www.gerryoconnor.com

Hailed by the Wall Street Journal as ‘the best ever banjoist in the history of Irish music’, Gerry O’Connor has brought the banjo to places no other player had tread before. He has traveled the world - physically and musically - experimenting with everything from Irish to bluegrass to African and Asian, and back. Both as a soloist and as a member of the highly acclaimed Four Men and a Dog, Gerry has truly traced the banjo’s journey through the world of music.

Gerry’s journey continues with his most recent solo recording, “High Up Low Down” which features his unique treatment of Irish traditional music, American bluegrass and ground-breaking new compositions.

Gerry will be touring in Ireland in March / April and further afield later in the year.
IRISH TOUR:
02 MARCH: Whelans, Dublin
05 MARCH: Glor Centre, Ennis
06 MARCH: Dolan’s, Limerick
11 MARCH: Banteer Theatre, Banteer, Co. Cork
12 MARCH: St. John’s Theatre, Listowel
20 MARCH: Backstage Theatre, Longford
25 MARCH: De Barra, Clonakilty
26 MARCH: Seamus Ennis Centre, Naul, Co Dublin
27 MARCH: Source Arts Centre, Thurles
24 APRIL: Glen Centre, Manorhamilton
MORE T/B/C

www.kilfenoraceiliband.com

One of Ireland’s best known Irish traditional music groups was honoured at a ceremony in its native County Clare this evening.
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Healthcare Settings Training Programme at St. James’ Hospital Dublin 8 – 12 February, 2010
www.musicnetwork.ie

Music Network, in partnership with Musique et Santé, Europe’s only
dedicated Music & Health organisation, is conducting a Music in
Healthcare Settings Training Programme for musicians at St. James’s
Hospital Dublin from 8 – 12 February, 2010. The training programme,
funded by the Leonardo da Vinci – Lifelong Learning fund of the European
Union, was devised to provide musicians from four European countries an
opportunity to acquire the skills and competencies to work in a range of
healthcare environments and an opportunity to develop greater cultural
understanding through music and health across Europe.
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www.wexfordoperahouse.com

Connemara-based piper Seán McKiernan  heads the list of recipients of the TG4 Gradam Ceoil 2010 (Traditional Music Awards) announced at a media reception at the headquarters of Na Píobairí Uilleann in Dublin this evening.  Born in Boston of Connemara and Leitrim stock Seán moved to Connemara as a young man and is widely regarded as one of the great masters of the uilleann pipes.
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www.battlefieldband.co.uk

Battlefield Band are now playing 22 shows in their ‘Milestone Tour’ in Germany, celebrating their 40th anniversary. Reports ‘from the front’ tell us that the tour is going well, with excellent shows in Waldkraiburg, Puchheim & Esslingen. There are more concerts coming up in Basel, Offenburg, Schaffhausen, Pforzheim, Illzach, Aalen, Lauf, Darmstadt, Melle, Taunusstein-Hahn, Peine, Hiddenhausen, Eckernfarde, Hamburg-Osdorf, Stuhr, Kelllinghusen, Bleckede & Dresden. See www.battlefieldband.co.uk for details of any of the shows.
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www.manchesteririshfestival.com

Manchester will celebrate its fifteenth Irish festival with a two week extravaganza featuring two hundred events, staged at thirty two different venues throughout Greater Manchester. Lawrence Hennigan, Marketing Executive of the Manchester Irish Festival website said “The festival will feature Art, Culture, Comedy, Community, Dance, Music, Sport and Theatre events, making it one of Europe’s biggest Irish Festivals. We have tried to include something for everyone to enjoy in the community and a warm Irish welcome awaits all our visitors.” The official dates for this years celebration are Friday 5th March to Saturday 21st March, but there are also a number of pre and post festival events from February through to April.

www.rte.ie

The double CD “Willie Clancy: The Gold Ring“ was released on Friday, December 4th, a little too late for us to announce it in our Annual issue. There is a large body of music on the two discs, running to over two and a half hours of music with 65 selections of tunes. The tracks were chosen by piper and RTÉ radio producer, Peter Browne. Peter had access to the RTÉ Libraries and Archives and was also able to source some tracks from private collectors and other archives. The CD covers about twenty years of piping from the famous Clare musician. The CD comes complete with a detailed 32 page booklet on the life, music and importance of Willie Clancy.
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www.folkways.si.edu

Our very own Dan Milner has been short listed for an Independent Music Award for his Smithsonian Folkways Album Irish Pirate Ballads. He tells us: “I just got some potentially good news from Smithsonian. Happy to report that Irish Pirate Ballads is one of 5 recordings to receive a nomination in the Indie Music Awards “World Traditional” category.
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www.livemusicnow.org.uk

Live Music Now (LMN) is recruiting musicians based in Northern Ireland for their national music outreach scheme. Those selected musicians will get paid to perform interactive concerts & workshops in a range of community settings. The charity organisation wants to reach out to hundreds of talented musicians in Northern Ireland. It will ask them to consider outreach work as a musical career and train those selected to work with an extraordinary range of audiences including the elderly, children with special needs, patients in hospitals and hospices, young offenders, early years and adults with physical and mental disabilities.
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www.loftusmusic.com

Kevin Burke has a new project in the works, a new album that features a 20-minute suite of tunes arranged for string quartet. He’s also joined by Beoga on a number of tracks. The album is called Suite and will be released on March 16th on his Loftus Label.