Téada return to Glór for First Friday series

WINNERS of Best Young Irish Traditional Act at Ireland’s Music Awards 2009, Glór welcomes back Téada for their signature First Friday Series Gigs. WINNERS of Best Young Irish Traditional Act at Ireland’s Music Awards 2009, Glór welcomes back Téada for their signature First Friday Series Gigs.
One of Irish traditional music’s leading exponents, Téada is driven by a fascination for the timeless, expressive force of music inherited from previous generations of musicians.
Indeed, aside from the generations its musicians pull from for inspiration, the musicians themselves have gleamed their styles and musical traditions across different parts of Ireland.
Oisín Mac Diarmada, the band’s fiddle player took up his first fiddle in Crusheen, when he was five years of age, while the other members of the band, who are from counties Sligo, Monaghan, Laois and Dublin also learned from a young age in their own county’s traditional styles.
Speaking to The Clare Champion, Oisín having spent the first 11 years of his life in Clare recalls what he learned here.
“I used to live in Crusheen and I got my first start in music when I was five in the local Comhaltas class. I moved to Sligo then when I was 11. But because I had started learning music in Clare it has a big significance for me. I was taught at the start by Marian McMahon and from a young age, I went to the Willie Clancy Summer School in Miltown Malbay. I have kept that up and I’ve been teaching there for the last 10 or 11 years, so I make my yearly pilgrimage back to Clare each year,” he revealed.
He acknowledged that while Téada started up 10 years ago this year, they have no high hopes or great intentions for the band, but he says it has been an amazing experience and together, Teáda have been to festivals all over the world and most recently scooped an award recognising them as the Best Young Irish Traditional Act. 
The group will also be launching their new album entitled Ceoil agus Cuimhne (music and memories).According to Oisín, it is representative of their music, which has so many memories and old traditional styles of music embedded in it.
The band itself has a characteristic lively blend of instrumentals and vocals which has seen them evolve into one of the busiest bands on the trad music circuit. The group has appeared in frequent headline performances at major music festivals throughout the US, Canada, Europe, Africa, Israel and Australia. Highlights include a headlining appearance to an audience of 30,000 in Brittany, along with performances at Penang World Music Festival in Malaysia, Edmonton Folk Festival in Canada, and recently at Harare International Festival of the Arts in Zimbabwe.
The group also received an invitation from the Irish Embassy in Rome during 2008 to perform at a commemorative event marking the 400th anniversary of The Flight of the Earls.
Fresh from winning the 2009 Best Young Irish Traditional Act at Ireland’s Music Awards, and with a major new album due for release in early 2010, Téada will be collaborating on stages throughout the world with a number of special guests.
Founded by fiddler Oisín Mac Diarmada, Téada first came together in 2001 to make an appearance on the innovative Irish television series Flosc. With engaging textural arrangements, Téada, meaning strings in Irish, revels in the vibrant traditional music of Ireland. Deftly playing up its structural intricacies while preserving the contagious energy inherent in the repertoire, the group strives to capture a sense of the rawness and individuality of the solo artist, within a modern group context.
Téada are Oisín Mac Diarmada, (fiddle), Paul Finn, (button accordion), Damien Stenson, (flute), Seán McElwain, (guitar/bouzouki) and Tristan Rosenstock, (bodhrán).
Teáda takes to the Glór stage on Friday, February 5 at 8pm. More information and tickets are available by calling 065 6843103 or by logging onto www.glor.ie.