John J. Ward, Jr. Irish Music Archives
Milwaukee Irish Fest center

Donate 10 or more items to the Irish Fest Archives and receive two free tickets to Irish Fest 2003!

In 1992 Ed Ward, Milwaukee Irish Fest founder, created the Irish Music Archives to collect sound recordings and reference materials in order to promote and preserve Irish music in all its forms. Initial funding came from members of his family, all of whom serve as area coordinators for the festival. The archives are housed in the Irish Fest center. Establishing an Irish music collection in the name of John J. Ward is appropriate to honor the tradition of Irish music in the Ward family and to give recognition to the "Grandfather of Irish Fest" as John is affectionately called.

Success in passing the music on to future generations depends on a number of important factors:

• The ability to attend live performances to learn styles of singing and playing, often allowing interaction with other performers.
• Imitating recordings is often a more successful way to learn the music since it allows repetition and concentration.
• Reading music is important for those who are just starting or developing their techniques. Published music tutorials are now being used in conjunction with sound recordings.

All music items donated to the Archives will be catalogued and entered into a comprehensive computer database. The collection will be open to the general public but items will not be removed from the archives.

The Archives contain more than 30,000 pieces of Irish music and music-related items, including the 6,000-piece Comer collection of hard-to-find Irish-label music spanning the 1940s to the 1980s, and the second largest Bing Crosby collection in the country.