Irish Fest Summer School Instructors

2010 Faculty

Arts and Crafts | Culture | Dance | Language | Music - Instrumental | Music - Song

Arts and Crafts:

Rosaleen Hegarty: Advanced Aran Knitting
Rosaleen began her career teaching crafts in Donegal schools. After recovering from cancer, she expanded her knitting hobby to form Cranaknits, a major supplier of hand knits to Irish stores such as O’Maille’s.

Linda Lubner: Calligraphy
Linda has a BA in Art Education and currently teaches adult calligraphy and watercolor in the Milwaukee area.

Grant Taylor: Sugan Weaving & Wood Carving
Grant has been a professional woodworker since 1975. He studied in Connemara, Ireland with furniture maker Al O’Dea. He makes traditional Celtic and Celtic inspired furniture in his studio in South Acworth, New Hampshire. His designs can be found on his website: celticfurniture.com

Culture:

Sandy Smith: C. S. Lewis
Sandy is an internationally recognized expert on the life and works of C.S. Lewis, the author of books including The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Sandy lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and presents a popular weekly lecture tour on Belfast’s links to the Lewis family.

Mick Moloney: Irish American Musical History
Mick y combines the careers of folklorist, arts presenter and advocate, professional musician, and radio and television personality. When not performing, producing, or lecturing, Mick leads a series of Irish Folklore Tours, offering an authentic Irish cultural odyssey that conventional tourists never experience.

Tommy Sands: Peace and the Artist's Influence
Tommy Sands, County Down's singer, songwriter and social activist, has achieved something akin to legendary status in his own lifetime. He is most popularly recognized as an artist, but for many, he is an ambassador of peace. Tommy will be joined by his daughter Moya and his son Fionan.

Ed Ward: 30 Years – Reflections on Milwaukee Irish Fest
Ed , founder of Milwaukee Irish Fest, along with some of the festival’s friends discuss, reminisce and reflect on past festivals and the impact on Irish music. Bring your thoughts and experiences and join in.

Dance:

Gail (Clark) McElroy: Irish Social Dances
Gail calls and instructs at Milwaukee ceili dances. She is well-known to area dancers, and has taught for over a decade.

Tony Ryan: Set Dancing
Tony Ryan is one of the world’s best known and most popular Irish set dance teachers. He returns to Milwaukee Irish Fest Summer School by popular demand.

Brian O'Cuinneagain: Sean Nós Dance
Brian has taught and performed internationally. In 2006 he won the Senior Sean Nos Dancing Competition at the All Ireland Oireachtas.

Language:

Ray McMánis: Irish Anthology, Sult
Ray Mac Mánais is the principal of Gael Scoil in the Dublin area. The speech writer and Irish language advisor to Ireland’s president, Mary McAleese, he recently published her biography, Máire Mhic Ghiolla Íosa: Beathaisnéis.

Bairbre Ní Chiardha: Irish, beginning & Friday Irish Language Sampler
Bairbre inherited a love of the Irish language and culture from her native Cois Fharraige in County Galway, Ireland. She pursued a career in education and currently resides in Milwaukee teaching Irish at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Music - Instrumental:

Bodhran

Paul Marshall: Intermediate & Advanced Bodhran classes
Paul is from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is a member of Different Drums of Ireland and has a musical instrument design business as well as the website www.bodojo.com. As a lifelong percussionist, Paul plays drums from around the world, and is particularly passionate about the bodhran. He is an advocate of the top-end style which offers an extended rhythmic vocabulary and can be used beyond the Irish traditional setting.

Patrick Roe: Beginning Bodhran
Patrick began drumming in his teens, influenced by big band and jazz greats as well as rock drummers. He has studied the bodhran in both the U.S. and Ireland and has played with such diverse groups as Americay, Anam Ri, Cé, Ceol Cairde, Different Drums of Ireland, Frogwater, Leahy’s Luck and Stone Ring. He also teaches year-round at the Irish Fest School of Music.

Fiddle

Liz Carroll: Intermediate and Advanced Fiddle Classes
Liz has been amazing audiences with her fiddle playing since she was a teenager. Her concert, television and radio appearances have established her as one of traditional music’s most sought after performers. Liz and guitarist John Doyle were nominated for a 2010 Grammy award in the Best Traditional World Music Album category.

Daire Bracken : Intermediate and Advanced Fiddle Classes
Daire plays fiddle, guitar and mandolin with the band Slide. He has taught fiddle at the headquarters of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann since 1993 and has taught privately and in Ireland’s schools through the university level. A native of Dublin, he has incorporated elements of various regional fiddle styles. Daire has toured and recorded with numerous well-known Irish artists and was an original member of the band Danú.

Ed Paloucek: Fiddle Transitions
Ed Paloucek, a classically trained violinist now fully committed to the Irish fiddle, began performing Irish music in 1990. He teaches fiddle in the Milwaukee area, is frequently a musician at local Irish music sessions, and plays with the groups Rírá and Atlantic Wave.

Kaitlin Hahn: Beginning Fiddle
Kaitlin began playing classical violin at age 6 and started studying Celtic fiddle with Ed Paloucek at the age of 18. She has become an active session player and teaches locally and through the Irish Fest School of Music. She currently plays in the band Atlantic Wave.

Flute & Tin Whistle

Joanie Madden: Intermediate/Advanced Whistle
Joanie , Irish Fest favorite and Grammy winning whistle and flute player. She has been the leader of Cherish the Lades since its inception. She was the first American to win the coveted Senior All-Ireland Championship on the whistle and was the youngest member inducted into the Irish- American Hall of Fame. Joanie was twice voted one of the Top 100 Irish-Americans in the United State and Traditional Musician of the year.

Éamonn DeBarra: Intermediate/Advanced Flute
Éamonn de Barra, who plays flute, piano and bodhran with the band Slide. He has been teaching flute for many years at festivals and schools both in Ireland and abroad including Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, Paris Association Irlandaise and Willie Clancy Week. He has collaborated with many other Irish artists including Sinéad O’Connor and was a member of the Damien Dempsey Band.

Brett Lipshutz: Flute Transitions and Beginning Tin Whistle
Brett , based in Milwaukee, has been playing music for 25 years. Brett has been involved in the theater, studio recording and educational programs throughout the U.S. Along with his Irish music projects, he is currently flutist with the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble.

Guitar

Dave Curley: Intermediate/Advanced Guitar
Dave Curley, the band Slide’s multi-instrumentalist, “velvet” voiced singer and dance prodigy. He studied music and dance at the University of Limerick and teaches guitar as well as other stringed instruments privately and in local Galway schools. Dave has performed with many artists including Paddy Keenan.

Bouzouki

Mick Broderick: Bouzouki
Mick plays bouzouki with the band Slide and is considered one of the most competent and innovative players of his generation. He has given numerous bouzouki and mandolin workshops at festivals and events in Ireland and across Europe. Mick is from East Galway and is one of the Broderick family that includes well-known musicians Patsy and Vincent.

Concertina

Aogán Lynch: Concertina
Aogán Lynch, who plays concertina and whistle with the band Slide. He is an experienced concertina teacher and has done workshops in Ireland including The Tubbercurry Summer School in County Sligo. He has also been invited to teach workshops throughout Europe. Aogán recently published a collection of Irish tunes and has a unique repertoire of melodies from the South of Ireland including slides and polkas. Aogan uses C/G Anglo Tuning.

Music - Song:

Tommy Sands: Peace and the Artist's Influence and Concert for Kids (Friday Morning Only)
Tommy Sands, County Down's singer, songwriter and social activist, has achieved something akin to legendary status in his own lifetime. He is most popularly recognized as an artist, but for many, he is an ambassador of peace. Tommy will be joined by his daughter Moya and his son Fionan.

Tom Sweeney: The Ballad Tradition
Tom Sweeney has traveled the highways and byways of Ireland, Europe and North America with his rattle bag of songs, stories, poetry and tunes. Tom has been immersed in the great tradition of ballad singing since he could speak, learning songs from his maternal grandmother, Sarah Makem, considered to be one of the greatest sources of songs in the entire history of Irish music.

Songwriting: Robbie O'Connell
Robbie O’Connell has performed as a solo artist as well as with other collaborations including the Green Fields of America; his uncles, the Clancy Brothers; and more recently, the Clancy Legacy. Robbie has done concerts at major venues including New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. His album of original songs, Never Learned to Dance, received critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic.

Sean Nós Song: Len Graham
Len Graham, one of Ireland’s best-known traditional singers, has a passion for the songs of his native Ulster and began collecting and recording them in the 1970s. His long collaboration with the late John Campbell brought Northern Ireland’s stories and songs to a worldwide audience. Len has received many awards including “Keeper of the Tradition” from the Tommy Makem International Festival of Song.

Click here to view the 2010 Irish Fest Summer School Class Brochure

Questions about classes or registration:
Call Jane Walrath at 262-367-2649 or email janellen@wi.rr.com.
Registration questions call Barb Breed-Heidt at 262-227-6538 or email barbbreedheidt@yahoo.com

Add your name to the Irish Fest Summer School mailing list by emailing Barb Breed-Heidt at: barbbreedheidt@yahoo.com

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