Masterclasses
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Ciara Tighe – Accordion
Marcus Moloney – Banjo
Colm Browne – Concertina
Yvonne Casey – Fiddle
John Kelly – Flute
Tommy Keane – Uilleann Pipes
Masterclass Tutors 2023
Ciara Tighe – Accordion
Ciara Tighe, from Ballynacally Ennis county Clare is an accomplished accordion player and tutor. Ciara has a great love for teaching and gigging . At the age of 9, Ciara started learning her music and was tutored by Caoimhe Millar.
Ciara’s role models and influences have been the playing of Darren Breslin, Paddy O’Brien and Joe Burke to name a few. Ciara has had recent success in Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann winning the senior duet with her fellow musician Áine Murphy. Growing up Ciara took part in Céilí Bands and Groupa Ceoils with Tulla Comhaltas who were also very successful at various Fleadhs. Ciara loves spending her summers playing music and travelling around to all the festivals.
Marcus Moloney – Banjo
Marcus Moloney originally from Cappamore in east Limerick now residing in Ennis,
Co Clare has been tutoring banjo classes and workshops for the last 34 years.
Marcus has numerous all Ireland titles and has toured extensively all over the world
and has performed with many well-known artists from trad to contemporary style. He
has a very unique and eclectic style which resonates from other styles and is highly
regarded with adjudication and preparation for performance of BA and MA students.
Colm Browne – Concertina
Colm Browne is a concertina player and Sean nos dancer from Cree West Clare. He is the current All Ireland Senior Concertina Champion 2023. He has won many musical awards for music and dancing including Bonn Oir Sean O Riada 2022 and Oireachtas na Samhna 2017. He comes from a rich musical family steeped in tradition. He plays regularly with his brothers Sean and Liam.
Yvonne Casey – Fiddle
Yvonne Casey is one of Co. Clareʼs most distinctive fiddle players. She grew up surrounded by the richness of Clare music and plays in a unique soulful style. In the 1990ʼs Yvonne recorded two albums with The Ceili Bandits and they toured Europe and the USA. She also recorded her first solo CD in 2004. Since then, she has created her own music school in Clare and teaches and performs at various festivals at home, abroad and online.
Her recently released CD entitled “Croí” (Heart) includes many of her own new beautiful compositions as well as performances by Dermot Byrne, Eoin OʼNeill and Jon OʼConnell
John Kelly – Flute
John Kelly hails from Roscommon Town, an area steeped in the tradition of flute playing.
Traditional Music took a very central part in John’s life from a very young age and soon
he had won All Ireland honours in every underage category.
In 1995, John moved to Ennis, Co. Clare and quickly became an integral part of the town’s thriving traditional music scene performing with musicians such as Siobhan Peoples, Murty Ryan and Cyril O’Donoghue. In 2003, John released a duet album ‘Fourmilehouse’ with his brother Alan, which gained widespread critical acclaim and resulted in extensive touring and festival appearances in countries such as France, Sweden, Spain and the U.K.
Earle Hitchner, from The Wall Street Journal and Irish Echo stated: “The dozen tracks of Fourmilehouse are both a summation and a summit for the two brothers–a summation of where they’ve been individually, a summit of how well they now play collectively. Jigs, reels, hornpipes, and a slow air seem to flow effortlessly and naturally, achieving that rare level of instant, intuitive communication between players. What a stunning duet album these talented
brothers have given us”
A well-respected music teacher, John has guided many young flautists to Munster and All
Ireland titles.
Tommy Keane – Uilleann Pipes
Tommy Keane was born in Waterford City and while in his early twenties, after playing tin whistle , and took up the pipes, learning from master pipers such as Pat Mitchell and Liam O’Flynn. Tommy spent 7 years in the 80s in London playing with the likes of Tommy McCarthy, Bobby Casey, Liam Farrell and Raymond Rowland. He was also a member of the famous Thatch Ceili Band when they won the All-Ireland in 1986.
He is married to Jacqueline McCarthy and they live in
County Galway. He was Chairman of Na Píobairí Uilleann for five years until 2018, after which he was appointed Honorary President. He teaches traditional music in Co. Galway with Jacqueline and teaches at many festivals such as the world-famous Scoil Samraidh Willie Clancy.