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TRADITIONAL MUSIC AND DANCE/PERFORMING ARTS
Mary Fox and the All Set Ensemble
Mary Fox is a leading exponent of Northern Irish set, or ceili, dancing; solo step; sean-nós-style dancing to northern tunes (such as “Maggie Pickens”); and two-hand dances, such as the fling. After founding the Belfast Set Dancing & Traditional Music Society and the inter-community All Set Schools Project, she established All Set to promote northern-style music, song, and dance. In 1994, she was recognized for her contributions by a BBC and Belfast Telegraph Entertainment Media Arts Award.
Armagh Pipers Club/Vallely Family
When Eithne and her husband Brian founded the Armagh Pipers Club in 1966, uilleann, or Irish bagpipes, were an endangered musical species. Beginning modestly with weekly lessons for adults and children on a few traditional Irish instruments, the club quickly developed a following. Their innovative community-based program and enormously influential instruction books did much to revive interest in Irish music and traditional culture. The club has trained many of today’s leading Irish musicians. It hosts the annual William Kennedy Piping Festival, and its teaching staff includes some of Ireland’s most talented performers. The Vallely’s children grew up to be mainstays of such renowned Irish traditional bands as Lúnasa, Nomos, and Buille. Two of them join Eithne at the Festival. www.armaghpipers.com
For nearly three decades, the Armagh Rhymers have brought Ireland’s ancient “rhyming” tradition to audiences throughout the world. Rhyming and “mumming” are types of Irish folk drama that date back hundreds and possibly thousands of years. They involve small troupes of masked performers who travel from house to house during the darkest days of winter to perform short skits for luck and prosperity. The Armagh Rhymers maintain and preserve this ancient tradition and share it across community boundaries and generations. www.armaghrhymers.com
Aughakillymaude Community Mummers
The Aughakillymaude Community Mummers are a sixteen-member, cross-community group dedicated to maintaining and reviving ancient mumming traditions in rural County Fermanagh. Like the Rhymers in nearby County Armagh, they go door-to-door performing ancient skits that bring prosperity, good luck, and fun to neighboring households. The group has begun touring internationally and recently opened the Mummers Museum in a repurposed schoolhouse in Aughakillymaude, not far from Derrylin. www.fermanagh.info/aughakillymaude
Craobh Rua
One of Northern Ireland’s most prominent traditional music ensembles, Craobh Rua has numerous international tours and well-received recordings to its credit. The group is a frequent visitor to Washington and has performed at The John F. Kennedy Center and The Smithsonian Associates. The band takes its name from the legendary Red Branch Knights, who figured prominently in the pre-Christian Ulster Cycle legends. www.craobhrua.com
Lucy Muholland and Cuckoo’s Nest
Dance instructors Lucy Mulholland and Lyn Rankin are respected teachers of local Ulster-Scots community dance styles, which are still enjoyed in areas like the Ards Peninsula. They will lead Ulster-Scots dance workshops and dance parties throughout the Festival and will be accompanied by the Cuckoo’s Nest, a trio of experienced instrumentalists led by fiddler Dominic McNabb, an expert on the traditional tunes and fiddle styles of the Glens of Antrim.
A respected singer of traditional songs and ballads, Flynn was born in Drumintee in South Armagh and now lives nearby in Mullaghbawn. While rearing her family, she developed a strong interest in local songs. She recorded some outstanding examples on her album Stray Leaves. She actively promotes local music and is one of the founders of the Slieve Gullion Festival of Traditional Singing.
Four Men and A Dog
This virtuoso ensemble blends traditional Irish music with American bluegrass, country, rap, swing, polka, and international influences to create a unique high-energy sound. One of Northern Ireland’s most prominent ensembles, Four Men has enlivened the international festival and concert scenes since 1990. Their albums Barking Mad and Shifting Gravel are considered classics. In addition to playing with the group, each of the members also has a prominent solo career. www.fourmenandadog.com
Born into an Antrim family steeped in traditional music, song, and dance, Graham is one of the foremost performers and collectors of Ulster music. A recipient of numerous awards and accolades, he uses traditional songs to pass down Ulster’s history to contemporary audiences. A professional singer since 1982, he has been the source of traditional songs for many of Ireland’s leading performers, including Altan, The Chieftains, De Danann, and Dolores Keane. Graham toured many years with the brilliant storyteller John Campbell, who died in 2006. At the Festival, Graham is performing with his new partner, the respected storyteller Jack Lynch. www.storyandsong.com/len.htm
Hidden Fermanagh
Hidden Fermanagh is a loose confederation of more than twenty of County Fermanagh’s best traditional musicians. It takes its name from a recently completed book and CD project that documented local Fermanagh music through performances, interviews, tunes, and songs. Organized by Cyrile Maguire, the group’s Festival membership includes singer Gabriel McArdle; accordionist Jim McGrath; fiddler Patrick McManus; and flutist, singer, and Boys of the Lough band member Cathal McConnell. www.fermanaghmusic.com
Raised in a musical family, uilleann piper Jarlath joined the Armagh Pipers Club at the age of ten. He won the first of three All-Ireland Fleadh competitions at age twelve, and in 2003, just after his eighteenth birthday, he became the first Irish person to win the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Awards. Currently a medical student at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, Jarlath also maintains a busy schedule as an international touring artist and member of several ensembles, including the Jarlath Henerderson/Ross Aislie Band and Glasgow’s Salsa Celtica.
Steeped in the music and history of his community, Holmes has been a folk musician since the 1970s and is the former director of culture at the Ulster-Scots Agency. He has appeared in folk clubs and festivals throughout Britain, Ireland, and North America. The County Down native plays numerous instruments, including banjo, dulcimer, flute, and lambeg and bodhran drums. He is also an active member of the Belfast Harp Orchestra.
One of the great voices of Irish traditional song, Kennedy is also a renowned fife and whistle player, storyteller, and entertainer. His repertoire includes many rare ballads and unusual tunes from his Ulster-Scots community near Lough Neagh. He recently received an MBE from Queen Elizabeth for his contributions to culture in Northern Ireland.
The Low Country Boys
Drawing upon the music of the “mission halls and farms” of the Ards Peninsula on Northern Ireland’s east coast, this quartet plays a combination of old Scots, Ulster-Scots, and “Hillbilly” gospel music. Singing in Ulster-Scots with an infusion of American gospel and bluegrass, their repertoire reflects an important facet of Northern Ireland’s musical heritage—one that is rarely heard by American audiences. www.lowcountryboys.com
Storyteller Lynch is firmly rooted in the Irish seanchaí tradition, as presented in modern times by such great storytellers as Eamon Kelly and John Campbell. He tells a wide range of tales that draw on Ireland’s rich oral tradition, combining folkloric elements with ancient Irish myths and wonder tales. He appears regularly at local and international arts and storytelling festivals and is a founding member of Storytellers of Ireland/Aos Scéal Éireann and the Dublin Yarnspinners
Born in Carricknagavna in South Armagh and now retired to Mullaghbawn, Mick learned many of his stories and songs from his father and neighborhood barn and “flax” dances in the 1940s. A noted author of comic songs and a great raconteur, he is a highly respected Northern Irish storyteller and source of traditional songs.
A member of the famous musical Sands family, Colum is respected for his talents as a performer, songwriter, and CD producer. His BBC Radio Ulster’s Folk Club program and other radio work earned him a Living Tradition Award for services to Folk and Traditional Music. His recent book, Between Earth and the Sky, contains songs, stories, and experiences that reflect his far-flung travels and his hopes for the future. www.columsands.net
An internationally celebrated singer, songwriter, and social activist, Sands is a member of the influential musical family that helped create a worldwide following for Irish music during the 1960s. Author of such classic songs as “There Were Roses,” “Daughters and Sons,” and “Come on Home to the County Down,” his works have been translated into many languages and have been recorded by such artists as Joan Baez, Kathy Matthea, Dolores Keane, Sean Keane, Frank Patterson, Dick Gaughan, and The Dubliners. The Lilliput Press recently published his autobiography, The Songman: A Journey in Music. www.tommysands.com
Session Band
Sessions—informal gatherings of musicians, singers, and storytellers—are the heart of Irish traditional music. Today, sessions usually take place in pubs and public spaces rather than in private houses. They are essential to preserving and transmitting Irish songs, tunes, and music. Although performers of all levels are welcomed to “sit in,” session leaders maintain proper etiquette and customs. We are honored to have several of Northern Ireland’s most prominent session musicians lead an on-going session on the Lough Erne Inn stage.
Indian dancer and community-arts organizer Nisha Tandon arrived in Belfast from India in the late 1970s. For many years, she worked in arts development and community relations at Belfast’s Indian Community Centre and was the driving force behind the Belfast Mela celebrations in 2004 and 2005. She left recently to direct ArtsEkta, a new organization dedicated to bringing “more awareness of the different ethnic minorities living within Northern Ireland.” www.artsekta.org.uk/contact.html
Watt has won the All Ireland Championship as well as every other major solo competition for Highland Bagpipes on the island of Ireland. He began playing at age seven, and as a child, joined the local Tamlaght O’Crilly Pipe Band. In 1998, he was accepted into Belfast’s renowned Field Marshall Montgomery Pipe Band. After several years, he left to pursue a thriving career as a soloist. He has recorded five solo albums and is a sought-after performer and session musician. He is particularly interested in the traditions of Highland pipe bands in Northern Ireland. www.robertwatt.co.uk
Born in Kilkeel, County Down, White is one of the foremost exponents of Ulster song traditions. She studied Irish Gaelic and traditional singing in the Aran Islands with respected source singers, who inherited and maintained their local community and family musical traditions. She is renowned for her own earthy, warm singing style and wide repertoire of songs in both English and Irish. Her cassette, First of My Rambles, has been re-released as a CD.
Snare drumming is an integral part of Northern Ireland pipe band traditions. Award-winning percussionist Mark Wilson and his cousin and student, Lee Lawson, are leading performers and teachers of the intricate drumming styles associated with Scottish and Irish pipe bands. Lawson is also a classically trained percussionist and one of a growing number of women involved in pipe bands.
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