Joanie Madden

Joanie Madden is considered one of the greatest musicians and personalities in the history of Irish music in America. An All-Ireland champion whistle and flute player, she is the top selling whistle player in history with 500,000 albums sold through the success of her “Song of the Irish Whistle” series. She is a prolific artist performing on 200 recordings including three Grammy Award winning albums with such luminaries as Pete Seeger, Sinead O’Connor, Vince Gill and the Boston Pops.

Joanie has amassed a plethora of awards and citations to her credit including named Irish America Magazine’s Top 100 Irish Americans, chosen Traditional Musician of the Year by the Irish Voice newspaper and immortalized on the streets of her native Bronx with a street named after her, “Joanie Madden and Cherish the Ladies”. She was bestowed one of the nation’s highest awards as she was chosen for the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and also a recipient of the esteemed USA Artist Fellowship grant, singled out as one of the most innovative and influential artists in America. The Irish Music Awards presented her with a Lifetime Achievement and Irish America Magazine named her one of the Top 50 Most Powerful Irish Women in the world. Most recently, Irish American Writers and Artists chose her for the prestigious Eugene O’Neill Lifetime Achievement Award.

For the past 35 years Joanie has toured the world as the leader and driving force behind the internationally renowned Irish traditional music and dance ensemble, Cherish the Ladies.  In that time, she has become one of the most visible and respected Irish musicians as a composer and arranger and invariably entertaining stage performer. Her huge repertoire of music spans a wide range of expression, from exuberant dance tunes to slow, stately and evocative pieces. She is a consummate musician and one of the most mercurial and revered figures in Irish music today.