O'Flaherty Irish Music Retreat

Teaching Traditional Irish Music

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Enrichment Class Instructors

Our Enrichment Classes are taught by students, former and current instructors and invited guests who have knowledge on topics related to Irish music including music history, heritage and culture that are featured at the O’Flaherty Retreat. Our Enrichment Classes serve to provide a context for Irish music as we strengthen our ties to this tradition. See ENRICHMENT for descriptions and SCHEDULE for the times and days of these events.  Here are our Enrichment Class instructors for this year:

Alison Baker

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Flutist, Alison Baker, received her early music education at the Eastman School of Music - Preparatory Division while growing up in Western New York. Although a classical flutist by training, her passion for world music has taken her to the far reaches of the earth. Outside of traditional Irish music, she has studied nagauta music in Tokyo, Japan, and rumba percussion in Havana, Cuba. Closer to … [Read more...] about Alison Baker

Alison
Baker

Enrichment Class Presenter – New York in the Eighties: Irish Music at the Eagle

Angela Botzer

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A Washington, DC native, Angela Botzer has played traditional Irish music on the fiddle in the Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia area since the early 1980’s. She was a member of the DC-based bands Sodabread, and The Hedgerows, and has played for numerous ceilis and contradances. Angela has also had performances at the Irish Embassy in Washington, DC. When living in Oklahoma City, OK, she … [Read more...] about Angela Botzer

Angela
Botzer

Enrichment Class Presenter – Sí Beag Sí Mór and More: The Music of Turlough O’Carolan and Other Irish Bardic Musicians  |  Slow Session Leader

Colm Broderick

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Colm is an award winning piper from Carlow in Ireland. He began playing the whistle at an early age and progressed onto the uilleann pipes, learning from many of Ireland’s foremost pipers.  He was selected by Na Píobairi Uilleann as the inheritor of Liam O’Flynn’s pipes, on Liam's death in 2018. He is tasked with playing and taking care of this instrument, while carrying on the legacy of its … [Read more...] about Colm Broderick

Colm
Broderick

Instructor – Uilleann Pipes  |  Enrichment Class – The Music of Liam O’Flynn

2023

Matt Cranitch

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Matt Cranitch is renowned as a fiddle-player and teacher, both at home in Ireland and abroad. He has performed extensively at concerts and festivals, on radio and television, and has presented lectures, master-classes and workshops on various aspects of Irish music. He has won All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil titles, as well as The Fiddler of Dooney and Oireachtas Crotty Cup. Author of The Irish … [Read more...] about Matt Cranitch

Matt
Cranitch

Instructor – Advanced Fiddle  |  Enrichment Class – Metrical Crossover in Irish Traditional Music

2007, 2008, 2012, 2023

Dave Curley

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Dave Curley is a multi-instrumentalist , singer and songwriter from Co. Galway Ireland. He regularly performs with a number of music ensembles in North America including One for the Foxes, SLIDE, The Crannua Collective, fiddler Finn Magill, the Ashley Davis Band, and with fiddler Colin Farrell. The One for the Foxes album Take A Look Around received Album of the Year from the American Celtic … [Read more...] about Dave Curley

Dave
Curley

Instructor – Mandolin  |  Enrichment Class – A Closer Look at Planxty’s “After the Break”

2012, 2019, 2021, 2023

Cormac De Barra

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Cormac De Barra is a harper and television presenter and comes from a family of traditional Irish musicians and singers. He is the third generation of harper in the family and first studied with his grandmother, Róisín Ní Shé, in Dublin. He went on to study concert harp in the USA. As a traditional harper, Cormac has recorded and toured with his brothers Fionán and Éamonn in the family group … [Read more...] about Cormac De Barra

Cormac
De Barra

Instructor – Harp  |  Enrichment Class – The Irish Harp Revival of the Early-Mid 20th Century

2014, 2023

Colin Farrell

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Colin Farrell, whose parents are from Co. Galway and Co. Cavan, was born in Manchester, England, into a musical family. Colin started playing the fiddle and tin whistle from an early age and has made a name for himself performing and recording with an array of great musicians in Europe and the U.S., including Flook, Grada, Karen Casey, John Doyle, The Elders, Julie Fowlis, Tim … [Read more...] about Colin Farrell

Colin
Farrell

Instructor – Whistle  |  Enrichment Class – A Closer Look at Planxty’s “After the Break”

2016, 2019, 2023

Oisin McAuley

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Oisin McAuley was raised in Carrick, County Donegal an area in rural North Western Ireland renowned as having one of the finest fiddle traditions of the 21st century. Later living in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, he learned from Ben Lennon, Seamus Sweeney and others before going on to study music at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland and began performing with a number of bands including … [Read more...] about Oisin McAuley

Oisin
McAuley

Instructor – Intermediate Fiddle  |  Enrichment Class – Variations – Improvisation in Irish traditional Music

2012, 2023

Rebecca McGowan

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From Boston, Rebecca McGowan performs, choreographs, and teaches traditional and sean-nós Irish dance. Drawing on the musicality of older-style step dance and the joy of social dance traditions, Rebecca is interested in exploring dance as music and making Irish dance lyrical and approachable. She performs and has been on the faculty of the Catskills Irish Arts Week, Acadia Trad Festival, and CCE … [Read more...] about Rebecca McGowan

Rebecca
McGowan

Instructor – Sean-Nós Dancing  |  Enrichment Class – Less Common Meters

2023

Louise Mulcahy

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Born in Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick, Louise is a well-established performer and tutor on both flute and uilleann pipes. Louise has travelled extensively in both capacities, as both performer and teacher of the tradition, appearing at some of the biggest national and international music festivals throughout Asia, New Zealand, Australia, Europe, America and Canada. Louise released her highly … [Read more...] about Louise Mulcahy

Lousie
Mulcahy

Instructor – Flute  |  Enrichment Class – A Celebration of Women in Uilleann Piping 1800s-1900s

2011, 2023

Testimonials

Former Student

Without parallel!  Never been to anything like this before that was as intense, well-organized and personalized.

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