Instructor Bios

Brian McNamara - Introduced to the Uilleann pipes in 1979, Brian has become renowned in Ireland and internationally for his unique musical style and repertoire. As a winner of multiple All-Ireland titles at Junior and Senior level during the 1980s, he became a regular member of concert tour groups and now travels extensively as a solo performer and tutor.

Brian's style is regarded as unique against the backdrop of modern piping styles. It has been nurtured by the strong influences of his principal teacher Peter Maguire and the very strong influences of his immediate family environment. It has been described as a beautifully sweet, articulate, controlled, staccato yet flowing style underpinned by definite phrasing and strong rhythm.

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Michael Cooney - It seems like Michael was destined to play the pipes. He was raised in a family of Highland pipers from Co. Tipperary. His father, Martin, and his uncles played in the Sean Tracey Pipe Band in Littleton, a group that his grandfather and great uncles founded.

In the 1980s, Michael won multiple All-Ireland Championships on pipes and whistle, and moved to the United States, where he had the opportunity to play with more legendary musicians, including Andy McGann, Paddy Reynolds, and Joe Burke. He has released two CDs, A Stones Throw, and his latest, Just Piping.

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Tom Creegan - Tom Creegan grew up in Dublin learning in one of the best environments possible, the Pipers' Club headquarters on Thomas Street. He played extensively in Europe and Canada before moving to Seattle where he started the band 'The Suffering Gaels.'

He is widely regarded as one of the foremost pipers in North America. Concert appearances have included numerous dates with such luminaries as Kevin Burke and the late Micheál Ó'Domhnaill. He teaches tin whistle and pipes and has served on the teaching faculty of the Lark in the Morning summer school in California, The Friday Harbor Irish Music Camp and the O'Flaherty Irish Music Retreat.

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Sean Clohessy - Sean Clohessy comes from the parish of Fedamore in Co Limerick. He has been playing fiddle for the past 20 years, with much of his early influences coming from musicians in his native Limerick and the neighboring Co. Clare. He has spent time living and playing music in London where his music was heavily influenced by the Clare fiddle player Brendan Mulkere. Since then he lived for a time in New York and now Boston. His style incorporates elements of the rich musical traditions characteristic to these areas. He has won several All-Ireland titles and currently plays regularly throughout Boston and New York.

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Florence Fahy - Florence is a native of north Co. Clare's Newquay, just up the road from Belharbour, home to famed concertina player Chris Droney and the center of an unusually rich tradition of concertina playing in Ireland.

As musician and author (and former Friday Harbor instructor) Fintan Vallely points out, Florence is among those gifted young players who are helping to sustain the older dialects of Clare music. She's taught concertina extensively at home in Ireland and in the U.S.

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Cathy Sky - Cathy Sky has been playing Irish style fiddle since 1979. Her first Irish music teacher was Patrick Sky, so her playing has always been colored by piping phrasing and technique. In 1981-1982 she honed her fiddle voice while living in County Clare and taking lessons with Tony Linnane.

Her workshop at the SE Pipers Tionól this year will provide fiddlers with techniques and ornaments to help them find the “sweet spots” that make for tight pipe/fiddle duets, for example: back-stitching, cranning, delayed rolls, volume swells and stresses, elongated runs, shivers and slides.

Bring a recording device and prepare to be a bit analytical, though we will use phrases from well-known tunes as illustrations.

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Pat Sky - Patrick Sky, for those of you unfamiliar with the '60s, has been involved in singing, playing and performing his music and songs for over thirty years. In the past he has sold out Carnegie Hall and played for standing room only all over Europe and the United States. Among his major appearances are: The Montreal Expo, The Central Park Music Festival, Town Hall in New York and the Royal Festival Hall in London. He has the shared the billing with such artists as Pete Seeger, Buffy Sainte Marie, Joni Mitchell and Emmy Lou Harris, to name a few. Patrick has seven solo albums to his credit on the Vanguarard and MGM labels, and his latest release, Through a Window on the Shanachie label. In addition he has produced over thirty records for other artists such as Mississippi John Hurt, Rosalie Sorrells and the great Irish Uilleann piper Seamus Ennis.

It was while recording Ennis in the field that Patrick founded Green Linnet Records. This fact and Patrick's involvement in Irish music, especially piping, have made him one of the seminal figures of the Irish music revival in the United States. His book A Manual for the Irish Uilleann Pipes is the recognized text on the subject.