Traditional Irish composers to get in tune at Glór

Chicago fiddle player, Grammy nominee Liz Carroll, will be performing in Glór this Saturday as part of a very special tour highlighting traditional Irish music composers.

 

Supported by the Arts Council Touring Fund, The Tune Makers Tour also features accordion virtuoso Máirtín O’Connor and guitarist/arranger Dave Flynn. They will be joined on the Ennis leg of the tour by special guest, Tommy Peoples.

Bringing together, for the first time, some of the most prolific living composers in Irish traditional music – who also happen to be some of the best players – the project puts their own music in the spotlight.

The core trio of Carroll, O’Connor and Flynn will tour a number of venues around the country, playing their own music and that of other composers. They will be joined for different performances by one of a number of other guest composers with links to those locations, including Tommy Peoples, in both Donegal and Clare.

Each night audiences will get a chance to hear these talented ­musicians showcasing composed music.
They will also be paying tribute to many other composers not performing, including deceased composers like O’Carolan, Ed Reavy, Paddy O’Brien, Seán Ryan and Junior Crehan and living peers like the Dwyer brothers and Paddy Fahey.

The tour was conceived by Mr Flynn following his album, Contemporary Traditional Irish Guitar, which was comprised entirely of tunes written in the last 50 years by composers including Paddy Fahey, Ed Reavy, Charlie Lennon and Tommy Peoples.

Mr Flynn explains, “Charlie Lennon and Tommy Peoples represent perhaps the most established, familiar voices on the tour. They are part of a generation brought up in the post-war era. As such, their music is very much now established as part of the tradition. Still, they have the ability to surprise and their newest tunes contain twists and turns that mark them out as contemporary and a new development from what went before.

“Liz Carroll, Máirtín O’Connor and Peadar Ó Riada represent a younger generation, who made their names in the 80s and 90s. Their tunes are beginning to be absorbed into the tradition. Yet each brings a distinctive, new approach to tune composition that can sometimes challenge preconceptions of what might be considered traditional.

“Then there’s me. I was born in 1977 and it is only in the past few years that my music has begun to be heard through performances by musicians like Martin Hayes, Dennis Cahill, Mick O’Brien and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh.

“It’d be safe to say that none of my tunes have entered the general repertoire yet. However, the tunes of mine that we will perform during the tour will give audiences a taste of one particular direction that contemporary traditional music is going,” he said.