to Maolmordha “Miles” Riley who arrived in Virginia from County Cavan in 1634. Since 2008, she’s become active in the Irish community here in Philadelphia, and in 2009 became the third partner and writer for www.irishphiladelphia.com alongside Denise Foley and Jeff Meade.
Joanie Madden (special guest Friday night Rambling House)
Joanie Madden is the 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 amassed a plethora of awards and citations to her credit including; the youngest member inducted into both the Irish-American Musicians Hall of Fame and the Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Hall of Fame, recipient of the Wild Geese Award, voted twice as one of the Top 100 Irish-Americans in the United States and named Traditional Musician of the Year, all for her contributions to promoting and preserving Irish culture in America. In 2010, Joanie was forever immortalized on the streets of her native Bronx when she had a street named after her on the Grand Concourse; "Joanie Madden and Cherish the Ladies" and in 2011, she was bestowed one of the nations highest awards as she was chosen for the Ellis Island Medal of Honor where she joins an illustrious list of distinguished American citizens including six United State Presidents, Ambassadors, Senators, Congressman and Supreme Court judges all singled out for their exemplary service to the United States. Joanie 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 labels’ “Celtic Twilight CD led to a platinum album with over 1,000,000 sales. In the past year she has toured with the Eagles Don Henley and was also a featured soloist on the final Lord of the Rings soundtrack. In addition to her musical virtuosity, she is a gifted composer. Many of her compositions are basic session tunes known throughout the world in traditional music circles and have been recorded by some of Irelands' leading musicians. She is equally loved for her outgoing personality and her stage persona and has been heralded by critics around the globe for her role as front woman for Cherish the Ladies. Noted folklorist, musician and scholar Dr. Mick Moloney calls Joanie "a character - one of the greatest you could meet in a long days travel" and presented her with the title the "First lady of Irish Music". She is the top selling whistle player in history having sold over 500,000 solo albums. In addition to the fifteen albums Joanie has recorded, arranged and produced for Cherish the Ladies, she has also released collaborative acclaimed albums with the group "Pride of New York" a duet album with her father Joe Madden, "A Galway Afternoon" and three highly successful solo albums; "A Whistle on the Wind", "Song of the Irish Whistle" and "Song of the Irish Whistle 2".
Mary Kay Mann (Thursday night performer - singer)
Mary Kay Mann performs beautiful music on Celtic harp and voice, with an occasional mixture of haunting Irish flute and lively whistle tunes. She has appeared at festivals, concert series, and private events throughout the East Coast, as a soloist or with bands, and has released 4 CDs of Celtic music. In 2012, she won 1st place in Irish Slow Airs for Celtic harp at the Mid-Atlantic Fleadh and 3rd place in the All-Ireland Fleadh. She is currently writing a new slow air for harp, based on her Ireland fleadh experience, called "Lament for the Rental Car in Cavan."
McGillian's & Friends Ceili Band (Friday night performer)
Kevin McGillian is father to Jimmy and John and along with his wife Mary, is responsible for introducing and nurturing the love for and skill in Irish music in his family. Kevin began playing the button accordion at the age of 12 in Legfor Drum, Co. Tyrone. He is self-taught and he credits two accordion players from Co. Tyrone; Edward McNamee and Robert Finley, as early influences. Kevin came to Philadelphia in 1954, was honored in 2001 when he was inducted into the Comhaltas Hall of Fame along with Andy McGann. Jimmy McGillian play banjo and bass (but not at the same time), Like his father, Jimmy knows how to please the dancers at local ceilis and set dances – he is fine dancer as well. Without the McGillians, Philadelphia’s sessuins and ceilis would not have the lift and spirit so often provided by these fine musicians. John McGillian’s first musical influences were his own parents, Mary Boyce from Milford, Co. Donegal, and Kevin McGillian, who started John on a button accordion at the age of six. In the early days, John’s mother would often lilt the tunes to him in their kitchen, while Kevin pointed out the rudiments of musical notation. For John, John McGroary (a player with Blackthorn) remains a tremendous musical influence. Over the years, John has played in a series of Irish bands that performed ballads and dance tunes. John plays accordion with a spirit and lift that belies his age, and he clearly has what fellow musicians fondly refer to as “big ears” – that is, he can hear the nuances of a tune and play them with panache and originality, while remaining true to the roots of the music. Rounding out the Ceili band is Judy Brennan, locally renowned keyboard artist extraordinaire!
Martin O'Connell - Atlantic Wave (Saturday Night Performer - Accordion Workshop)
Martin O'Connell is from Kerry, Ireland and currently resides in New York. He is a button accordion player but also a producer and music director of a variety of stage shows, including his most recent show, Rhythms of Ireland. He has achieved numerous All-Ireland titles, including Senior All Ireland Accordion Competition in August 2012 in Cavan, and has recorded and performed with renowned Irish musicians and bands. Most recently, he collaborated with Eimear Quinn (former Eurovision winner) for a series of concerts and has also worked with Michael English just to name a few. Click here and scroll down to read more
Click here to register for Martin's Accordion workshop:
https://secure.blueoctane.net/forms/GV1MZV0VQ6TI
Eamon O'Leary (Saturday night Performer)
Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, Eamon has lived in New York City for the last twenty years, and is considered one of the premier Irish musicians of his generation. He has toured extensively throughout Europe and North America, performing with many of Irish music's greatest players, including Paddy Keenan, Mick Moloney, Tommy Peoples, Martin Hayes, Kevin Burke, and James Keane, and has recorded with singer Susan McKeown and flute player Emer Mayock. His skills as a “backing” guitarist and bouzouki player have earned him kudos from his peers, often being compared to fellow guitar greats Dennis Cahill and John Doyle.
Eamon has taught at numerous music programs in the USA and abroad including the Swannanoa Gathering, Augusta Heritage Center, the Catskills Irish Arts Week, and the Alaska Irish Music Camp. In 2004, he and Patrick Ourceau released the acclaimed recording, 'Live at Mona's', documenting their many years hosting a Monday night music session on New York's Lower East Side. As “The Murphy Beds”, he and American balladeer and songwriter Jefferson Hamer recently released an album of traditional songs that has garnered attention amongst traditional musicians everywhere.
The Next Generation (Saturday performer)
Every month during the school year on the second Sunday of the month, young musicians in the Delaware Valley get together at the Irish Center in Philadelphia from 1-3pm to learn a new tune and to have an Irish seisiún (or session) with their peers. They also perform at the annual Irish-American Children’s Festival at the Garden State Discovery Museum and have performed at the Comhaltas Ceoltoíiri Éireann convention, the New Jersey Folk Festival and the Philadelphia Ceili Group’s Festival of Traditional Irish Music and Dance. Many of the musicians at the festival today have competed and placed in the Mid-Atlantic Fleadh Cheoil and gone on to represent the United States in the All-Ireland Competition,
Tom O'Malley (Saturday performer)
Paddy O'Neil (Saturday performer)
The Philadelphia Ceili Band (Saturday performers)
John P. Kelly was born in
Sligo, Ireland. John loved the Irish music and played it from when he was
a child learning from his Uncle. He was open and giving to anyone who
wanted to learn our tradition. He led the music for the Philadelphia
Ceili Group’s Friday night ceilis from the mid 70’s until he died in 1990.
John’s gift for passing his music on is
truly one of the foundations of today’s Philadelphia’s Irish music tradition.
The John Kelly Session performed by The Philadelphia Ceili Band consists of tunes from his repertoire and anecdotes about John by musicians who have learned from him and play in his tradition. Our emphasis is on ceili dance tunes played for the Philadelphia Ceili Group Friday night Ceilis such as The 3 Tunes, Sweets of May, High Caul Cap, Humors of Bandon, Siege of Carrick, Haymakers’ Jig, Walls of Limerick, etc. as well as jigs, hornpipes, waltzes, highlands and reels that John favored.
Our goal is to pay proper and deserved homage to one of the seminal figures of Irish music and culture in Philadelphia.
Musicians: Tom Kelly, Chris Carpenter, Danny Flynn, Tom Cahill, John Donnelly, Ed Clark, Tom Gittleman, Marian Gittleman, Mike Albrecht and Kitty Kelly, Music Director.
John Shields and Cass Tinney (Host of the Friday night Ceili Dance)
John and Cass began Irish dancing during the 1980’s with the Timoney Irish Dancers, learning both ceili and step dancing. They performed in shows and competed in feis’. Later, they began learning The Sets with the Shanagolden Set Dancers. A few years later they began their own set dancing class (Circle of Friends) at the Irish Center, concentrating on beginners. Their classes have increased and continued for 6 years. On any given Wednesday night you will find 3 or 4 lively, fun, groups dancing with John’s voice shouting instructions above the music.
Gerry Timlin (Thursday night performer - singer)
A great favorite in the USA and Canada, this Pennsylvania based singer has enjoyed success all over the world. He was born in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, where he developed an early interest in traditional Irish music and in folk music. From the beginning, Gerry displayed a musical talent. He moved to the USA in the early seventies, and has been delighting audiences with his smooth baritone voice and his irreverent humor ever since.
Matt Ward (Thursday night performer - singer)
Growing up, there was Irish music in the Ward house. Matt’s father was a fine singer who sang the old sentimental ballads. His mother didn’t sing as well but she somehow seemed to know a song about every village in Ireland! Matt considers himself lucky to have seen many of the great Irish singers in concert. He was always that loyal audience member who was willing to sing the chorus or harmony when instructed to do so. Although he has performed a bit over the years, he’d rather be in somebody’s kitchen swapping songs and telling stories about the great characters in traditional Irish music. Matt was a big fan of Frank Malley and respected the fact that he fought so hard for the inclusion of singers and songs.