Irish Uilleann Piper

Irish Uilleann Piper & Traditional Irish Ensemble

Michael hails an area steeped in music in the south west of Ireland. He started playing music from the age of seven, and took up the uilleann pipes at the age of eight. He spent his teens playing in various traditional Irish music groups, winning national titles and providing music for Irish dancing shows, weddings, funerals and functions.

Throughout university he led regular pub sessions in Cork and later in Manchester. From 2015 to 2016 Michael was a member of Cork folk band “The Thirsty Scholars”, gigging in Cork and recently providing the soundtrack for “Rabhelóid Chorcaí”, a documentary in Irish about the 1916 Easter Rising.

Audio

Repertoire (sample):

Classical:

• Pachelbel’s cannon in D
• The arrival of the Queen of Sheba
• Vivaldi’s spring
• O’Carolan’s concerto (and many other O’Carolan pieces)

Slow airs:

• The lonesome boatman
• The 1798
• The banks of the Sullane
• An buachaill caol dubh
• Cath Céim an Fiadh

“A wide selection of jigs, reels, polkas, hornpipes, waltzes, slides, from Ireland, Scotland, France and Newfoundland, along with other traditional and modern pieces.”

MFL557