celtic music at the top of the range

22 - 24 June 2012

Who are the instructors?

Fiddle (Absolute Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced, Quebecois, Scots) | Flute/Whistle (Absolute Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced) | Mandolin/Banjo | Accordion | Celtic Harp | Traditional Singing | Guitar | Bodhran | Dance | Australian Tunes |

Absolute Beginners Fiddle Kristin Kelly (Noosa)
	Kristin Kelly has many years experience with Irish fiddle. After playing in a Bush Band for a couple of years, her love of Irish music began at the Willy Clancy week in Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare where she did masterclasses with Martin Hayes and PJ Hayes. She soon after joined Prague based Irish group Puca Rua for a couple of years before moving to Ireland to join the Barleyshakes with whom she remains a key member. Kristin runs the strings program at the Noosa Pengari Steiner School where she tutors almost 70 pupils and conducts two orchestras. She has always included Celtic music in her school program. Her skill as a teacher is echoed by her pupils' success: many have gone on to music scholarships and continue to love their instruments.
Intermediate Fiddle Jeremy Dunlop (Melbourne)
	A recent immigrant to Maleny from Melbourne, Jem is a well-known guitarist and excellent fiddle player. Using his vast knowledge of tune repertoire, Jem will teach skills to sensitively accompany Irish tunes on guitar, using open DADGAD tuning.
Advanced Fiddle Laura Targett
	Laura Targett grew up in the UK playing generic folk music in her school's ceilidh band, but after spending time in Ireland (and Melbourne of all places), rolled and tripleted herself into a deep love of Irish traditional fiddle playing. Currently a fiddler/violinist of music from around the world, Laura's musical roots are traditional Irish with a healthy dose of Scottish, Asturian, Breton, Scandinavian, Old-time, Balkan, Gypsy and Middle Eastern tunes and styles in her repertoire. She has trod the boards of stages from Australia to Ireland, Jordan, UK, France, Netherlands, and NZ with bands including Tryptico (recent project with Luke Plumb and Jem Dunlop), Greenlife, Greg Sheehan, Wild Strings, Circle of Rhythm, Tim Edey, Nomadic Heart, Kangaroo Moon and more. She spent a year touring Australia and NZ with Celtic Reign (Irish dance show). She has also been honoured to guest with Kev Carmody and Blue King Brown, Flook!, Nano Stern, Folkaholics, Seamus Begley and Jim Murray, Brendan Power, Wild Marmalade, and more.... She has recently performed at festivals including Byron Bay Blues Fest 2010, Woodford Folk Festival, The Canberra National Folk Festival, Port Fairy Festival and the Mullum Music festival. As well as her other job of being a mother, Laura teaches fiddle technique and traditional Irish tunes and ornamentation!
Quebecois Fiddle Pria Schwall-Kearney (Melbourne)
	Pria Schwall-Kearney is one of Australia’s most exciting young fiddle players, most known as a member of the Melbourne Scottish Fiddle Club, which she helps teach. Having recently returned from a year in Québec and Appalachia studying (and teaching) fiddle and banjo, she’s come back freshly inspired with a heap of new ideas. Pria has played and taught fiddle and stepdance at most festivals around Australia, and in the second half of 2009 toured Australia and New Zealand with the Old Time duo Pigeonwing Strings. To find out more visit Pria's Myspace page.
Scots Fiddle Emma Nixon (Brisbane)
	Emma Nixon began playing violin when she was 9 years old. She played classical violin in chamber groups and Queensland Youth Orchestras and completed a Bachelor of Creative Arts in performance and studio teaching. She worked as a strings teacher while completing an Arts degree in music and English and then a teaching diploma. She heard a CD by Alasdair Fraser and decided that she wanted to play Scottish fiddle. So began her worldwide journey learning from some of the great Scottish fiddle players. In 2008 Emma graduated from Newcastle University in the UK. She was awarded a Newcastle University scholarship to complete a Master of Music specialising in Scottish fiddle performance and research into transmission of Scottish fiddling. Back in Australia, Emma is continuing to perform, teach and research.
Absolute Beginners Flute and Whistle Dave Russell
	Dave Russell took up the tin whistle in 1982 in an effort to relieve the boredom of vacation employment at the Goonyella coal mine. He's been playing ever since, with never a dull moment! "Had I known then what I know now, I'd have been a much more accomplished player" Dave says. Come along and learn what Dave knows now, and become a better player. or: Dave's been playing tin whistle for a couple of decades, and has been a regular tin whistle tutor at the Woodford Folk Festival. Getting the fundamentals of Irish music ornamentation bedded down right from the start will set you up for much faster progress towards more advanced playing. Dave will help get you started.
Intermediate Flute and Whistle Belinda Ford (Brisbane)
	Belinda Ford has been playing the Irish Flute for more years than she can remember after first hearing the likes of Michael McGoldrick and Kevin Crawford. She has studied in Ireland and Australia with Marcus O’Murchu and June Ni Chormaic, and was awarded the Declan Affey Award for promising trad talent at the National Folk Festival many years ago. She has often spent many hours in search of the perfect session, travelling from Melbourne to Noosa via Dublin and Galway. She also plays on the fiddle and has studied with Ado Barker, Michelle O’Brien and and Brendan Larrissey. She has been playing with The Barleyshakes these last 8 or so years where she melds her ideas of traditional and contemporary practices on the flute. She has made guest appearances with other artists and bands including Cloudstreet, Loren and Rebecca Wright. She has performed many times with Beth McCracken, Alan Doherty and Brendyn Montgomery both in Australia and Ireland. Belinda currently teaches Music and Instrumental Music at Villanova College, where she manages a specialist traditional Irish program from years 6-12. Students who have worked in the program have performed regularly at QPAC in Brisbane with the Queensland Pops Orchestra and have performed at the National Celtic Folk Festival in Port Arlington in Victoria. Graduates of this program have continued the tradition at university and around the traps in Brisbane.
Advanced Flute and Whistle Kevin Higgins (Brisbane)
	Kevin Higgins was born in Downpatrick, Co Down and, with a musical tradition on both sides of the family, he began playing traditional Irish music at a young age. His early musical life was influenced by Uncles Francie and Eddie Dornan who played accordion and fiddle and his journey into Irish music continued after immigrating to Australia with his family at an early age. Kevin has played the concert wooden flute and Uilleann Pipes extensively with a wide range of musicians around Australia, has toured as a soloist with the Queensland Pops Orchestra and has performed as a soloist at multiple events including Woodford Folk Festival's Fire Event. He has also recorded in various mediums including sound and film. Kevin is currently teaching tin whistle and concert flute and performs with traditional Irish band Tulca Mor at various festivals in Australia.
Mandolin/Banjo Maria Cafferkey (Ireland/Brisbane)
	Maria Cafferkey comes from the west of Ireland's breathtaking Achill Island off Co. Mayo and has been playing her Tom Cussons Clareen tenor banjo for over 17 years. Coming from a musical family her up bringing on the island was surrounded by her family's love and talent of traditional Irish music, song and dance. Maria holds various All-Ireland achievements for both banjo and mandolin and holds a deep passion for playing and teaching traditional Irish music. She has taught and performed at various summer schools throughout Ireland, the UK and America and has now come to Australia to share her talent. Maria lives in Brisbane and is a full time Traditional Irish Music teacher.
Accordion Kit Joyce (Melbourne)
	After being pushed over the event horizon of the black hole that is the button accordion at a young age by visiting Irish luminaries such as Seamus Beagley and Caoilte O'Suilleabhan, Melbournian Kit Joyce entered the singularity a number of years ago and has been both accelerating and unable to look back ever since. His playing has taken him around Australia with the band Squeebz and seen him earn a respected place in Australia's vibrant Irish music scene. Time spent soaking up the tradition in sessions across Ireland only worsened the problem and probably wasn't much good for his liver either. He is a past winner of Canberra's National Folk Festival Chris Wendt award and is regarded for the maturity of his understanding of Irish music given his young age. When not near an accordion Kit studies Physics and Mathematics in the vain hope that they may lead to financial stability.
Celtic Harp Dave Alleway (Victoria)
	David Alleway came to Australia from Scotland in 1974. By 1976 he was a regular singer and guitarist at the Stables Folk Club in Perth. Since then he has played a diverse range of music both as a solo performer and as a member of bands including "Salted Porridge", "Shearer’s Tally Bush Band" and "The Good Drop". The harp or "Clarsach" to give its Scottish Gaelic name is David’s main instrument but he also plays fourteen other instruments, so don’t be surprised at what he plays during a concert! For the last four years he has been the harp tutor at the Music Under the Southern Cross Celtic Summer School, a week long residential school in Victoria. He has made numerous recordings and appeared on national radio and television. He has twice won the Harp competition at the Kapunda National Celtic Music Competitions. In addition to currently playing in "Drop of Scotch" and The Melbourne Scottish Fiddle Club, his full time job is touring Victoria, Southern NSW and the A.C.T, performing for children as David the Music Man in a show where he plays and explains over 30 different musical instruments. David is also a member of the popular harp trio "Moving Harps". Like Diane, he has been a regular performer at concerts and major music festivals around Australia for many years including Port Fairy, Woodford, The National Folk Festival, Shell Folkloric and Wangaratta Jazz.
Traditional Singing Nicole Murray (Maleny)
	Nicole Murray lives in Maleny and is half of the internationally-touring folk and acoustic duo cloudstreet, with John Thompson. Nicole plays flute, whistle, fiddle and percussion to enhance cloudstreet's renowned close-harmony vocals. She has sung all her life and played whistle since she was fourteen. While she loves the buzz of performing on stage, Nicole also plays in Irish sessions several times a week, and is a patient and inspiring teacher committed to empowering more people to make music. In Maleny she runs a slow tunes session for learners and she teaches singing with an emphasis on traditional styles at workshops and festivals in Australia and the UK.
Guitar Steve Cook (Sunshine Coast)
	Steve Cook has spent the last 35 years playing and exploring a diverse range of music on an equally diverse range of instruments. Having performed with numerous bands locally and overseas he finds himself these days playing bouzouki and banjo with Tulca Mor and banjo and fiddle with the Barleyshakes. Steve is also co-convenor, with Alan Kelly, of the weekly Irish session at Irish Murphy’s in Noosa Junction. His motto is "So many tunes, so little time"
Bodhrán Alan Kelly (Noosa)
	Alan Kelly was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland but moved to Australia about 9 years ago and now lives in Noosa with his wife and family. Alan is very well known on the Sunshine Coast as a singer/songwriter and bandleader of the Barleyshakes. Alan has a driving rhythmic style on the bodhrán that helps propel the music. Alan and Steve Cook ran the Irish Session in Noosa for about 6 years until recently, playing with a passing parade of great musicians from around the world (and locally).
Dance Davydd McDonald (Brisbane)
	The star of Australia’s Got Talent with his amazing tap quartet "Red Hot Rhythm", Davydd is a former Australian Champion stepdancer, and will teach one class only of his incredible techniques. Davydd is also the dance caller for the star-studded fun of the Maleny Ceili on Saturday night.
Australian Tunes Cath Ovenden (Sunshine Coast)
	Cath Ovenden’s connection with collected Australian folk music began in 1982 on hearing the remarkable fiddle playing of Charlie Batchelor. Cath cut her bow playing with the "Horton River Band" and learned to play the fiddle like Charlie. On through the 90s, following the example of John Meredith, Cath travelled the bush recording aural history for the National Library. Cath played and learnt music from some of the great sources of Australian folk music: Joe Yates, Stan Tracey, Rita Troutman, Ivy Fernando, Jim French, Jim Lowe, Frank Collins, Harry & Vera Cotter and a host of others. Lately Cath has been playing with Wendy Hodging (piano) and they have been dusting off this very old material, dance tunes and songs, popular from 1880 to the 1930s. People say the music has a different ring to it, not quite like Irish or Scottish celtic music: it’s Australian.