Tionól 2011
Featuring Michael ‘Blackie’ O’Connell, Patrick D’Arcy and others!
Click to download PDF
Fill out and submit the form below. After you’ve registered, please pay using either the PayPal links below, or send a check to:
c/o Tom Klein
812 Cherokee Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55107
Tionól Registration with Membership
Tionól Registration and Annual Membership
Tickets for the Saturday night concert at the Celtic Junction.
| Michael ‘Blackie’ O’Connell | ||
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Michael is one of the most exciting young uilleann pipers on the Traditional Circuit. He was taught the uilleann pipes by the great Limerick piper Mickey Dunne and is heavily influenced by the playing of Paddy Keenan, who is a regular visitor to his home in Clare, and the great Johnny Doran. Blackie is a regular guest at the Armagh Pipers Club and has toured extensively with various dance troupes in the USA, China, Taiwan and Dubai, including a performance in Carnegie Hall in 1998! He has recently returned from a concert tour of Sweden and in November Michael will be guest artist at the Amnesty International Concert in Stockholm. He has been playing the pipes from a young age and is currently performing mostly in the Ennis and Doolin area of County Clare. He has completed tours in Europe, the USA and the Far East but is also very much at home in the small bars of Ennis or Doolin. At concerts and sessions Michael O’Connell performs with gusto, and audiences are swept away by his exuberant and fast flowing piping style. He has recently started teaching the pipes in Clare and his first pupil won the All Ireland title at the fleadh in Letterkenny in 2006. |
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| Sean Gavin | ||
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Sean Gavin’s ornate and driving style on the flute, whistle, and uilleann pipes reflects his lifelong immersion in traditional Irish music. Despite his young age, he is already an accomplished performer having toured extensively on three continents.Born in Detroit to Co. Clare fiddler Mick Gavin, Sean dabbled with various instruments until at the age of ten when Scariff flute player, Leo McNamara came to stay with the Gavins. Under his tutelage, Sean quickly grasped the whistle and shortly thereafter the flute, later leading him to study uilleann pipes with the late Al Purcell, a student of Leo Rowsome. Currently residing in Chicago, he remains firmly dedicated to playing and teaching traditional Irish music. Sean is a member of the groups Bua and NicGaviskey, and often performs with his family. |
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| Patrick D’Arcy | ||
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Patrick D’Arcy hails from Dublin, Ireland and has spent most of his musical life in California. In the early days of playing the Uilleann pipes he would venture to County Clare to attend the legendary “Willie Clancy Summer School” in Milltown Malbay, named after one of Irelands most influential pipers. Patrick’s piping influences include the old masters such as Seamus Ennis, Willie Clancy and Tommy Reck as well as many contemporary players such as Liam O’Flynn, Mick O’Brien and Ronan Browne. Pat plays music all over the world and as well as performing with other musicians he is also enjoying teaching the Uilleann pipes locally in California as well as at tionóil around the country and now via online methods, to a world wide student body. He is a founding member of the Southern California Uilleann Pipers Club and creator of UilleannObsession.com Partick has appeared on numerous recordings over the years in all genres of music and has written music for TV. He has played for some familiar figures including Bono (U2), The Kennedy/Shriver Family, Quincy Jones, Daniel Lanois, Oprah Winfrey and David Foster. Pat plays two main instruments, one in concert pitch by Koehler & Quinn and the other a “flat set” in B by Geoff Wooff. |
Directions to the tionól (not the concert):
Google Maps Link
From the West: Take I-94 eastbound to St. Paul to Hwy 52 south. Follow Hwy 52 south to the Plato Blvd exit. Turn west (right) onto Plato Blvd.
From the East: Take I-94 westbound to St. Paul to Hwy 52 south. Follow Hwy 52 south to the Plato Blvd exit. Turn west (right) onto Plato Blvd.
From the North: Take 35E southbound to St. Paul to Hwy 52 south. Follow Hwy 52 south to the Plato Blvd exit. Turn west (right) onto Plato Blvd.
From the South: Take 35E northbound, take the Kellogg Blvd exit. Go right on Kellogg Blvd and follow to Wabasha Street. Go right onto Wabasha Street to go over the bridge. (East Lot – Turn left onto Water Street, which is at the foot of the bridge then follow directions below. West Lot – Turn right onto Plato Blvd then follow directions below.)
East Entrance – Covington Inn
Follow Plato Blvd to Wabasha Street. Turn right onto Wabasha Street and at the foot of the bridge turn right onto Water Street. Then turn left onto Levee Road, follow that down to the east parking lots.
The Covington Inn is one of America’s few floating bed and breakfasts, buoyed and buffered as it is by the Mississippi River. Whether blanketed by snow or passed by summer’s silent barges, its riverside setting soothes and captivates.
This activity is made possible, in part, by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008