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 … [Read more...] about Randal Bays
2021
Michael Black
Michael Black hails from the foremost family of Irish song, which includes siblings, Mary, Frances, Shay and Martin. He has been playing music and singing songs all his life and though from Dublin, he has lived in Limerick, London before emigrating to the bay area of San Francisco. His repertoire is very broad and includes old Dublin street songs, stories of emigration and history, folk songs from … [Read more...] about Michael Black
Lexie Boatright
Alex Boatright is an award-winning multi-instrumentalist, performer, and teacher known for her effortless musicality and sensitive musicianship on Harp and Concertina. Alex is the Artistic Director of the Baltimore-Washington Academy of Irish Culture, a non-profit that she founded together with Fiddler Mitch Fanning, which provides children in the DMV area with a rich education in traditional … [Read more...] about Lexie Boatright
Seán Cleland
Seán Cleland is an Irish fiddle player, Irish music teacher, adjudicator, collaborator, producer and executive director of the Irish Music School of Chicago, a non-profit traditional Irish music, language, song and dance school, which he founded in 2003.Seán grew up on the North side of Chicago in an Irish-American household. He started classical violin lessons at age 7, and at age 9 his … [Read more...] about Seán Cleland
Kara Doyle
Kara Doyle lives in Schenectady, NY, teaches English at Union College, and plays traditional Irish music on uilleann pipes and whistle. Kara was born in Wisconsin, and spent her youth in California. Moving to the Northeast for graduate school brought her into regular contact with traditional Irish music, and she began to play whistle in 1995. She contracted a severe case of uilleann piping fever … [Read more...] about Kara Doyle
Florence Fahy
Florence Fahy is a native of north Co. Clare’s New Quay, just a short trip up the road from Belharbour, home to famed and late concertina player Chris Droney and the center of an unusually rich tradition of concertina playing in Ireland. Florence was inspired to play the concertina by her father, a great concertina player himself, Martin Fahy. From a young age, Florence remembers her father Martin … [Read more...] about Florence Fahy
Shane Farrell
Shane Farrell started playing Irish traditional music in a family steeped in Irish music at seven years of age. Learning fiddle, banjo, mandolin, and guitar, he went on to be All-Ireland Champion and travel the world sharing his music. Shane is a seasoned international performer, having performed live over 6000 times. Shane now resides in Orlando, Florida where he performs for … [Read more...] about Shane Farrell
Laura Feddersen
Laura Feddersen grew up in a musical family in Bloomington, Indiana. After spending many a night sleeping in the bass case at dances and music parties, at the age of five she took up the fiddle herself, playing for the ceili and square dances in her hometown. Laura has since traveled extensively playing and teaching fiddle, and is well known for her unique and skillful take on Irish, American, and … [Read more...] about Laura Feddersen
Marla Fibish
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. Her playing is featured on her 2020 album The Bright Hollow Fog, the 2017 Noctambule release A Sweetish Tune, and The Morning Star, a duo CD with legendary Irish singer and bouzouki player Jimmy Crowley, as … [Read more...] about Marla Fibish
Seán Gavin
Uilleann piper and flute player, Seán Gavin, is one of the most highly regarded Irish musicians of his generation. In 2016 he became the first and only musician born outside Ireland to win the prestigious Seán Ó Riadagold medal, and his most recent recording, a collaboration with fiddler Jesse Smith, accompanist John Blake, and bodhran player Johnny “Ringo” McDonagh, was hailed … [Read more...] about Seán Gavin