We invite some of the very best musicians in the world to give workshops. These workshops are an unprecedented opportunity to meet and work one-on-one with some of the greatest names in Irish Traditional Music.
|
Bodhran workshop series: Our next bodhran workshop will be on June 23 with Mike Austin. It is
free to members. Mike is very good at managing players of all skill
levels. It will be in Burr Ridge at the Chole House under the canopy
unless it is too warm or rainy. If that's the case, we will move it to
Mike Macken's house in Oakbrook.
|
The workshop is free for Murphy Roche Irish Music Club members and $20
for others.
The afternoon will include a workshop from 1:30 - 3:00 pm and private
lessons before and after. There will be something for everyone -- from beginners to experienced players. You don’t need to have been at the previous workshops. The program will be relaxed, informal, and a fine opportunity to meet other musicians and learn about Irish music and percussion from Mike Austin, a masterful musician and educator. Mike is a seasoned performer who plays with the band The Boils and teaches at the Old Town School of Folk Music. |
Mike Austin |
Mike Austin comes from a family with a professional musical tradition that spans at least four generations to his bandleading great-grandfather, who was a personal friend of John Phillip Sousa. Mike began playing drums as a young boy, somewhere around the age of 5. His first teacher was his father, a jazz and concert band drummer who co-founded the Joliet American Legion Band, the most celebrated concert and marching band of its kind in the nation. (In between, there was a mandolin-playing grandfather, too.) Mike played drums in school concert bands and garage rock bands until entering high school. As a competitive student-athlete, he took a hiatus from music and returned to it after college. This is when he changed his focus exclusively to Irish traditional music, which he first experienced as a teenager during a family trip to Ireland. Since then Mike has been a featured performer on the bodhran at several major music festivals in the United States and Ireland, including the Ennis Traditional Music Festival in County Clare, Ireland; Celtic Fest Chicago and Taste of Chicago, and Milwaukee Irish Fest. He has performed and recorded with some of the world’s most renowned Irish musicians in venues large and small, from cozy pubs across Ireland to Chicago's Symphony Center. A member of the Irish traditional band The Boils, Mike has also been a staff instructor at the prestigious Old Town School of Folk Music since 2000. He is a two-time finalist in the senior bodhran competition of the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, and a former adjudicator of the Midwest Fleadh Cheoil. |
Blake Ritter
Click
here to view flyer |
Slow airs workshop and Concert Murphy Roche Irish music school presented a Slow Airs Workshop for fiddlers, with All-Ireland Champion Blake Ritter, on Saturday, Dec 4th, 2010. The workshop took place at 4:30pm, at Two Way Street Coffee House 1047 Curtiss St., Downers Grove, IL 60515. A concert followed, at 8:00pm. Admission to the workshop was $20, and workshop attendees received free admission to the concert—general admission to concert was $20. Admission to both events was free for Murphy Roche Members. To hear Blake play, check out his featured video on Comhaltas Live, at http://bit.ly/blake_on_comhaltas. |
 |
Manus Maguire. |
 |
Enda Scahill. |
 |
Liz Carroll. |
 |
Brian Conway. |
 |
John Williams. |
 |
John Daly. |
 |
Jackie Moran. |
 |
Máire Ní Chéileachair
Sean
Nós singing to young people in the Muskerry area since 2000 under the
Aisling Gheal Scheme which promotes and preserves the sean nós singing
tradition.
she
has won numerous prizes at Sean Nós singing competitions at
Oireachtas na Gaeilge over the years. She has given workshops and
performed at music and singing festivals all over |
 |
Paddy O'Brien Musical Director for CCE |