Artist Bios

Artists are listed alphabetically by last name

Dan Brouder

Dan Brouder is a respected exponent of the West Limerick accordion tradition from Monagea, near Newcastle West. He learned from influential local musicians including Donal de Barra, Timmy Collins, Donal O’Sullivan, and Francis O’Connor.

Brouder also had opportunities to perform with legendary musicians including Julia Clifford, Johnny O’Leary, Paddy Cronin, and Connie O’Connell. His style reflects strong influences from West Limerick and Sliabh Luachra traditions.

His debut solo album The Lark’s Air (2011) earned critical acclaim. He later recorded duet albums A Waltz for Joy and Back in Time with Angelina Carberry.

Dan has appeared frequently on RTÉ and TG4 music programs and is highly regarded for the rhythmic lift and authenticity of his playing.

Angelina Carberry

Angelina Carberry was born in Manchester into a Longford family with a strong traditional music heritage. Beginning on tin whistle before moving to banjo, she followed in the footsteps of her father Peter and grandfather Kevin Carberry.

After moving to Galway in the late 1990s, she recorded the acclaimed album Memories from the Holla with her father Peter Carberry and John Blake. She toured with Tony MacMahon and Barney McKenna and was also a member of the all-female group The Bumblebees.

Her solo albums An Traidisún Beo (2005) and Pluckin’ Mad (2014) established her as one of the most distinctive banjo players in Irish traditional music. She also recorded duet albums with Martin Quinn and Dan Brouder.

In 2021 she received the prestigious TG4 Gradam Ceoil Musician of the Year award. Carberry is also widely respected as a teacher, regularly instructing at festivals and summer schools throughout Ireland, the UK, North America, and beyond.

Shannon Dunne

Shannon Dunne is an American sean-nós and set dancer, concertina player, educator, and community organizer. She has performed internationally at venues including the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, Symphony Space in New York, and the Shetland Folk Festival.

She learned her dancing from the Devane family from Connemara, as well as Roisin Ni Mhainin, Seosamh O’Neachtain, and Paraic o’hOibicin. Her style has been praised for its musicality and rhythmic sensitivity. She is a passionate teacher and community builder. In 2007, she founded Shannon Dunne Dance, a multigenerational company that focuses on sean-nós and set dancing, with multiple students placing at the All-Ireland. She also created a comprehensive traditional dance and music program at the University of Notre Dame, including academic classes, events, field study, and competition. In 2021, she established the Irish Music Club at Westville Correctional Facility through the Moreau College Initiative, bringing traditional Irish music into prison education programs.

She is currently working on her MA in Ethnochoreology at the University of Limerick.

Gabriel Fitzmaurice

Gabriel Fitzmaurice is a poet, broadcaster, writer, translator, singer, and storyteller deeply rooted in the literary tradition of North Kerry. Born in Moyvane, Co. Kerry in 1952, he continues to live there today.

For more than thirty years he taught and later served as principal in his local national school before retiring. His poetry has been praised for its lyricism and insight, and he has been described as “poetry’s answer to John B. Keane.”

Fitzmaurice has written more than forty books, including poetry collections in both English and Irish, children’s verse, translations, essays, songs, and ballads. He has twice represented Ireland at the European Festival of Poetry in Louvain, Belgium and won the Gerard Manley Hopkins Centenary Poetry Competition.

A musician and singer as well as a writer, he has performed on several traditional music albums, including Humours of Glin with Donal Sullivan and Martin Mulvihill. He frequently broadcasts on Irish radio and television on subjects relating to education and the arts.

Con Herbert

Con Herbert is a master traditional musician and teacher from Killeedy, Co. Limerick. He learned from Tadhg Collins, Séamas Danagher, Willie Lacey, and Martin Ward.

He helped develop music education in schools and Comhaltas branches and has contributed to Fleadhanna Cheoil success in his region.

Willie Kelly

Willie Kelly is one of the best-known traditional fiddlers in the New York area. He learned from the celebrated West Limerick fiddler Martin Mulvihill and developed strong connections with Clare and East Galway traditions.

Born in the Bronx and raised in New Jersey, Kelly came from a musical family with Roscommon roots. At fifteen he began studying seriously with Mulvihill, focusing on tune collecting and traditional style.

He has recorded with Mike and Mary Rafferty, Dymphna O’Sullivan, and David Power, and his album The New Broom with Mike Rafferty and Donal Clancy received wide acclaim.

He has performed at major cultural festivals and continues to be active in the Irish traditional music scene in the United States.

Donna Long

Donna Long grew up in Los Angeles and was introduced to music by her father Byron Long, a jazz and classical pianist. After moving to Baltimore in the early 1980s, she met fiddler Brendan Mulvihill, whose playing inspired her to accompany Irish music on piano.

The pair performed together for ten years and recorded the albums The Steeplechase and The Morning Dew. In 1995 she joined Cherish the Ladies, touring internationally and recording six albums with the group.

Her solo piano album Handprints (2003) received critical praise and featured collaborations with musicians including Billy McComiskey and Liz Knowles. She continues performing in the Baltimore/Washington area and has toured extensively with artists such as James Kelly, Jerry Holland, Seamus Connolly, and Kevin Doyle.

Catherine McEvoy

Catherine McEvoy was born in Birmingham in May 1956, both her parents having emigrated there from Co. Roscommon in the 1940s. Her father, Paddy, comes from an area six miles from Strokestown called Kilmore. His father, Mark McEvoy, was an accomplished flute player in his time, playing at local house dances and fairs for many years. Mark came from a large family, many of whom were also very fine musicians. Sarah, Catherine’s mother, also comes from Strokestown, and in her younger days was a very good traditional ballad singer.

Both her parents remember many musicians around the Strokestown area, including Jimmy Tighe (flute), Pat Caslin (fiddle), and Mutty Flanagan, the local postman who also played flute.

This rich musical environment in Roscommon was strongly reflected in Birmingham’s Irish music scene, especially the Birmingham Céilí Band, one of the most popular bands of the 60s and 70s.

Catherine’s older brother John, a well-known fiddle player in Ireland and England, strongly influenced her early musical development. He introduced her to recordings of Denis Murphy, Julia Clifford, Máirtín Byrnes, Jimmy Power, and Michael Coleman.

At age 13 she began accordion lessons with Kathleen Lawrie. She later joined the Birmingham Céilí Band, initially on piano, before switching to flute in the early 1970s. She quickly developed a strong repertoire despite no formal flute training.

She played alongside Frank Carty and performed with her brother John, later collaborating with Brendan Mulvihill in Birmingham.

She was influenced by recordings of Séan Ryan, the Killina Céilí Band, Seamus Tansey, Roger Sherlock, and All Ireland Champions featuring Paddy Canny, P.J. Hayes, and Peadar O’Loughlin. She also received a recording of The Tribute to Coleman featuring Joe Burke, Andy McGann, and Felix Dolan, whom she later met and worked with.

She was deeply influenced by Josie McDermott and Peg McGrath, and spent time playing in Roscommon and Leitrim sessions including Dominic Cosgrove’s pub in Boyle.

She moved to Ireland in 1977 and received a Rudall & Rose flute from Kathleen Lawrie.

She married flute player Tom McGorman in 1975 and played widely with musicians including Packie Duignan, Tom and Nellie Mulligan, John Kelly Sr., Paddy O’Brien, James Kelly, Daithí Sproule, and John Kelly Jr.

She was a member of the all-female group Macalla (1984–1988) and later became a senior flute tutor at the Willie Clancy Summer School.

Daniel O’Brien

Daniel O'Brien is an award-winning chef and All-Ireland champion fiddle player from Tarbert, Co. Kerry. Raised in a household immersed in Irish music, he studied under Ballylongford musician Thomas Moynihan, who gave him a strong grounding in traditional style and technique.

Daniel won the All-Ireland fiddle championship playing the same fiddle gifted to him by Brendan Mulvihill and performing one of Brendan’s own compositions. After his championship success in 1996, he toured extensively through Singapore, Australia, America, and the UK.

Together with his wife Emily, Daniel later operated the well-known Daroka restaurant in Ballybunion. He also returned actively to the traditional music scene there, teaching fiddle classes and mentoring younger musicians. Today he continues teaching music, harvesting honey, and trading in fiddles, while Emily manages Beach Hive in Ballybunion.

Diarmuid O’Brien

Diarmuid O’Brien is a highly regarded fiddle player from Glin, Co. Limerick. He won All-Ireland honours at age 15 and has toured internationally.

His album Cairde Cairdin (2007) was critically acclaimed. He later recorded Abroad in the Back Kitchen with Donal O’Sullivan.

Donal O’Sullivan

Donal O’Sullivan is a flute player from Carrigkerry, Co. Limerick. He was taught by Pa Joe Gleeson and Pat Ahern and is known for his authentic West Limerick style.

He recorded Abroad in the Back Kitchen with Diarmuid O’Brien.

John Paul Reynolds

John Paul Reynolds is a young musician from New York. His parents, Margie Mulvihill and John Reynolds, both respected traditional musicians, inspired him to begin playing music at an early age. He studied fiddle with Rose Flanagan before taking up banjo and guitar.

Now living in Kerry, Reynolds regularly performs throughout Ireland and abroad, playing both melody and accompaniment with a variety of artists.

Margie Mulvihill & John Reynolds

John Reynolds is a Manhattan-born fiddler, and Margie Mulvihill is a flute and whistle player from the Bronx. They perform together as a céilí band in the New York area.

Margie studied with Martin Mulvihill and played in the Glenside Céilí Band. She is also mother to several musicians, including Erin Loughran and John Paul Reynolds.

John was trained by John Glynn and Pete Kelly and performed in céilí bands and dance music circuits in Ireland and the US.

Matthew Reidy

Matthew Reidy is a banjo player from Glin, Co. Limerick, performing regularly with Diarmuid O’Brien, Donal O’Sullivan, and Pa Foley.

Jesse Smith

Jesse Smith was born into a musical family in Baltimore, where he was immersed in a thriving Irish music tradition. His mother, Donna Long, has recorded and performed with Brendan Mulvihill and Cherish the Ladies. His dad, John, plays the guitar and sings American music. Jesse started playing the fiddle at an early age, learning from Mulvihill, a renowned fiddle player and teacher.

Jesse has recorded some well received duet albums and has taught and performed at numerous festivals in Ireland, Europe and America.Willie Kelly

Willie Kelly is a New York–based fiddler from an Irish musical family. He studied with Martin Mulvihill and is deeply connected to Clare and East Galway traditions.

He has recorded with Mike Rafferty, Donal Clancy, and David Power, and appears on documentaries and radio programs. He remains active in the US Irish traditional music scene.