Matt Cranitch
Matt Cranitch, who lives in Cork, is renowned as a fiddle-player and teacher, both at home in Ireland and abroad. He has performed extensively with various groups at concerts and festivals, as well as on radio and television. He has also presented lectures, master-classes and workshops on various aspects of Irish music, particularly fiddle-playing. He is author of The Irish Fiddle Book, first published in 1988 and now in its fourth edition. This book, with accompanying CDs, explains and shows in detail the various techniques used by fiddle-players in creating a traditional style of playing. “The Irish Fiddle Book is a must for every serious student of Irish fiddling.” – Folk Roots. He has also contributed to a number of other books on Irish traditional music.
He has a particular interest in the music of Sliabh Luachra, which is located in the south-west of Ireland, and which has a distinctive style and repertoire of traditional music. He has successfully completed a Ph.D. on the fiddle-playing style of this region at the Irish World Music Centre, University of Limerick, where he also teaches traditional music performance. In recognition of his work on the music of Sliabh Luachra, he was awarded a ‘Government of Ireland Senior Research Scholarship’ in 2002.
His current band is Sliabh Notes, which also includes Dónal Murphy and Tommy O'Sullivan. They have performed at many venues and major festivals, including Milwaukee Irish Fest, the largest Irish festival in the world, the North Texas Irish Festival in Dallas, Copenhagen Irish Festival in Denmark, Torino Festival in Italy, the Camden Festival in London, and many many more. Their most recent album, "Along Blackwater’s Banks", has been highly praised and has received much critical acclaim: “One of the best albums to be released this year so far comes form Sliabh Notes.” – Irish Post.
Matt is a regular contributor to radio and television programs as a performer and commentator on matters relating to traditional music. He is traditional music consultant for TG4, the Irish-language television service. “An exceptional musician and an authority on Irish fiddle-playing, Matt Cranitch has been a major force in Irish music since the early 1970s.” – The Rough Guide to Irish Music. In 2003, he received the ‘University College Cork Hall of Fame Award’ in recognition of the contribution he had made to Irish traditional music.
Michelle Feldman
Michelle has lived in Texas since 1991. She morphed from college orchestra player to Irish session fiddler while attending California State University at Sonoma. In Southern California, she played for contra and ceili dancers, and performed with Shannon, the only all-girl Celtic band in Los Angeles. Since coming to the Dallas area, Michelle has played Celtic music for festivals, parties, and pub gigs with such groups as Moveable Feast, Cuckoo's Nest, Old Age & Treachery and Chattervox. She was also a recent member of the North Texas trad band, Idle Road and now plays in the fiddle driven Gallus and with the Trinity Hall Session Players.
Patrick Ourceau
Since moving to America in 1989, Patrick has performed with many U.S.-based musicians, including the legendary accordion players James Keane and Paddy O'Brien, concertina wizard John Williams and the band "Celtic Thunder." In June 1999, Patrick joined the Tulla Ceilí Band on their last U.S. tour, and regularly performed with former Tulla Ceilí band accordion player Andrew McNamara. One of Patrick's main concert partners has been Gearóid O'hAllmhuráin, a renowned County Clare concertina player. They performed in concerts and festivals all across Europe and North America. In 1999, they released "Tracin'," a critically acclaimed duet recording faithful to the style and repertoire of the older generation of traditional musicians in Clare and East Galway. Patrick is also featured on flute player Cathal McConnell's (Boys of the Lough) last solo album, "Long Expectant Comes At Last," released in February 1999, on the Compass Records label, and on accordion player John Whelan's "Celtic Roots," re-released in February 2002 on the Narada Records label. In 2000, Patrick appeared with a host of local musicians on "Music and Songs from East Clare — Volume I", an archival recording made as part of a Millennium Project to preserve and and collect folklore in that part of Ireland. For the last ten years, Patrick has also been in great demand as a teacher and regularly teaches out of his home in Brooklyn. He has taught at various festivals in the U.S. and Canada, such as the Chris Langan Weekend in Toronto; the St. Louis Irish Festival, Friday Harbor Irish Camp, Washington and the Augusta Irish Week in Elkins, West Virginia. He has been part of the teaching staff for the past several years at the Irish Arts Week in East Durham, New York, and the Celtic College in Goderich, Canada.