Teanga an Cheoil is a new series of intimate concerts in a bilingual environment, launched by Glór this Autumn and curated by Paula Carroll.
Musicians from Ireland’s Gaeltachts are heavily featured as well as musicians who regularly work through Irish. The concerts take place on Thursdays from September to November.
Concert guests:
Mick O’ Brien & Aoife ní Bhriain – Thursday 24th September
Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin & Niamh Keady Tabb – Thursday 8th October
Cathal Ó Curráin & Megan Nic Fhionnghaile – Thursday 12th November
Diarmuid & Éamonn Ó Meachair – Thursday 26th November
Teanga an Cheoil takes place in glór studio starting Thurs 24 Sept and runs until Thurs 26 Nov.
Speaking about the series, curator Paula Carroll says: “This series is a kind of response to the huge surge of interest in engaging with the Irish language in recent years. The language has always been closely connected with the music tradition, and this series explores that connection.”
The concerts will present musicians and singers who work through Irish as well as English, with a strong representation from the Gaeltacht areas of Connemara, Gweedore and Coolea.
Mick O’ Brien is a highly regarded performer and teacher of the Uilleann pipes, whistle and flute. Mick has recorded and broadcast extensively both at home and abroad as a soloist and with various artists. Though Mick has delved into various different music genres, it is as a traditional artist that he is best known. In 2023, Mick received the TG4 Gradam Ceoil (Musician of the Year)
Aoife Ní Bhriain was born in Dublin, to a family of musicians (daughter of Mick O’ Brien), Aoife Ní Bhriain has established herself as one of the most versatile musicians of her generation. Thanks to her strong traditional musical heritage combined with her classical studies, multi award-winning Aoife has collaborated and performed with musicians of world stature, and herself enjoys world acclaim.
Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Dublin, whose musical roots are in the Conamara sean-nós singing tradition. His performances feature lilting, throat singing, concertina and flute-playing. His songs, carried by a powerful, resonant voice, have a storytelling quality to them.
Niamh Keady-Tabbal is an Irish-Lebanese singer and researcher from Kinvara Co. Galway. Through her work documenting border violence in the Mediterranean, she has gathered Arabic songs of exile and resistance from Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. She sings these alongside sean-nós songs that she has gathered from Irish singers, carrying them all in a gripping, expressive voice.
Cathal Ó Curráin is a traditional fiddler, bouzouki player and singer from the Donegal Gaeltacht, where he grew up immersed in the rich musical and singing traditions of the area. Cathal has performed with Altan, Aoife Scott, The Friel Sisters, The High Seas and Bláth na hÓige. He released his debut solo album, Cosán Ceoil, in 2022 and was named Best Emerging Artist at the RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards that same year.
Megan Nic Fhionnghaile is a fiddle player from Gaoth Dobhair in the Donegal Gaeltacht, where she grew up immersed in the area’s rich tradition of music, song and the Irish language. Coming from a family steeped in traditional music, Megan has received numerous awards at the Fleadh and the Oireachtas over the years. She graduated with a BA in Irish Music from the University of Limerick in 2022. Most recently, she starred as Shóna in Lance Daly’s feature film TRAD.
Accordion player Diarmuid Ó Meachair and piper Éamonn Ó Meachair are musician brothers from the West Cork Gaeltacht of Coolea. They have played and taught music at festivals and summer schools all over Ireland, and are often to be heard on TG4 and Raidio na Gaeltachta. Diarmuid won the TG4 Gradam Ceoil for Ceoltóir Óg na Bliana in 2022 and Eamonn won the Patrick O Keeffe Festival Young Musician of the Year in 2023.
Paula Carroll is a specialist music broadcaster with Clare FM, a podcaster and Oral Historian. She is one of the producer/presenters of the long-established West Wind traditional music strand on Clare FM. She is also manager of Cuimhneamh an Chláir, the Clare Oral History and Folklore Archive.