Strung Out Episode 64 THE KILGUBBIN PROJECT

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Seán Cleland is an Irish fiddle player, Irish music teacher, adjudicator, collaborator, producer and executive director of the Irish Music School of Chicago, a non-profit traditional Irish music, language, song and dance school, which he founded in 2003.

Seán grew up on the North side of Chicago in an Irish-American household.  He started classical violin lessons at age 7, and at age 9 his parents took him to one of the first North American concert tours of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, Ireland’s national music organization. The performers that fall night in 1972 were the absolute best traditional musicians, singers and dancers from Ireland including Paddy Glackin, Paddy Ryan and Antoin MacGabhann. That night was so impactful that he decided right then and there that he would play the fiddle.

His musical education through the 1970s was energized by such local legends as Liz Carroll, Michael Flatley and Jimmy Keane who were bursting out of Chicago onto the world stage.  Additionally, there were quite a few older Irish musicians who had emigrated to the United States in the 1950s and Sean was incredibly privileged to get to know them and to spend so much time listening to their music and stories.

Niall O'Leary TCRG, ADCRG is from Dublin Ireland. A former All-Ireland and World Champion, he founded the Niall O'Leary School of Irish Dance in Dublin in 1995, in the New York metropoilitan area in 1996 and in Florida in 2007. The School is currently the largest in New York City.  Niall O'Leary performs regularly as a solo artist, in duet with Darrah Carr, and with various acts such as Natalie MacMaster,Cherish The Ladies, The Prodigals, The Andy Cooney Band, Atlantic Wave, The McCabes and Mick Moloney's Green Fields of America. He is in constant demand as a choreographer and master instructor and conducts regular workshops around the US, Canada, Ireland, Japan and Mexico. He has made a CD and an instructional video in Irish step dancing entitled 'Cuts from the Kitchen'. He was the founding chairman of Ull Mor CCE, the Manhattan branch of Comhaltas.

Marty joins Seán and Niall to talk about the Kilgubbin Project, which is an ongoing exploration of Irish music, pushing the boundarie

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